change the world : Brett Fish

How to Craft a South African Kaleidoscope

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 [...]

By brettfish|2015-06-20T17:37:39+02:00June 20th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, inspire-ations, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|0 Comments

a time to laugh and a time to speak

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 [...]

By brettfish|2015-06-18T18:29:21+02:00June 18th, 2015|activities, change the world, inspire-ations|0 Comments

The eleRAphantCE in the room…

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 [...]

By brettfish|2015-06-09T17:40:37+02:00June 9th, 2015|change the world, friends and enemas, inspire-ations, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with|3 Comments

Responding to Difference: An Exquisite Guest Post by Michelle Botha

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 [...]

By brettfish|2015-06-08T10:48:55+02:00June 8th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|0 Comments

Taboo Topics: Vegetarianism – Meet Abi Ornellis

Why I’m [kind of, mostly] a vegetarian. Let me start off by saying that I like eating animals. In my early university days, I probably ate a bacon sandwich at least four times a week. This was on top of my regular meat-with-every-meal intake. I come from an Italian family. Growing up in South Africa, these two cultural combinations meant that meat was always very high on the meal priority list. But it has been [...]

By brettfish|2015-06-04T19:42:40+02:00June 4th, 2015|change the world, Taboo Topics, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|0 Comments

Blood Brothers: Part Which Person are You?

This short extract from 'Blood Brothers: The Dramatic Story of a Palestinian Christian Working for Peace in Israel' really jumped out at me and i think speaks for itself: It was during our final spring days at Saint Sulpice that my kindly mentor, Father Longère, touched a deeply resonant note, like a voice out of eternity. I had come to value his wisdom, his remarkable way of challenging us, spurring us to deeper thought on [...]

By brettfish|2015-05-26T12:57:31+02:00May 26th, 2015|change the world, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people, what i am reading|0 Comments

Some thoughts from Spaghetti conversations [with Babalwa Nyangeni]

A couple of weeks ago we had our Spaghetti conversation about race, location and boundary, which you can catch up on over here. Our friend Babs, was one of the guests who joined us and she had this reflection to add: A conversation about where you live becomes a conversation about your life, and in South Africa, becomes a picture of what the past means to different people and how it affects how we live [...]

By brettfish|2015-05-21T07:17:12+02:00May 21st, 2015|activities, challenging thorts, change the world, inspire-ations, things to wrestle with|0 Comments

Some thoughts from Spaghetti conversations [with Portal Pete]

Another guest on Friday was our mate Portal Pete who has moved with his wife, Sarah, into Manenberg and is running a drug rehabilitation program among other things, and he had these words to say: Great food etc. It didn’t feel awkward to me. It felt OK. Living and working in what some call missional community in Manenberg, I feel and cause offence on a fairly regular basis. We’re learning that offence most often leads [...]

By brettfish|2015-05-15T07:43:07+02:00May 15th, 2015|challenging thorts, change the world, friends and enemas, local news, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|0 Comments

Some thoughts from Spaghetti conversations [with Daniel van Zuydam

Daniel was another of the guests from Friday's dinner and deep dive into Race, Boundary and Location conversation that i wrote about over here, and he shares some of his thoughts from the evening: We need to learn to listen to one another. Such a simple concept, "I stop talking, you talk", but very hard to execute. On Friday, Brett invited me to a dinner with a number of other peeps from different ages, colour, [...]

By brettfish|2015-05-13T08:00:31+02:00May 13th, 2015|change the world, pain and Hope, things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|0 Comments

Some thoughts from Spaghetti conversations [with Nkosi Wiseman Gola]

My friend Nkosi has written for me a number of times on this blog and so it was a great privilege to have him around for a special meal on Friday night with some friends, that i wrote about over here, and i asked him to share some of his impressions from the evening: Conversation is an integral part of transformation. It was for this reason that I went to Brett's house together with Monde [...]

By brettfish|2015-05-12T07:56:12+02:00May 12th, 2015|change the world, Food and foodlike things, inspire-ations, pain and Hope, people, the beautiful Val (tbV), things to wrestle with, thorts of other people|0 Comments