My friend, Megan Furniss had these questions to help us get thinking and self-examining on this... If you are worried that you might be a little bit racist there are a few things you can do to check: # Do you have a natural (and unreasonable) expectation that everyone should be able to communicate with you in English? # Do you get irritated with Africa Time, because you haven’t taken public transport in a while [...]
Race is one of the big issues we are dealing with in South Africa [and in Americaland, and most probably in pretty much every other country in the world, right?] and there is still a lot of work to be done. The idea of this series came from my understanding that most of us have some kind of racism or prejudice towards other people, particularly those of other cultures or race - some are quite overt [...]
Just over a week ago, tbV and i spent five days on two houseboats with about 20 incredible people, mostly younger than me. Here are some of the guys: We lived together, we ate together, we read the bible and sang some worship songs together, we confessed some struggles and some sin and prayed for each other, we sat in silence for three hours and were just still and knew that He was God, we [...]
The other day i was on the bus coming back from camp chatting to someone and they spoke a line that sends electricity through my body [and not in a good way]. i think we were talking about my blog and the other person said something about, 'Giving them a voice.' i can never ever give anyone else a voice. i can recognise and acknowledge and make space for and step out of the way [...]
i recently discovered the incredibly gifted Dante who writes incredible micro poetry on his blog, Original-Dante. Thinking my poetry would definitely err on the macro side we decided to do a collaboration and use the same title to inspire two different poems and so here is my offering: THOUGHTS FROM THE BLENDER i gaze into the mirror and the person staring back at me is not you i cast my eyes across to your face [...]
In Acts 7 in the bible, we read about the stoning of Stephen. Does anyone know what role Stephen had in the early church? Let me give you a clue: In Acts 6.5 we see him described as "a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit". So what did he do? Are we thinking pastor? Elder? Worship leader? Let me give you another clue: In Acts 6.8 we read that Stephen was "a man [...]
i just read a really helpful piece by Brene Brown titled, 'Own our History. Change the story' which is focused on Americaland which has what feels like a completely different story, when it comes to present race issues, in many ways, but also some remarkably similar overlaps. Owning our stories is standing in our truth. It’s transformative in our personal and professional lives AND it’s also critical in our community lives. But we don’t think about history [...]
Last night a small group of us gathered at a friend's house for a bit of a farewell celebration. Our buddy JT Burns was leaving the state of California and heading home for new adventures and possibilities. So there we were, a small group of us huddled around an outside fire pit, drinking beer and eating chips and marshmallows and just enjoying our friend Jon. Then at one point, Nate suggested we share some fun [...]
i have a good friend called Megan Furniss and we like to make things up. a lot! Megan was responsible for pretty much bringing Improv to Cape Town in the form of TheatreSports [now Improguise: Players of TheatreSports] which quickly became Cape Town's longest running and much loved show. And best kept secret, it seems at some times, although at the moment we are doing some highly experimental and completely fun shows [different formats every [...]
The other day i wrote a post titled, 'Do the Different Need a Disclaimer?' in which i touched on how meeting someone with a disability or condition that makes them quite different to you can be challenging or scary in terms of not wanting to be awkward or embarrass them [or yourself] and my friend Michelle wrote a long comment in response. i asked her if she would upgrade it to a post as it [...]