Few years ago I had an intellectual exchange with one of my smartest friends. It was largely about the purpose of life. My intelligent friend said to me, ‘we are born to die right? What do we don between being born and dying apart from just living?’
Well, I don’t know what more do we do since for me ‘living’ is enough to keep me waking up in the morning because that’s the first sign that I’m still living. Then he asked me, ‘what is living?’ He was more like 'is it about money?'
Now this sounded trivial; what is living? Is it to wake up in the morning, breathe the oxygen we are supplied for breathing’s sake, eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, smoke, drink, bonk, work, cry, laugh, sing, dance, walk to church, pray, read a newspaper, watch television etc. The chap on the R5 notes above, Jan Van Riebeek, what was his routine like at the Fort?
It should be deeper than the mundane activities that have characterised our existence until now. In the townships the definition of living is to wake up in the morning, go to work for five days, then on the weekend, fill their VW Golf with gas, pack a cooler box full of liquor, play the famous house song, go to places with many people, get chicks, get laid, dance and then it’s Monday and they go to work. I swear to you they repeat the cycle 52 times in a year and they call it ‘good life’. I call it the 'screensaver to the good life', the real good life is somewhere on the active Desktop.
My noble question is; is that really living? Is living a few activities and events and that’s it? Is living not dreaming, aspiring, introspecting, giving without receiving and being a free spirit that has no interest to impress anyone but self? Are we so incapable of living without attaching the quality of our lives to material, money, cars, houses, cellphones, laptops, affording hotels, sex with models? Are we that empty?
For me living is being able to have breakfast (anywhere in the country since I gallavant a lot), play a game (on my cellphone) to sharpen my mind, do my work (anywhere in the world), read at least two newspapers (The Star and Pretoria News), watch the 13h00 news headlines (on etv), eat light lunch (wherever I lay my hat), work again (anywhere), exercise (anywhere since I carry my skipping rope when going out of town), take a bath (between 18h30 and 19h00), watch the 19h00 news, have dinner (after 19h20), sip wine (between 19h40 and 20h00) , go blogging and facebooking (20h00 to 22h00), watch late news (SABC3), read a good book (a book I would be reviewing for Kasie), play a game (on my cellphone) and sleep. It’s spending weekends with friends (over braai and liquor), either watching a soccer game or discussing business over a single malt triple distilled Scotch whisky or some couple of ciders or just getting sloshed over rap music and house (with a company I know too well, not in a club). Alternatively weekends are spent working the whole day (when out of town). I don’t have a girlfriend or charm so I don’t bonk (I detest buying pussy these days). Sundays are spent reading newspapers (City Press, Sunday Times or Sundayworld) over (red) wine with friends while discussing the stocks, ANC, COPE, South Africa, DRC, Palestine, Iraq and Iran, Pakistan, US, Obama and the global financial meltdown. I call it living but I’m quite certain some people will differ with me.
How far are drugs from the determination of quality life? After my ramblings, which I hope don’t make any sense to you unless you are living, I’m still puzzled; what’s living for you?
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