Being an Ordinary Superhero

It’s a hard life being a Superhero don’t you think? I mean you get up out of bed, put your special gear on, decide whether to put your underwear under your clothes or above, brush your sparklies in your mouth and hopefully your hairballs, don some funky kick ass shoes and start your day.

You either walk or jump in your car mobile that is painted in your superhero colour scheme and off you go to work or to school.  Once there you interact with a wide variety of people, some that require superhero levels of patience, some that need guidance from your wisdom bank and perhaps others that step on your newly polished shine in the dark feet.

You finish your day by another trip in the car mobile or leg mobile and head homeward.  Homeward you extract the Superhero “day clothes” and don the Superhero “Evening garb”, prepare some superhero food and perhaps enjoy some specially fermented grape juice.

Bed time arrives and you once again brush your sparkly whites, don another set of superhero bed clothes and head to dreamlands of your choosing.

The normal day by most standards, add in a few kids here and there for those Superhero’s who have reproduced or found themselves with sample superhero’s and voila you got your day.

What makes the ordinary Superhero a Superhero?

The stuff in between that is so natural as all of the other stuff that it doesn’t even feature in a mentionable, its ordinary and normal for them and more often than not goes unnoticed.

Walking outside ready for the day the Superhero see’s a hurt or sick animal and goes to it, tries to help it, feed it if it needs feeding and keeps it warm.  The Superhero tries to heal it if it can, it doesn’t really stop till it knows it can’t do anymore for the animal in its care.

On the walk to the office or school the Superhero see’s a child or person trip and fall down.  The Superhero doesn’t just walk past and act like he or she never saw it, they are the ones that stop and help them up, brush off their knees if the situation requires and makes sure that they are ok before continuing.

During the day they come into contact with someone that seems to be having a bad day, the Superhero stops what they are doing and tries to change that persons life just for a few moments by spreading a bit of light.  Sometimes the Superhero is successful, sometimes not, but he or she tries anyway in the hope that they will make a slight difference.

On the way back home the Superhero eats the sandwich he or she forgot to eat for lunch, as he or she walks down the road they see a poor person sitting on the side of the road eating out of a plastic bag that looks like its original destination was the garbage can they sit next to.  The Superhero bends down and gives the person the other half of his/her sandwich smiles and walks on smiling.

As the Superhero goes about his/her day they don’t really think about all their Superhero duties that they accomplished or did, they don’t think to tell the first person they meet or greet, they smile internally knowing that they tried to help another living thing and that is enough for them.

They are the ones that lie in bed at night thinking of ways to help more, they worry about the animals and if they are fine, they worry about the children and the other Superhero’s, they concoct ways to fix things and dream of a world that is different.

A Superhero is ordinary by all accounts, a human with faults and gifts, but a Superhero they are for sure.

A letter to God about Evolution

Dear God,

I would just like to start by thanking you for making the dinosaurs extinct.  I can’t tell you enough how happy I am about this decision of yours. It was for the best, I mean I really can’t imagine Jurassic Park here on earth in 2008 can you? Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This said, I must just tell you, am sorry to do this but I do think you made a slight mistake in recent extinctions.  For instance the Dodo, sure it wasn’t the prettiest of birds but it was harmless by nature.  I know I know, humans destroyed them but then you created the humans with the brains… I know this God but still.

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Why did you leave spiders on the agenda? Ok I understand during the 7 days thing and I understand till man created the bug spray but now that we have that surely evolution can take care of the spiders? Yes?

Ok perhaps if the spiders are to stay could there not be an invention or evolution of sorts to make humans unappetizing to them? At the very least not allowing their poison to have the affect that they do.

See God, they kinda like eating me and I kinda don’t think that I am so appetizing but they won’t listen to anything I have to say.  I try and put bug spray on me to ward them off but they keep on chomping at me.  I try take special pills invented by another of your creations but no, they do not take the hint.  Now I have been attacked and my legs are the size of hippo’s because of the swelling. 

God why did you make me so appetizing and why did you allow me to be allergic to them WHILE I live in Afreaka?

Ok that is all for now,

Oh one last thing! Can you please thank the cookie angels again for the delivery, I am in heaven on earth for that invention albeit via your other one, humans.

Thanks again

Lots of Love

SanityFound

Words of Wisdom by the Dalai Lama

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

When you lose don’t lose the lesson

Follow the three R’s:

  • …Respect for yourself
  • …Respect for others, and
  • …Responsibility for all your actions

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship

When you realise you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it

Spend some time alone every day

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer<

Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you will be able to enjoy it a second time.

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation

Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality

Be gentle with the earth

Once a year go somewhere you’ve never been before

Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other

Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

The Life of TIK

Jani just turned 43, she has 5 children and is the sole bread winner for her family.  Each day she goes to homes to clean in order to make enough money to feed her children and to put them through school.  Her eldest, Ami, was just 21 when a friend of hers uttered the words “Come on just one hit, feel what I feel, it will take all your worries away”.  She took the hit and her life will never be the same again.

She is now 24 married with a child but her story is far more dark than the surface belays.  Tik is the drug of choice in Cape Town and is gaining popularity country wide.  Made from a mix of over the counter drugs including normal sinus medication it is cheap and therefore more accessible to the general public, especially the poorer communities.

It grabs you and holds you captive much like Heroin, first hit and you are hooked, it brings you heaven and then hell.  It sucks your body dry and at the same time alters your personality so much that you lose hold of love or hope, emotions don’t exist further than your next hit. 

It took a weekend filled with Tik, rape, gang rape and more drugs for Ami to eventually crawl home to her more than distraught family and plead with them to help her.  She said she would go clean but knew she couldn’t do it alone, the pull was too strong, so she got her parents to book her into a facility.  Her parents took her in their arms and carried her to the rehab which cost R250. 3 days work for her mother, 3 days of food away from the other kids but they did it because they loved their daughter as if their own lives depended on it.  The family all started pulling together to the point that even the young ones tried to do extra odd jobs to bring in more money to help Ami.

Eventually after a lot of trauma Ami was released, she was stronger, brighter and she was clean.  Soon other families heard of her healing and sought her out to speak to their children, friends of friends spoke with her and heard her story.  Her story is unknown to many but it needs to be told for it holds so much hope, so much truth of the reality in Tik use and what it does not only to the user but the very people they love.

Her story needs to be told along with all other Tik survivors, the story must get out in order for it to help more people. Families who have been touched by Tik both in the present and past need to hear it. Users both present and past need to hear the story so that they can see that it is possible to come through the other side and breathe, that they do have a choice and that they can do it.

I spoke to Jani today and I told her this, I told her that her daughter is an inspiration, that she and her family are inspirations.  I then told her that there are so many out there with similar stories, if we could find them and get them to write down their stories perhaps they could save more lives.  So we agreed again.  She is now going to speak to the other families and the ex users and ask them if they would like to write about their experiences.  The ex users about their experiences, how they got started, what happened during using and how they got clean.  Their families about what it did to them, how they handled it, what they would’ve done differently and how it felt to have their family member back home.

This book will start out just being about Tik but I feel that it can also move into all drugs, stories of surviving and coming clean, experiences and the truth.

Ultimately about the truth, the whole truth and not the gloss.

I now open it up to you. If you have ever used Tik or any other drug, know of someone who might want to contribute, if you are a family member or friend of someone that is currently or has used in the past we would like to hear from you. If you are interested, want more information or would like to contribute your story you can send an email to sanityf@gmail.com and I will respond respectively.

With your help perhaps we can make a dent in this epidemic…

There is no going back

 

Anti Tik Campaign Short Advert

Unreported World: Lost Generation Pt 1 of 3

Unreported World: Lost Generation P2 of 3

Unreported World: Lost Generation Pt 3 of 3

Smarties are the World

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Just a normal box of smarties, a box filled with candy coated chocolate orbs of heaven.  Would that same box hold the same pleasure if all the chocolate inside was coated in one colour? Would it still be fun?

As a kid I would love separating all the colours and then eating one by one, I’d count how many reds, how many blues, greens, oranges that I had gotten in the box. When they created that extra “large” smartie I would love to search through the whole box till I found that BIG one.  When they brought out a strawberry flavoured colour I would love to find those special ones, hidden inside the candy so that you only knew it was Strawberry once it was inside your mouth. 

Till this day, I love smarties. Eating them slowly, often I nibble of the candy first and then eat the chocolate, messy but fun.  At other times I will pop one in my mouth and crack the candy between my teeth allowing the chocolate to melt and for my taste buds to get sent into heaven.

Truth is I have always likened smarties to humans, to animals, to the earth and the world as a whole.  For me that box of smarties would be so bland and boring if it weren’t for the colour’s it held.  Each different colour in that box make the box, make it interesting, fun and a whole bunch of yums.

Smarties are the World

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All those different colours make the box as it is in this world, all the races make this world what it is, interesting.  If the whole world was just one colour, one race where would the variety be? Where would the interesting differences be?

Finding that strawberry flavoured smartie can be one of the most exciting things.  Tasting something unexpected can open up a whole new realm within the taste bud universe much like finding or coming into contact with a new culture.  Meeting someone different to you, perhaps someone from a different land or a culture different to your own can be both inspiring and fascinating.  If the world was one culture, if everyone had the same traditions, would there be any growth? Would all humanity just stagnate and blend?

When there is a big smartie we get excited because it is something different, it is a shake up and change.  We seek it out and love it, perhaps we leave it for last just to save the pleasure of eating it.  It’s big but we love it.

When you find a broken or chipped smartie in the box, do you discard it or do you still savour it?  For me it adds even more character, there is still such beauty in it, I savour it and no matter what it is a smartie, it is still yummy.  We don’t discriminate when we open that box, we see it as it is, a box of smarties in vibrant colours and variety, all shapes and sizes.

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For me Smarties represent love, they represent truth and the best part is you can arrange them how you want to… straight out of the box, a peace sign, a heart, a car or a ship, the finger or a symbol of rage and anarchy… the choice is always ours. 

It doesn’t matter who you are, what you are, the colour of your skin the land you come from, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter because you are human and you are amazing!

Life is a box of Smarties

… what you do with it is up to you …

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