BLOCK ATHEISTS?

I might be entirely mistaken ...

I was extremely pleased and flattered when one or two quite well-known and highly educated persons became my followers on Twitter. I was particularly pleased because they are people I greatly admire and respect - persons I started following immediately when I started off on Twitter not so long ago.

It is to be expected (I certainly do) that persons of that caliber would be tolerant and even critical of others' views which do not entirely correspond with their own and that with their academic backgrounds, they would evaluate and consider such views, if not simply ignore them if they chose to do so, and at least co-exist with fellow tweeters who hold those views.

I receive tweets from people who are clearly racist, gay, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, vegetarian, foreign, poor, rich, conservative, liberal, ANC, FFP, DA and of a whole host of other persuasions and characteristics. I often agree with their statements and very often do not. The purpose of utilizing social media is after all, and certainly is for me, to share and hear the views of others out there, to evaluate them and to react if deemed appropriate.

The very reason I follow people is in the hope of learning from them, sharing with them and possibly being influenced and tested by their views. I thought that highly educated and influential people would have the objective of sharing their views on Twitter exactly so that, inter alia, others might learn from them and be influenced by them.

Great was my astonishment when I discovered that at least two of those tweeters I so greatly admire, have blocked me.

Why, I do not know. I am NOT rude, racist, homophobic or foul-mouthed. I don't attack people, but sometimes attack issues. The only possible reason I could think of is that I am open about being an atheist. I have retweeted some tweets emanating from a conference held in Melbourne and have mentioned in my bio that I am an atheist. I am convinced that that is the reason. But I might be wrong ...

Nevertheless, I am saddened that people of the caliber of the two I have mentioned have chosen to block me. I am no longer able to read their wise and oftentimes profound tweets and blogs and articles. They no longer have an opportunity of sharing their wisdom with a follower and the others that follow her in turn.

And that in modern day South Africa, where freedom of speech and freedom of belief are enshrined in our Constitution ...

I sincerely hope I am mistaken ...

That's township love for you ...!

I am a so-called whitey in a so-called coloured township / village and, wow ... do I love it here.

I hate cooking and my neighbours know this. They also know that I sometimes have no time to cook (apart from hating it in the first place.) They also know that I have been away and have a lot of work to catch up on.

Knock knock on my door this morning. There stood my darling neighbour with a covered plate in her hands. "Ek wiet Ant' Madeleine is te biesig om te kook. Ek het lekka curry gemaak en gedog ek bring 'n bietjie vir Ant' Madeleine ..."

Lovely West Coast Lamb Curry with Potatoes!

I had indeed not bothered about food much over this week-end and had grabbed a roll with cold meat or a piece of toast when I felt hungry and had a moment to extract myself from the seat in front of the computer.

This plate of curry was like manna from heaven.

Caring and sharing is what township life is all about ... AND I LOVE IT!

Now that I am sixty ...

I am sixty and I have just realized that every stage in life prepares you for the next. In my case, the next stage must inevitably be clocking out. After all, people my age are classified as "elderly."

That explains why I find myself so unhappy about everything I see and hear every day: Zuma's issues; Malema's  problems; the plight of the poor that hits me straight in the face when I walk out of my door; the financial crisis we will all face pretty soon with the costs of everything escalating; the killings we hear about every day; the orangutangs and the rhinos; all the international political crises and my total inability to make any difference to it all in a significant way.

I often wish I could have lived in a happier world and, perhaps, at this age, a preponderance on problems rather than a focus on the more positive things, is what prepares us all to leave this world willingly when the time does come.

I hate hypocrites. I hate myself ...

I hate hypocrites, but cannot reconcile that fact with the simple logic that I must therefore hate myself. I am just confused ...

I cannot hurt a bee or a fly. I'd rather shoo it outside than simply kill it. That action of killing anything, I abhor. Yet, I have an automatic spray in my kitchen that does the job.

I simply adore the little white new born lambs I see on a farm I pass close by on my way to the supermarket to buy braai chops. I hate myself in that moment when I see them there - being fed up nicely so that I can enjoy them a few weeks later...

I speak sternly to my son when he tells of his next hunting trip and remind him that I did not bring him up like that. Yet I am the first one to sneak into his garage to see whether the biltong has dried yet so that I can sink my eye-teeth into a nice "rugstring."

I HATE myself for this and have made a resolution ...

TOMORROW I WILL STOP EATING ANY MEAT. I will stick to that resolution and repeat it hour by hour in my mind.

Yep, I will do that ...