Make peace with the paradox. Eventually you’ll need to slow down to speed up, become softer to get harder, feel more to think better, get stronger to be more kind. The things you want to move towards will often involve moving in unexpected directions. Stay nimble, stay agile, stay curious – become.
Author: Woozie
We’ve come too far to take the bus back
Coming back from the void involves acclimatising to everything that continues to be real, despite all evidence pointing to the fact that it isn’t. It involves remembering, everyday, that there is a certain linearity of thought that has come to define the parameters within which thinking should happen. That this linearity is expected… demanded… from all by all. It is…
Blame it on the storytellers
“A story must always have motion.” I don’t know if it was a scriptwriting workshop, or a novel writing workshop or just dinner with some writer friends. I do, however, remember this being said and sticking with me. In a story, everything that happens exists to push the narrative. Each moment is supposed to tell you something about a character,…
For the one
When it looks so simple and straightforward the frustration can be immense. You must, however, remember that it only seems so simple because you see it so clearly. Your vision, despite multiple attempts at blending into the background, sets you apart. We see the picture clearer every time you speak – and I don’t imagine you ever say anything that…
Life is short but afternoons are long
When Mark Twain wrote “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter so I wrote you a long one,” he captured the paradox of life in a way I love to use as an approach. The Husago, as described by Anyidoho, the forward backwards forward backwards dance of life. Particularly I like it as an approach to time…
Weigh the anchor, here she comes!
We attach meanings, histories, worlds and stories to words. And, when these words are moved, the things that are attached to them move as well. This is particularly true of identity. The simple words that describe where we have chosen to anchor our selves, keeping us drifting, lost at sea in the collective consciousness, also determine our path. Even before…
Just shine
“They be saying I’m a cool cat, Fuck that, tell them niggaz I’m a top dog.” Rashad, RIP Young. It might be that understanding yourself is difficult because you have never felt your absence. Unlike everyone else, you do not know what it feels like when you walk out of the room – or when you walk in. You have…
Don’t. Blink.
“I just came to beat a bully’s ass and get my lunch back… …And I’m just in the studio, hoping that it sounds right, here’s a brighter bulb for your limelight.” – Chance the Rapper, Prom Night What will you do when you realise that it was never theirs to take away? When, after years of languishing in the dark,…
A child is born, you won’t believe what happens next!
The observer observing itself observing itself is a far enough place from which to hold a perspective without falling too far into the never ending chaos of trying to see life from the perspective of the viewer – is there an end? Some people feel the need to dress this perspective and give it philosophically coloured glasses through which to…
The dance is in the dancing
One day you will go out to build. Like every time you go out to build, it will feel like a final build. In the back of your mind you will shrug the feeling – you always say it will be the last time. It never is. So that day, like everyday, you will take your axe to canvas and…