Cape Town has become the most crime ridden city in South Africa if not the world. The problem with our city (and country for that matter) is that the authorities find it more important to focus on petty crimes, not to mention the tedious fights between political parties. While I do agree that nipping petty crimes in the butt is essentially the way to a great start, we have long since passed that phase with majority of the crimes. Then there is the fraud and money squandering issues happening within the government… Along with the rest of the population I could go on all day everyday about it but that’s not going to solve any problems. Instead I’ll tell you how all is not lost and that little things do matter.
Earlier in the week as my husband and I drove to collect our girls from school, he stopped the car and made me get out in the blistering heat to check out purple/blue-ish folded up paper that resembled one hundred rand notes. As I did, my 20/10 vision, could already see that it wasn’t money but I humored him anyway. After my show and tell we drove off and he said “If that was money you would probably have insisted we find out who the money belonged to right?” This made me smile because this man knows me better than anyone and he knows that even though money is always welcome, I wouldn’t be happy knowing that it may just be someone’s last. Now before you go thinking I’m some goody two shoes (and obviously you would be right), I must tell you that I firmly believe that putting good out there in the universe is a sure way of being on the receiving end of goodness. Besides, karma is a force to be reckoned with and I’m not taking any chances. I am that person who will hand in an item at the lost and found counter and also the type who will go back to a store if I notice that they gave me too much change. Do I feel special about it or want recognition? Nope not at all. It’s the right thing to do and it has a lot to do with my mother heart. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Be the person you want your children to be and don’t just preach.
Last night I attended my girls parent evening and between their classrooms I misplaced my shades. It is a magazine freebie and even though I don’t place any monetary value to it, it is my favorite pair and it makes me feel like a million dollars. Priceless. It’s also one of my belongings that is much coveted by quite a few. I only realized it was missing on my way home. Instead of panicking and being upset that I had possibly lost it forever, I just knew that I would get it back. When I mentioned it to someone last night, the person said I’ll never get it back because everyone is so shady these days. I of course begged to differ and my reply was simply “I’m sure I’ll get it back. There are lots of people like me out there. And if I don’t then the person who has it must enjoy them.” You see, I was negligent (often the case when the kids are with me and most of my attention is focused on not losing them) and no matter how good you are, you do sometimes lose things. That’s life.
Turns out I forgot them in one of the classrooms and a parent picked it up and handed it to the teacher. I got my shades back this morning and I was right, there are plenty of people like me out there. It’s such a pity that we seemed to have forgotten that fact. We can’t judge everyone equally and pessimism does not need to be the order of the day. If we’re all willing to put our best foot forward and do one random act of kindness it could make a huge difference.
Finding my shades did not save my life nor did it save our country from crime but it has once again proved to me that there is hope. It aided in restoring someone else’s opinion of people (obviously I shared my lost and found story with my pessimist from last night), though I’m sure that it’s going to take a whole lot of good deeds and said pessimist will still not be completely convinced. My sheer delight at finding my freebie spoke volumes to my daughter’s teacher and my kids learned the valuable lesson that in life ‘finders keepers’ is not always the case and that random acts of kindness is always relevant.
There is a quote that says “Be the change you want to see in the world” but I think Michael Jackson said it best with:
“If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place, Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change”
I know there are plenty of people looking at the man or woman in the mirror and it may seem inconsequential at times but you are making a difference and it doesn’t go unnoticed. Keep on keeping on and soon it will be you and your chinas and your chinas chinas and your chinas chinas china…
Surviving Jonkersville 