11:57PM

So there I was, sitting with my coffee and scrolling through Facebook on a Friday morning when I came across this video by Simon Sinek and Tom Bilyeu on what's missing in the Millenial generation.  And my good Lord, I have never ever come across a description of Millennials - especially in this current wave of Generational Wars - that is better articulated and elucidated. If  ever! Sinek eloquently highlights the growing epidemic of failed parenting strategies coupled with the increasingly delusional world of technology – highlighting how technology feeds our delusions while simultaneously breaking down communication and relationships among people. (It’s a 16 minute video but I highly highly recommend investing the time to watch it). Now as someone who is considered a part of both Gen X and the Millennial Generation (right on the cusp), I can understand both sides of the spectrum better than most. But I must admit, Sinek hit that ball right out of the park especiall...

"Moonstruck" (1987) unfolds in a deliberately over-dramatized narrative. This particular scene questions the futility & mundanity that is everyday Life (entwined with the events that led to this point in the story). The display of existential exasperation is perfection. It is delivered in a way that's both absurd and spectacular - resonating somewhat ubiquitously and hilariously through the ages. It is our family's absolute favourite movie and scene 😂 .

Sometimes it's difficult to believe and remember that nothing in life is static or predictable unless we want it to be that way - and even then nothing is guaranteed. Possibilities exist beyond our wildest imaginations. Realities can change in the blink of an eye. Everything is just a decision away. I woke up thinking of my time up in the northern parts of KSA. Prior to these years, I had never imagined that such places existed. And while I was there having this extraordinary experience, I never imagined that I would someday end up here today. Life is strange like that. We never know what awaits us.

If people are doomed to repeat history, then let me repeat those parts that are forever emblazoned in my mind and embedded in my soul. Those parts that took my breath away and left me all at once enamored and bewildered... lost in my own synapses and paralyzed with wonder.  Let me drown there - in the depths of the annals of time, sewn into the lining between existential realism and the ether of the universe. Let me wander for an eternity, among the cosmos, floating away on an ethereal cloud, drifting slowly with the wind, in a dreamless sleep. Never to wake again.

I woke up this morning somewhat startled, & for a moment I couldn't remember where I was. Then, at some point during the commute to work, a very vivid, distinct memory hit me out of nowhere. I was 9 or 10 years old & we were living in Cape Town - smack in the middle of winter. I remember because, who can forget those howling gale force winds rattling the back door's window panes, sounding eerily like a dead relative coming back to haunt us? I woke up habitually at 5am in the mornings & got ready for school in the dark. I drank some coffee before making the trek across the sandy heaps of the empty veld plains to stand on the corner of the main road. We stood there every morning, in the blistering wind & rain, waiting for a guy with a minibus to take us to school. It rained every morning that year, with the cold wind slapping us every which way until it sank into our bones. I used to try to shield my 6 year old sister from the nasty wind, while we...

In every place I visit, my mind wanders in the historical depts of the eons, forever wondering what people were like over the centuries in that place - imagining all the people that were tormented by their time and circumstances, those that have loved and lost, those that overcame and triumphed.  The truth is, for the vast majority, life was a trial plagued by poverty and disease and people were lucky if they lived past the age of 30. These romantic notions we have of a golden age and what once was is flawed and inaccurate. But... still... but... I can't help feeling that life is easier when the focus is on surviving every day and not accumulating and hoarding things... When what matters is being alive and not what car you drive.

Sometimes we will navigate the dark winding canyons of Life, aimlessly, for what feels like an eternity. We will navigate in the cold, hearing the echos of our past demons call out to us, cloaked in our anxieties, finding no comfort or joy. But then sometimes, when you least expect it, Life will surprise you. And before you know it, you've found the light.