The Winter of our Discontent (PHOTOGRAPHY)

The past 10 days or so have been interesting, to say the very least. I've basically looked at narcism* at family level, and have come to realise this is a central barometer to use when gauging balance, mental stability and all the rest. Because to what degree do we love ourselves more or less than we ought to? It is from our parents that we learn what level of narcism is reasonable. If they have given us the gift of teaching us to value ourselves and others in an appropriate fashion (and who can say what is appropriate?) then our narcism ought to be appropriate.

I believe narcism is behind all the great good and evil that exists in the world. Isn't Oprah's appreciation for her own existence and survival evidence of a healthy narcism, and one that spills over into a love of the world. Doesn't she still aspire to be loved and accepted as she reaches out to love and accept the world (but never completely endorses either the world or herself).

So understanding narcism is a great place to start, I feel, a New Year. In essence, the world is sick from its obsessive narcism. We're crying out for love, and getting satisfaction in all the wrong places. In the end, we need the quiet luxury of someone close to us, that listens and understands, but also the discipline from mutual boundary setting. But it is intimacy, community and fellowship that we thirst for the most. Do we get these at work, at home, in the fragments of time we have for our friends? No.



It is in the misty and amorphous world, incomplete and imperfect that we have to search for meaning, and fragments of perfection. There is still tremendous beauty in the world. It is tragic at the same time. I have seen young children and teenagers during this festive season, and I am appalled to what extent they are neglected, but also assailed by an enormous range of forces we knew nothing about at their age. Cellphones are an important device for deception, the internet, especially Facebook, a useful way to forge invisible networks. But do these young human beings ever learn to make emotional connections, to have meaningful and constructive conversations. So much of the time young people are elsewhere: escaping reality by having virtual conversations that are almost always anywhere but here.




During the festive season I had an incredible cycle on Christmas Day. I rose at around 5am and went with Alex through absolutely deserted and flat streets in and around Bloem. The weather was steamy hot, and wet. My throat itched and after 1 90km ride too many, the itchiness got worse and became an infection. Despite this Christmas was touching, with our family providing a cornerstone for others to warm themselves. Dinner was delicious and bountiful, and tinged with wine and lots of laughter.

Despite the headlines and the weather, I believe we can thrive this year. We can thrive by the way we live, by exercising and eating properly. We can also thrive by being good neighbors, by investing in our relationships, but being connected. And we can thrive by being imaginative. Laughing is a way to cope, so is crying - which do you prefer?

Laughing doesn't mean not thinking critically about important issues. One of them is happening right here in our country. It is no small scam either. Zuma has made his intentions clear when he said in an opening address that he supported Mbeki's spineless approach to Mugabe/Zimbabwe. In other words, he supports the parasitism, nepotism and egotistical leadership that leads to very few benefiting at the expense of the very many. As I said in the epilogue to the last David Bullard interview, are we really so naive, and so lazy, to lie down and let what is ours be taken away from us? I hope we in Africa - especially South Africa - are all smarter than that by now.

For myself I anticipate tough decisions, including whether or not to get married, to buy a house, to do the Ironman. But I am also excited. I see more mainstream contributions in 2008 (written and photographic), and some new projects besides. I've become incredibly motivated to perform at a high level physically and intellectually, and I'm recognising a strong need to reconnect to Nature. I anticipate doing the 1000km ride to Plettenberg Bay in March/April, the Argus obviously. I want to quietly go into the pristine places (Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia) and generally explore new environments. This is a spiritual journey.

I see Fire and Ice being finished by Winter this year, a second Photographic Exhibition (featuring People and Water), and a strong surge in creative experimentation.

Above all I appreciate the value of good relationships. Whatever the weather we can make our lives a lot easier for ourselves and each other if we learn to live with one another better. I'd like to encourage everyone who reads this blog to make 2008 the year we begin to really be good neighbors, because we're going to need each other more and more.


*1. Excessive love or admiration of oneself. See Synonyms at conceit.
2. A psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem.
3. Erotic pleasure derived from contemplation or admiration of one's own body or self, especially as a fixation on or a regression to an infantile stage of development.
4. The attribute of the human psyche charactized by admiration of oneself but within normal limits.