We need the ‘light’ to take away darkness

IT WAS with great sadness that I read that the Eastern Cape is South Africa’s “most murderous province”.

It seems as though we always seem to be South Africa’s problem child, whether we’re talking about education, economy or crime. What’s wrong with us? And here we are celebrating Heritage Month, including, presumably, South Africa’s famed ubuntu. There isn’t much of that here.

The British singer/songwriter Passenger released an album Whispers a few months ago. I want to share the lyrics of the chorus of Scare Away the Dark off the album:

Well, sing, sing at the top of your voice,

Love without fear in your heart.

Feel, feel like you still have a choice

If we all light up we can scare away the dark.

I love listening to that song, it makes me feel like anything is possible, and that we really can scare away the dark, if we all just get our act together.

Buddhists talk about something called loving kindness. Christians talk about the grace of God.

Whatever you call it, and whatever name you call God, that’s the light there seems to be much too little of.

That’s the light everyone has inside them – even the murderers. They’ve covered it with so much darkness they can’t even find it any more, so we just have to shine bright enough for them too.