Just now now: a photo representing the past week; a visual gratitude journal, of sorts.
My heart belongs to Southern Africa.
I can’t entirely explain it.
I was obsessed with the place for a solid twenty years before I ever set foot on African soil. And when I finally did, it was better than I could have imagined. It was like coming home.
I’m now a ridiculously lucky duck; I have been over there several times and I freelance with organizations that do work in South Africa.
I’ll live there someday.
It’s now been almost seven months since I was in Africa and I miss it like a dear, far away friend.
When the missing is like this, books ease the ache. This week, it’s been hard to get my nose out of Scribbling The Cat by Alexandra Fuller. I loved her first book, Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight documenting her childhood during the Rhodesian/Zimbabwean civil war.
Here in Virginia, the weather is getting cooler, the dog curls up on the couch next to me and I am powerless to resist. I might just be flipping pages, but I’m suddenly back in Southern Africa. Fuller’s story is painful and beautiful and it reminds me the power of a good story to transport you.
I don’t think we have all the words in a single vocabulary to explain what we are or why we are. I don’t think we have the range of emotion to fully feeling what someone else is feeling. I don’t think we can sit in judgement of another human being. We’re incomplete creatures, barely scraping by. Is it possible – from the perspective of this quickly spinning Earth and our speedy journey from crib to coffin – to know the difference between right, wrong, good and evil? I don’t know if it’s even useful to try.
-Scribbling the Cat
Why are there some places that just get into your soul and stay there?
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I completely understand where you’re coming from, I absolutely love books about growing up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. Haven’t been there and going to SA scared me really, but the books about the old days I find endlessly compelling. You might also like Casting with A Fragile Thread if you haven’t read that yet.
I’ve not read that one, thanks, I’ll definitely check it out! SA has a scary history, to be sure, but it is a wonderful part of the world. Thanks so much for reading!
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