Better days… when our JoJo tanks are Airbnbs
BY AND large, people are pretty resilient. We seem to accept whatever disasters life throws at us, then we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start putting the pieces together again. Earthquakes, floods, fires, droughts, tornadoes, politicians and wars; we survive them and the human race totters along once more.
We surround ourselves with souvenirs of the disasters we’ve survived. Here’s Granpa’s bayonet from the war and the water bottle Uncle George carried when he was lost in the desert. Here are Auntie Mavis’s dentures, which are all they managed to find of her after the kitchen boiler exploded in 1948.
Not long ago, we survived Eskom and its “rolling blackouts”. I bet half the homes in the country still have solar-powered lanterns and little camping gas stoves and flashlights with flat batteries tucked away in cupboards, half forgotten but ready for the next power cut, by which time they will no longer work.
In a couple of years’ time we’ll be cutting doors into the sides of our JoJo tanks to convert them into guest accommodation, garden sheds or dog kennels. (I wonder whether you can grow ivy over a plastic rainwater tank. Would you need planning permission to use it as an Airbnb?)
Take a Card
In spite of all the crime and nastiness in the modern world, I find most people to be very kind.
I had just paid for my purchases in a local shop and swiped my loyalty card when the customer behind me said: “I forgot my card at home, so you can swipe yours with my shopping and then you can have the points I would have earned.”
A small gesture, maybe, but it warmed my heart to think that, in the midst of a hot and busy day, somebody found it worthwhile to offer a little gift to a stranger.
Thank you, blonde lady, whoever you may be. I feel I owe a stranger a kindness in return. Maybe your gesture will send ripples wide across the pond of life.
That often happens. You’re stuck at a busy traffic intersection, waiting for a gap, when a kind driver slows down and waves you into the stream of traffic. You exchange smiles and wave to each other, and maybe next time you see somebody waiting for a gap you smile and wave them in. The ripple spreads and everybody feels a little better inside.
It happens in the other direction too, of course. Your boss calls you an idiot and the ripple of grumpiness spreads right across your day, and you end up kicking your dog, who doesn’t even know your boss.
We can each choose the direction of the ripples we make.
Last Laugh
Joe had a pet duck and a friend asked what its name was. “I call it Ben Hur,” said Joe. “Oh, after the movie, I guess.” “No, I never saw the movie.” “So why call it Ben Hur?” “Well I used to just call it Ben. Then one day it laid an egg.”