„”‘‡ •‘…‹‡–›

Sir,

A story is told of the fictional character Mary Poppins who is given charge of the children, Jane and Michael. In a firm but kind manner, she begins to teach them valuable lessons.

Jane and Michael made considerable progress, but when Mary decided that it is time for her to move on, her friend, Bert, tried to dissuade her from leaving.

He argued, “But they’re good kids, Mary.” Mary replied, “Would I be bothering with them if they weren’t? But I can’t help them if they won’t let me, and there’s no one so hard to teach as the child who knows everything.” Bert asked, “So?” Mary answered, “So they’ve got to do the next bit on their own.”

Proud

Children who are proud at the early stage of their lives usually miss out on the wisdom of their parents or other adults who have a worth of experience gathered over many years, and by so being prideful, they also break a lot of mental or physical or emotional bones in their lives which they would not break had they been teachable; and they have to learn on their own in a rather painful way. It has been said that the clever ones learn from their own experiences, the wise ones learn from the experiences of others.

Who are children? Everyone is a child in one way or another. Won’t you agree that the emotional person who ruins his poise of character by explosive temper is certainly a child – an emotional babe. R. Kelly seems to be one of these emotional children who could have been helped had he allowed his associates to help him. Now he seems to be watching his life slipping to prison.

Philosopher

All you have had, all you have, all you ever have will come to you through the agency of other people. Shakespeare became Shakespeare through other giants of his time, the 1600s. He was incubated by great English minds such as Lord Francis Bacon, an English philosopher.

Life demands that you and I learn from both young and old. My personal philosophy is that I embrace truth from whatsoever source because life is a vast storehouse full of tutorials in divers’ ways.

The greatest act of the universe (the atonement of Jesus Christ) required a man with the highest form of humility. “…I do nothing of myself; but as my father has taught me…,” (John 8:28) confessed Jesus of Nazareth. Gethsemane and Golgotha – universal salvation matters – required such depth of humility from Jesus.

Those who pretend to be self-sufficient lie to themselves. Pretending that they don’t learn from anyone else, you see them browsing the internet, paging books seeking for knowledge.

Teachable

All these are works of other people. And to truly learn from them requires one to be teachable. He who is not teachable progresses slowly in the ocean of life. The unteachable are usually bad in human relations, a key to true living.

Even your boss in the employment sector is a child to you on the things you know which he doesn’t know. He has to humble himself in order for him to learn from you. The wise boss knows very well that he does not know everything, and that to fare well in this world you’ve got to stay humble to keep on learning. He doesn’t mind who gets the credit, but minds the success of the organisation. Even the wise minister of religion would celebrate one of his congregants for what he has learned from him in religious matters.

This is all abundance mentality as opposed to scarcity mentality. For water does not flow up stream; neither does milk. You’ve got to stay humble to keep on learning.

M Nkambule

Sir,

The rate of people taking advantage and manipulating the country seems to be escalating every minute of the day. Our country is in a crisis due to those who think of their greed and satisfaction, never bothering to think about our country.

What exactly am I referring to when I say a broken society? Am I talking of the rife murders, crime injustice and all? In a nutshell, I’m actually referring to all the wrongdoings happening around us. We have a Parliament which tends to help solve some unlawful situations that happen to befall us every now and then. We also have a police service which is trying by all means to help society fight crime. Not to mention church denominations and societal committees which also fight against crime, but in vain.

I’m not saying make the laws more stringent or any tighter. It doesn’t help because the public seemingly hates authority. Don’t make the laws to be tyrants, oppressing the people. We need not be pushed back against the laws. Where exactly is this going? What I’m trying to translate to society is that all we need is self introspection and integrity from within.

Unity

Back then, in the times of kaGogo, all that was happening was in correct order because of the unity and morality within people. Nowadays, things tend to happen so fast simply because of societal decay. With the rise of social media, people have become self absorbed and disconnected from their communities. Society only thrives when individuals have empathy for others - something that is rapidly being lost.

Why does everyone feel okay with the label of unity during national elections and everything made to be published? It is absolutely not a good practice for us. We don’t have to pretend like all is well for the benefit of neighbouring countries, yet we know we are living in a sty.

The million Dollar question is what do we really want? Do we want to live in a cultural liberation that displaces traditional manners and morals or do we want to live in a legal revolution that emphasises individual rights instead of responsibilities?

Lungiswa Malaza