Ponder the exchange of ideas I heard around a braai recently.
“Boet, it’s just days until we’re all infected with Ebola.
”Doctors have already said it’s in the air.”
I almost choked on my boerie.
I jumped up, feverishly searching for the closest place to wash my hands.
I starting making mental notes about who to phone and where to take the dogs. And the cat.
No one wants to die having to wipe blood from every orifice, just to make one’s haemorrhagic convulsions a little more tenable.
It sounds like the devil’s idea of bed and breakfast.
Truth is, Ebola is as airborne as I am a pink rhino with wings.
False info almost owned me.
Fear, as an emotion, is almost as powerful as love.
Fear explodes inside your being, forcing you to think and act quickly as your body siphons off the adrenaline you need to run.
But you can’t run from Ebola.
I watched a recent Carte Blanche analysis of the outbreak, that featured a member of Doctors Without Borders.
She said that whole villages have been wiped out and that in places the outbreak is vastly unreported.
Villagers in those countries are so fearful of Ebola that they have stopped going to hospital.
Imagine contracting the world’s most vicious disease in the African heat and humidity – too weak to move, and what of your last kiss goodbye?
One of virulent, violent death.
Despite the presence of several experts, wrapped in plastic, doing their best on the front line, at this stage there isn’t much we can do about Ebola.
Perhaps humankind is unwittingly faced with its demise: an imminent, unfortunate series of events that will lead to empty streets akin to the world of The Walking Dead.
I think that’s rather exciting.
I’ll start a little survivor’s club on the topmost platform of the closest e-toll gantry. I’ll bath in the Lakefield fountain.
Make biltong from Benoni’s many golf course buck.
I’ll play loud music until the batteries run out – I’ve got a guitar for after that.
I wonder how peaceful Benoni will be without the community that makes her tick and tock each day.
Jokes aside, at the end of the day I’ve learned that it’s always better to educate oneself with the facts.
I’ve burned my fingers too many times simply trusting the words of those around me.
If I had to act on everything I’ve ever heard from everyone else, I’d be a gibbering wreck before the end of the day.
I’d suffer a greater mauling than the appearance of Julius in a News24 comments section.
So, when someone starts droning on about the “good old days”, stop them there and then, because the good old days are happening right now.
Why don’t you try this: wake up tomorrow and just repeat this mantra to yourself: “I can do anything I want, IF I just give up the belief that I can’t do it.”
I know it’s easier said than done, but consider J K Rowling, world famous, billionaire author of the Harry Potter series.
She used to live on the dole in the UK until the fruits of one of many ideas turned her into a multi-award winning and respected literary genius, known most of all for turning an entire generation of Playstation heads back to reading.
What about Oprah?
Molested by two family members and most commonly seen wearing a potato sack instead of a dress, Oprah is now worth $2.7-billion.
Therefore, if one takes the right steps, treats their peers with respect and works harder, there are several success stories out there that are testament to the incredible abilities of humankind.
We have choices in life.
The choice to be respectful, the choice to be successful, the choice to add — or subtract — from the lives of those around us.
We have the choice not to park in disabled bays, the choice not to drink and drive. We have the choice to be a victim.
So you won’t hear me complain when I drive over a pothole; though you will hear me pick up a phone to report it.
I like to think that, in so doing, I’ve done something good for my community.
Even if Ekurhuleni never fixes that pothole, at least I kept my side of the street clean.
Take some time to ponder over my words.
Why choose to be a victim when one day you could end up coughing in an Ebola tent without any choice at all?
