Smiling through the pain



Life has ups and it has downs. The effects of each vary from one individual to the next, but they usually comprise of unconstrained happiness during the up and devastating sadness during the down period. I’ve been told that I am always emotionally neutral. So people can never tell if I am going up or coming down. Which sounds like rubbish to me, people should pay more attention. 

I go through ups and they’re followed by downs. I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is ‘No’ – I am not bipolar, that’s some serious shit. I just have problems dealing with the psychological challenges of life. It also doesn’t help that I tend to keep my emotions concealed, I am the poster child for emotional bottling. I was even elected president of Emotional Bottlers Anonymous. What you’re detecting is sarcasm, the façade of emotional bottlers, or so I have been told. 

When I was a young man, I used to think it was a good idea to fight the melancholy. Fight darkness with light and what not. Now that I am a little older, I have become wiser – or so I think, I am not really good enough at this life thing to be sure. I’ve learnt to respect the process, I’ve left fighting to Kwaito’s and inebriated idiots. 

I used to fight my downs with alcohol. Confession; down periods induce an attraction to alcohol that is truly amazing. You’ll find me drinking on a Monday. When that happens then you should know that life is really messing with me. I understand the logic of self-medicating with alcohol, I just don’t understand the application, the line between using it as a coping mechanism and abusing it is very thin. Alcohol doesn’t numb the pain, if it did – surely, doctors would prescribe it. Did I hear a few of you say ‘Amen!’ – It’s okay to dream. But, I have discovered that alcohol really confuses the voices. I know what you’re thinking and the answer is no as well. I am not schizophrenic, that’s some really serious shit.

I guess what I am saying is that with time an individual learns how to cope with life. Sufferers of chronic migraines know that they need medication to manage the pain. In the same vein, as one goes through the constant undulations of life, you learn to manage the shitty part of being human. I call it ‘Life challenge management’, commonly known as smiling through the pain.
“There is nothing noble in the fight, only in survival.”

If you’re smart you’ll learn that life’s down periods are like mental/creative/writers blocks, which in turn is like a scab. If you leave it alone, understand that it is only temporary and respect the process, you’ll be back to normal in no time at all (provided you stay away from the alcohol).  If you don’t then you’ve stirred up some really serious shit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10.5 in a straight line – The Namib Naukluft Mountains.

Image
A mountain is nature's way of saying take the long way round (Scenic route) May 2012 (The following actually happened, I kid you not) My head was stuck so deep in the map that I was closely analyzing that I hardly noticed when the car stopped, I kept staring at it as though a road to our destination would magically appear. “Why have we stopped, we’re not even a quarter of the way there?” I asked myself. No roads existed to where we wanted to go, just a frighteningly deep valley beyond the rocky hill where we stopped. As I got out of the car all I could see was grass, huge hills and the shadow of three big mountains on the horizon. I glanced at the GPS as I was lacing up my boots while Patrisia grabbed our back packs, what I saw hardly pleased me. “Agreed,” she said as she went left with her technician, and I went right with mine. We agreed to meet at the exact spot where the car was parked at the end of the day.  “10.5 km’s to target,” my technician said with unres
Read more

Trends of deadly passion

I am sure most of you have heard of the phrase ‘a crime of passion’. The reservoir of modern wisdom that is Wikipedia, defines it as “ a violent crime, especially murder, in which the perpetrator commits the act against someone because of sudden strong impulse such as sudden rage rather than as a premeditated crime.” Wikipedia also states that the act, as is suggested by the name ( crime passionnel - from French language) is often associated with the history of France. However, such crimes have existed and continue to exist in most cultures. Namibia has seen a rise in the murder of young women, usually by their partner in an intimate relationship. Yes, boyfriends who kill their girlfriends. Usually siting a sudden rage brought on by a quarrel or spat which drives them to commit murder. I’ve been in relationships, and girls are weird. So I can understand how frustrated a guy can get, women are frustrating at times it’s like they are from a different planet. They can drive
Read more

Namibian education system language policy - 5 things that could go wrong

A month or two ago, or even three; time feels like it’s moving slower these days. The Namibian Education Minister announced a radical change in language policy, English would no longer be the medium of instruction in the lower primary phase. This means that from grade 1 – 5 children in the Namibian Education system will be taught in their mother tongue. I know what you are thinking, you’re probably going, “Why not? Children should be taught in their local languages.” Which is not necessarily a bad thing, research has shown that mother tongue education improves language acquisition and learning in general. However, no research has ever been done in Namibia to prove this. As it stands, there is no empirical evidence to prove that mother tongue education will work in Namibia. We seem to be copying South Africa who have a similar policy in place, South Africa has also lowered pass requirements from high school to improve results (not pointing fingers, I’m just saying). You’re prob
Read more