A writer friend of mine recently called to share some of her frustration and disappointment upon learning that her friends were not supportive of her new venture in life.
My friend had been a ghost writer for a while and this week penned a rather brilliant column on her perspective of Covid-19 and baking bread under their own name.
I thought the piece was original. It reminded me of the reasons why we used to devour the weekend papers in our newsroom. I always read South African David Bullard and the late John Matshikiza’s columns in the Mail&Guardian and Business Day respectively.
I was intrigued by their different perceptions on life in post-Apartheid South Africa. Matshikiza’s columns specifically were very layered, insightful, and succinct. They were rich with the experience of someone who often wrote left-field if not sardonic opinion pieces about the post-apartheid black South African experience.
My friend couldn’t get over the indifference from her friends in Academia whom she hoped would take a moment to engage with her thoughts and even make a comment or two.
Which proves this weeks truism from Paulo Coelho’s I have learned series in his blog that:
“Even friends will let you down sometimes”
There’s very little that anyone can do about this when it happens, we just have to redirect our focus on finding our happiness from sources which do not depend on people’s validation. This can be hard to do when our very identities so often depend on how others perceive or value us.
Thinking about my friend and this week’s truism brought to mind Albert Einstein’s advise: “If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not people or things”
Sometimes that goal can be the very act of writing.
So, Bravo to you , for taking the first step and I look forward to many more slices of life from your perspective!
Jedi Ramalapa 