Getting my head straight

Every day or two the power goes out for a few hours. I’ve heard that demand for energy exceeds supply in South Africa by about ten percent on average. It’s not the end of the world. While my housemates think I’m crazy, I kind of like it when this happens. It’s quite peaceful actually, and it’s not like we really need it anyway; our appliances and water heaters are all gas-powered, and we have plenty of candles throughout the house. This is Africa.

Perhaps it’s because they’ve been here long enough already to forget the madness of everyday North American life. I don’t mind not having satellite television and a connection to the internet 24/7. I sleep better. While such things are nice, I personally find it too easy to kill hours upon hours with the various forms of media and entertainment that we can saturate ourselves with. It gives me a headache and fills my mind with useless things. Do you know how nice it is to go a day or two without experiencing a single commercial of some sort? It’s something like peace and bliss added together and multiplied...

While I am bored from time to time, I quite enjoy having the time to think for once. It actually took me three days (I counted) before I felt my mind clear and I was able to get my head straight again. Between the stresses of work or school, and the busyness and distractions of life, it’s hard to make time for ourselves, much less for others. Throw in the internet, email, television, news, sports, politics, celebrities, commercials, tv ads, radio ads, internet ads, print ads, flyers, billboards, credit, coffee, movies, music, shopping, drinking, driving (not together, per se), spending, thinking about spending, planning on spending, and starting all over again with work, is it any wonder some of us have trouble keeping our heads straight?

What a wonderful existence modern life is! God knows I felt like I was slowly losing my mind, or my life, or both at the same time. No stress over here, short of what I’m going to cook for breakfast in the morning and the occasional mosquito in my ear at night. Nevertheless, no point crying over spilt milk. I have home visits tomorrow. And crickets to fall asleep to. Cheers.