Runaway train

South Africa is a beautiful country with warm and spontaneous people who run a real risk of boarding a runaway train fuelled by fear and driven by resentment and ambition; fear of an uncertain, ever-changing future, spinning circles around a violent present occasioned by a tormented past.

Surviving while squatting on someone else’s property, being murdered in your home or powerful ambition drawing fire, real or imaginary, resulting in — fear.

Fear of failure, job insecurity, financial ruin or starving to death — fear.

Aids, bigotry, hatred and resentment borne of fear — and ignorance.

Imperium sought by lining and aligning, hardly ever carrying with it the masses except as a counterweight and even then as an instrument of fear.

I will never attempt to minimise the very real concerns facing us all in the days to come — just request that you realise that you are not alone in this and that fear, real or otherwise, is a human condition regardless of your circumstances.

It is in our nature to worry, whatever cards fate has dealt us.

One of the ways that I deal with stress is to listen to music, and two songs that I believe are highly relevant to our current situation are from the British band Mike and the Mechanics.

I want you to read the lyrics out loud and have regard to the fact that while each could have been written for South Africans, they weren’t. They were addressing other people (the world over?) who undergo experiences that occasion fear and self-doubt.

It’s always darkest before the dawn:

WHY ME?

These are dangerous times
that we’re living in
and there are dangerous signs
that we’re giving in to fear
late one night, I’m lying here
I thought I heard a sound.

Tell the mothers and the babes
tell the old, tell the sick they will be safe
get the young males. Tell them to be brave
I was so concerned with saving life
I never saw you pull the knife.

High on the mountains
across seven seas
All of the people
why me, why me?
Do you feel so frustrated
Frightened and feared
answer my question
Why me, why me, why me
why me, why me, why me?

You’re such an angry young man
with all your grievances
people don’t understand,
they just can’t understand
what you must do to stay alive.

So you try to justify
all the violence and hate, before your eyes.
Through the ages better men than you have tried
to give what is not theirs to give
to take a land where others live.

High on the mountains
across seven seas
all of the people why me, why me?
Do you feel so frustrated
frightened and feared
answer my question
why here, why now,
why here, why now, why here,
why now, why me?

Oh, for now you have the power
the guns and all the swords
but nature has a nasty habit
of balancing a force.

Now you may try to break my body
lock me up and throw away the key
but you’ll never, never break my spirit
I’m free.

LIVING YEARS

Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door

I know that I’m a prisoner
To all my father held so dear
I know that I’m a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thought
Stilted conversations
I’m afraid that’s all we’ve got

You say you just don’t see it
He says it’s perfect sense
You just can’t get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defence

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It’s too late when we die
To admit we don’t see eye to eye

So we open up a quarrel
Between the present and the past
We only sacrifice the future
It’s the bitterness that lasts

So don’t yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different date
And if you don’t give up, and don’t give in
You may just be OK.

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It’s too late when we die
To admit we don’t see eye to eye

I wasn’t there that morning
When my father passed away
I didn’t get to tell him
All the things I had to say

I think I caught his spirit
Later that same year
I’m sure I heard his echo
In my baby’s new-born tears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years

Say it loud, say it clear
You can listen as well as you hear
It’s too late when we die
To admit we don’t see eye to eye

Try to use this verse as your guide :

“So don’t yield to the fortunes
You sometimes see as fate
It may have a new perspective
On a different date
And if you don’t give up, and don’t give in
You may just be OK.”

Which means what may seem beyond our comprehension and too hard to bear right now will take on a whole new perspective on a different date.

So don’t give up and don’t give in — you may just be OK.