Brave New World

Something I’ve figured out since becoming a father is that everything we parents say and do gets absorbed by our children. Whether we speak and act mindfully, or furnish their young minds with garbage, a lot of what goes in is on us.

I’m a storyteller, that’s my thing. And as South Africans, we always have a lot of stories to tell. Funny stories, gripping stories, a lot of tragic stories. That’s South Africa – a weird and wonderful place that was dropped on its head as a baby.

Some of the damage is because of the garbage drummed into us early on – dodgy beliefs that became our reality. Most of us can afford to unlearn quite a lot. In the process, we’d make space for new ideas, new ways of seeing the world. This month I turn 43, and – eish! – saying that out loud might sound old if you’re still in your twenties, but there comes a point when you realise that ‘old’ isn’t a number, it’s a state of mind.

The older you get, the more you realise you don’t know it all. Last year, just as the thrill of dropping my Netflix action series, Queen Sono, was washing over me, there came a global crisis that brought us all to our knees. At such times, it makes sense to make space for new ideas, new ways of thinking. Because, in the blink of an eye, everything can change and when it does, you don’t want to be weighed down by garbage.