The joys and challenges of being a father
Reporter CHARLENE SOMDUTH spoke to two dads about fatherhood and gifts, while three others share their experiences
Dr Iqbal Survé, executive chairman, Independent Media
MY DAUGHTER Saarah gave me this “early” Father’s Day present just before she left for China recently. It is an original John Lennon poster from the Czech Republic.
She had just spent two months in Prague as part of her gap year. She visited the John Lennon Wall where the people protested about communist rule. I guess I could end the post at this point. However, Saarah, 22, who has a degree in International Relations, is very intuitive.
She knew that Prague, Czechoslovakia, the date of the poster and John Lennon mean so much more to me.
I firmly believe in interconnectivity and the circle or karma of life. Allow me to explain.
In 1980 many of us as activists started the Committee of 81, the student movement for change in the Western Cape. The movement was important in mobilising students against apartheid and in support of workers that were striking. It also shaped my beliefs in freedom and justice and peace. At the same time in 1980 people in Prague were protesting against the authoritarian regime.
One of my all time favourite authors remains Milan Kundera, the Czech writer. Many of you may know him from the film The Unbearable Lightness of Being. I like him for the freedoms in his writing, as he outlined the resistance in 1968 in Prague, also called the Prague Spring. I have never visited Prague but am glad my daughter went to work there for two months with an NGO developing the youth. She loved Prague but not the people (see her http://matteredlipsandapurplecarryon.blogspot.com/).
My favourite song of all time is John Lennon’s Imagine. I love that we can imagine a world with no boundaries – a world of a common humanity. Besides his wonderful music with the Beatles, John Lennon fought for a world of freedom and peace.
Many years ago I met his widow Yoko Ono in New York and told her the story below, which I initially thought was an urban legend. John Lennon used to come to Cape Town (in disguise) and stay at the Mount Nelson hotel. He came for one reason only. To meditate at the energy centre on Table Mountain.
What follows is an unbelievable coincidence. My mother’s cousin, who is a taxi driver and tour guide, used to pick up guests at the request of the hotel. For years he did not realise that John Lennon was his “pick up” guest. The year before John Lennon died, he informed my mom’s cousin as to why he was in disguise as he did not want to be seen in apartheid South Africa. I was never sure whether my mom’s cousin (who is now very elderly and still very much alive) had really met John Lennon. Three years ago I asked him to confirm this and he did, with a photograph of him and Lennon. I suggested he write a book but he refuses to since he gave John Lennon his word that he would never disclose his visits.
In another bit of irony, my maternal grandmother (whose mother was an Irish immigrant who meditated on Table Mountain) knew about the energy centre and passed this knowledge on to me. She suggested that as a teenager I should hike to the top of Table Mountain and meditate. Every year since then I have hiked, climbed, taken the cable car up Table Mountain to meditate at this well-known energy centre.
A few years ago I was astonished to find scribbled on large boulder, close by from where I sat meditating, the initials “JL”. I find that meditating (once a year for half a day) with the clouds hovering above gives me the energy and peace to face the most complex world we live in and to continue to strive to do good and do well for the rest of the year. Perhaps in the summer of 2015 I will lead a group to meditate at the same spot JL meditated and to work towards world peace and to give peace a chance. John Lennon was assassinated in New York in 1980 on December 8, my sister’s birthday. My daughter’s gift was the best Father’s Day gift I could ever receive to reimagine a world of peace.