Hey friends! So this week, my group is traveling inland on the Garden Route for adventure week. We’ll be diving with sharks, riding elephants, caving, bungee jumping (not me- no shame, no regrets), and so on. I signed up for surfing, sandboarding, and abseling (1000m up, off Table Mountain) today, but we won’t be doing those until after this week.

This weekend was great- really laid back. We went to the Stormers (South Africa) v. Warratahs (Australia) rugby game yesterday. Rugby is a BRUTAL sport. It was awesome. I’ve never been one for following sports, but I think I may have to start keeping up with the Stormers. I had no idea what was happening during the game, but it was a ton of fun to watch. Today, a few friends and I went to Kirstenbosch, the botanical gardens. It was unbelievably beautiful- like Jurassic Park meets the Safari section of the zoo… but real life. I really love painting flowers- “The smaller the subject, the louder its voice”, the motto of Sara Papp- and there were so many interesting plants and flowers and cacti, I couldn’t stop taking pictures for painting inspiration. We plan on going back there to spend the day hiking and relaxing in the trees.

On the Garden Route, I won't have internet access at all, so this will be my last post for at least a week. No phone, no computer. Being so unplugged will be a nice change. There will also be little to no music (not even a radio on the bus), which is a bummer for me. 

Speaking of which- on to "Part 2" of my thoughts on music from the other day. I’m enlisting the help of a lot of great voices through quotes for this post, because I think they say what I’d like to better than I maybe could right now. So bear with me on the overwhelming number of quotes!

Consider this song, if you would. Listen here.

"Helplessness Blues"
by Fleet Foxes

I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes
Unique in each way you can see

And now after some thinking
I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me

But I don't, I don't know what that will be
I'll get back to you someday soon you will see

What's my name, what's my station
Oh just tell me what I should do
I don't need to be kind to the armies of night
That would do such injustice to you

Or bow down and be grateful
And say "Sure take all that you see"
To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls
And determine my future for me

And I don't, I don't know who to believe
I'll get back to you someday soon you will see

If I know only one thing
It's that every thing that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable
Often I barely can speak

Yeah I'm tongue tied and dizzy
And I can't keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues?
Why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf
I'll come back to you someday soon myself

If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm raw
If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm sore

And you would wait tables
And soon run the store

Gold hair in the sunlight
My light in the dawn
If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm sore

If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm sore

Someday I'll be
Like the man on the screen 

I’m fascinated by learning why people think what they do, especially in terms of music- their interpretations and what it means to them. I like to look up song lyrics on this website called SongMeanings.net to get a different perspective on songs I’m interested in. So, when I heard this song, I looked the lyrics up on that site and found a response I really liked:

“I think it seems likely that he grew up thinking he was unique because our society is very individualistic and also idealistic. But the rest of the world, and even many subcultures within America are family oriented still. I think Robin (the lead singer and song writer) has found a sense of wanting to belong to a cause which makes the world a better place. He no longer believes the individualistic farce that we can make the world a better place individualistically. He mentions not needing to be kind or to bow down and be grateful, which seem to indicate just lying down and letting evil happen. In other words, he wants to be proactive and prevent evil or at least work to oppose it. The end seems to shift into a separate, but related message. He wants something simple in life that he can work at. In an orchard, life is simple--you may work until you're sore, but you don't have to spend a lot of time thinking about difficult issues. You simply devote your time to what you do. And the "you" here could be a woman or a friend or whoever, but that person is working a simple, humble job as well. I'd say the whole point of the song is trying to bring simplicity back to life and ridding one's self of independent ideology and existential lines of work. Simply doing one's part in society and standing up for what one knows is right is enough for a deeply fulfilling life.”

I don't want to dissect every part of the song or of that interpretation, but I do think that interpretation really speaks to a lot of American societal issues. That being said, I interpreted this song the same messages and themes of the above interpretation, but with an eye towards our place in the global community. The aspect of the family vs. the individual that the interpretation above speaks of is dead on to what I thought- only that the “family” was not just blood-related, but our family as residents of the planet together- the global community. Which segues nicely into my next topic…

Ubuntu: an African philosophical concept that roughly translates as "I am what I am because of who we all are." A few quotes to help explain a little further-

“One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.” –Desmond Tutu, 2008

“A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” –Desmond Tutu, 1999

I was first introduced to the idea of Ubuntu the other day when guest speaker Kevin Chaplin came to speak to us at the Lagoon House, where we have class every day. Kevin Chaplin is now the head of the Amy Biehl Foundation, but was originally a banker. He always loved making a difference in the lives of his customers and employees, but wanted to seek a more meaningful course to his life. Before getting really involved with the Amy Biehl Foundation, he founded the South African Ubuntu Foundation. He wanted to bring back the Ubuntu way of life by fostering peace and unity in and amongst communities. The idea really moved me, and it was on my mind all week. That probably lead to my hearing the Fleet Foxes song the way I did the other day, and it really got my mind going with ideas about the global family/community, and so on.

I don't want to bore you guys with my rambling, so here is another quote to speed up what I would say-

“A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn't have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu, but it will have various aspects. Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to be able to improve?” –Nelson Mandela

I know I still haven't talked about the diversity panel from last week like I said I would by Saturday, but Abu told us something I thought was really interesting and sad, and very along the lines of Ubuntu. He said that before the apartheid, District 6 (which I talked about in an earlier post- it was taken over and demolished by the white government in the middle of the apartheid era) was a safe place. Women never had to worry about walking around alone at night. Men on the street would walk women back to their houses just to make sure they got there safely. People didn't need to lock their doors. There were gangs, but their problems were with each other; they would literally stop their fighting if civilians came on the street, wait for them to pass, and then focus back on each other. When a kid would wander away from their parent, or someone from outside the district would come around, not having a place to stay, the community would take care of them. Everyone worked together and helped each other because of the Ubuntu philosophy. It was how they lived their lives- not perfectly, but in peace with one another. And I do mean WITH one another- not just "around" one another. It was a true community, a mutual relationship of trust and love. It wasn't until the apartheid and the forced removal that safety became an issue. Danger arose out of the gradually emptying houses. Violence grew out of the political climate. The drive to survive became fuel for disunity.

Bear with me for a minute on the creatively relevant rant/cliche tangent I'm about to embark upon: I think, in a sense, a similar type of loss of community spirit has occurred in Western life (specifically, American life) as the result of, rather than racial/political warring, industrialization. Industrialization, economic changes, informal societal classes based on wealth, increasing focus on material objects as status symbols, decreasing social/global awareness, decreasing emphasis on family... it's all, somewhat corruptly, connected. I'm no minimalist, but I do appreciate simplicity because it clears away all the clutter created by the things that we tend to hide ourselves behind. (People hiding behind cell phones rather than forming relationships with the people present with them... the older I get, the more it gets on my otherwise chilled out nerves.) The "social clutter" has gotten between us, forcing us into isolation without us even realizing it because we think we're so connected through text messages and twitter.

Going back to "Helplessness Blues", I think one distinct message of the song is about individualism vs. a sense of community. People nowadays have become so concerned with the individual. Thoughts central to the self-"What's in it for me?"- have become drivers of many of our every day actions. We even talked in class recently about how, in my generation, individualism- making independent choices and looking out for yourself- has become a highly regarded societal value. I'm all about individual initiative, developing yourself into the person you'd like to become, learning to see the world through your own eyes, all that- but I think, like the Ubuntu philosophy suggests, a human experience in isolation just isn't a human experience at all. Sharing experience with others is how we grow. And maybe it's because I'm a big fan of nature, but I just don't see the purpose in a stagnant life- one without growth into the world around you. ("The unexamined life is not worth living," anyone?) And I'm not saying that actively seeking ways to change the world on a global scale is the only way to achieve growth. Like the song says, focusing your efforts on what you feel in your heart is right for you will have a positive effect on the world and our shared community within it. (This could be your job, your faith, your education, your passions, your hobbies, etc.)

“The spirit of Ubuntu, that profound African sense that we are human only through the humanity of other human beings – is not a parochial phenomenon, but has added globally to our common search for a better world.” –Nelson Mandela

On a slightly different note, I took the line in the song that goes "What good is it to sing helplessness blues? Why should I wait for anyone else?" to mean, in this context... don't just sit around and wait for someone else to begin the change you feel is right- whether it's something you wish to change in your own life, or in seeing injustice around you. Don't "bow down to the men in dimly lit halls that create [your] future for [you]". And don't go it alone. Go out and seek others- foster a community, create an "Ubuntu environment"- to help you grow, and to work towards making the world a better place in whatever way you can.

This is probably just a bunch of cliche piecemeal nonsense to you guys, so high five to you if you've stuck it out through the whole post. I know my analysis of the song isn't flawless or profound, by any means. With how tired I am, I know I've left some holes in presenting my thoughts (which are really for myself more than for any of you- I won't be offended if you tell me you didn't make it past the part about rugby in this post). As always, I'd love any kind feedback, if you're interested in this sort of thing.

One more bit of "food for thought":

"Most people think of people as the other man, but I think of them as the brother man."
-My friend Connor, in a conversation one night during our first semester at school.

Adventure is out there!
-M

PS: Just in case I get eaten by a shark- Kevin, Toby does NOT get my room at home. Paws off my stuff.