January 11, 2009

shooting from the hip

ok so we’re all spinning around in the world, bumping into people, bouncing off each other. and life is coming up fast seconds minutes seconds years racing past with usain bolt. theres not much time to think, choices decisions more choices, quick no time to aim, we’re shooting from the hip. i’ll stay in malawi. i’ll marry her. i'll take the job. trigger-happy.

BUT this is all we got, these hurried moments and fleeting ideas. every day is a fork in the road, left or right? no going back, no time, the road keeps coming FAST. and these snap choices (left or right?) affect the. rest. of. your. life. to be fair, in that precious millisecond of weighing it up, people do do their best - we work with what we have. mostly what we have is each other, parents, mentors, siblings, pastors, cousins, colleagues and friends, above all friends.

this goes out to all you ‘friends’... if you’re close enough to someone that they’ve given you the right to speak into their choices, then use it – engage – give your perspective – ask the right questions – tell it how it is. i’ll tell it how it is; smiling and waving while someone takes a wrong turn is safe and lazy, kind of selfish. who’s making sure you’re on track? who’s checking you’ve thought it through?

i need my friends to give a shit, to be honest, to get off their ass and put in their two cents – i need all the help I can get to wisely make my next move. in this whirlwind of years, as I pull the trigger i need you to hold my hand.

5 comments:

  1. "BUT this is all we got, these hurried moments and fleeting ideas"
    That is so true. I actually believe that AIDS is affecting many simply because they are taken in the whirlwind of these hurried moments and when they realize it, it is too too late.
    Hey, I really like your blog, it is very inspiring as it helps each reader to STOP and think for a moment.
    SO are you and artist? a poet? a teacher?

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  2. John: The value of unwavering honesty and unfaltering truth can not be rivalled by any form of blissful ignorance or indeed the joy of hearing what we want to be told (as opposed to what we need to be told).

    Not completely unrelated are the following impediments we tend to create that bar friends and foes alike from being completely truthful with us:

    - No greater form of ignorance than taking offense to painful honesty and underrating the buffoonery in not being able to differentiate being disagreeable and disagreeing even in the context of unsolicited advice

    - Majoring in how the message is delivered rather than the message itself.

    - Seeking to be listened more than to listen

    - " In the words of a very wise man "No bigger lie than the lie we tell ourselves" - Looking for advice from people who will only serve to confirm the lie we have chosen to believe in ourselves as a way of justifying the untrue.

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  3. my sentiments precisely. nothing more to be said :))

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  4. This is, by far, your most frantic peace of writing. It's like they were coming to get you and you could hear their footsteps climbing their stairs.

    That said, well penned. I'd love to put my 2 cents but you know me. Always broke. Say, can i demand the same from you. I could use that 2 cents. Ha! Ha! Really, i could use that 2 cents.

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  5. Keeping your best interest at heart, a friend too should have the determination of a mirror and never lose their ability to reflect lest they be shattered into a thousand pieces...

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