In His Image

The news these days is so overwhelming. Just this morning alone I read about a Chinese yacht capsizing with 458 people on board and a petrol explosion in Ghana leaving over a hundred dead. It seems like the only way to cope is to put on one's rose-coloured glasses and get on with my day. Trauma after trauma can take you from shock to disbelief to exasperation to helplessness then numbness. That's if our conscience is even attuned to what goes on around us. It's so easy to be disengaged or indifferent to things that don't affect our immediate bubbles. At any given time we are going through some hardship of our own, our experiences are different to those of others therefore our reactions and perceptions of the world we live in could not possibly be unanimous. That's the common rationale. But sometimes, by no coincidence, you get to live the headlines, and you wait for the breakthrough moment but it just doesn't appear on the horizon. As you read this, I&

Badgyal Riri sang it when she said "I've got a thug in my life, how am I gonna tell my mama? She's gonna say it ain't right, but he's so good to me.." it's a struggle as old as time. What is it about bad boys that renders so many otherwise intelligent women utterly impotent in their presence? How is it that with their brashness and rough-around-the-edges approach we find ourselves yearning for their approval? There could be a number of reasons; a penchant for danger, the intrigue of the gamble and or just the desire to win them over. More times than I care to admit I find myself rooting for the intense, brooding, brutish, uncouth, arrogant characters. They are among the best actors, the best athletes, the best artists, the best models. Sure, I love a good ballad but if you caught me singing Breezy and Usher's 'New Flame' you too would agree there is just something about these types that's just so hard to resist.. Well, to be fair the

Often I see the hashtag ‪#‎ blessed‬ and I wonder...  It's easy to look at the lives of others through superficial lens and envy what they have, what they look like, who society says they are and resultantly become discontent with your life and your circumstances. Then at other times, we look at those who are doing worse than we are, don't look the way we do or are in some way seemingly less fortunate and suddenly feel quite pleased with ourselves. Both perspectives are flawed in that they place our woefully misguided desires at the centre, believing that blessing can be measured. That more, faster, bigger, longer, smarter, richer is better. That having what we want is a sign that we have done something right. That surely we deserve a good life if we are good people who work hard. So we aim, strive, work, pray, and dream. Sometimes we get there, sometimes we die before we do, sometimes in that journey we miss the point altogether. I think that the re