Yeah, it’s been a minute. I’ve been busy ‘life-ing’. That is the thing adults do when life is trying to get our attention. Life must be female as she is so intelligent and wilful. She’s got the matrix rigged. When you’re winning at one thing, you’re bound to be losing at something else. Trust me. There’s no winning at everything at the same time.

 

The complication of being complicit.

 

When you’re being a ‘great’ parent, your work/business life may not be where you want it to be. You may be winning on the economic front, but you’re probably working too hard, and your relationship is likely in tatters. If you’re ‘enjoying the fruits of your labour’, your body may not be in shape as you savour every moment of consuming what you want, when you like.  

 

Here’s the kicker: When it looks like your life is ‘perfect,’ it’s just code for you being an uptight, A-type, control freak who’s on the brink of a breakdown.

 

Get good grades at school. Study to get a job. They said. Get married. Have a baby. You need another. They encouraged. Now you need a bigger house. And a bigger car. Where your kids go to school is a thing. There’s no longer the neighbourhood school that you had no choice but to attend. Why wouldn’t you want to? It’s just down the road. No. Now we have school commutes. In traffic. Load-shedding crazed traffic.

 

How do we make sense of it all?

 

So, this life-ing is complicated. We’re all navigating. When Eusebius McKaizer died suddenly last year – I’m still not ok with his absence and he didn’t even know me – it was breaking news. He posted almost daily – he had even posted on the day of his death – on all other aspects of his life, work, and interests but kept his health struggle private as he didn’t want people to think of him in a particular way. There’s no right or wrong here.

 

All we want is connection.

 

I’m from the old school of PR where we followed a theoretical communication ‘funnel’ that followed this sequence: There was a message communicated to an audience, and the audience received and understood it—or at least, that was the assumption. We now know that it was not communicating, it was broadcasting.

 

Decades later, the internet and social media annihilated that communication ‘challenge’. We can talk to whomever we want when we want. Our life experiences are broadcast, for instant responses, for some version of validation, to position ourselves somehow.

 

And it’s great as it’s so much easier to share our outrage, inspiration, joy, pain, life lessons and so on. We’re human, we’re here to connect and share. So, there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s connecting in a digital age to alleviate isolation. It’s also amazing for business.

 

Sanitising life is unhygienic.

 

But I’m clear on why I don’t like social media for constant personal interaction, particularly the ‘profiling’. It sanitises the messiness of life. If I’m always posting about ‘date night’ with my husband; family holidays; my children’s achievements; the cute, gorgeous moments; sublime locations, outfits and the like, you get a snapshot of an IG life.

 

Cause that’s what I curate for you to see. Unless you’ve been in my personal space, you wouldn’t imagine an insecure mother, a lazy housewife, or a neurotic eater. There’s very little that I consume completely guilt-free. That’s what one gets for being so damn over-exposed to food labels, the workings of the ‘criminal’ food production giants, and the ‘choking’ planet. It’s a consequence of being super woke. Will there even be life on Earth by 2050?

 

Life is messy… and hella confusing, at times. Don’t get bogged down by the details. If you’ve read this, it means that you have your eyesight and cognition. That’s joyful to me. And if you’ve been able to get out of bed today, take a deep breath, brush your teeth, and eat a meal, that’s several opportunities for thanksgiving.

 

Gratitude. That’s the secret sauce. And that device has an on/off button. Use it. Regularly. Real life happens off-screen. It’s what you should experience within your ambit. Getting angry cause JZ aspires to return to parliament will not change anything. The planet is getting hotter whether you worry about it or not. And best you get comfortable with messy and unpredictable. It’s the only way to let the Universe work her magic.

 

Namaste, dear hearts. Happy Easter, if you celebrate.