The value of a calm head in a heated world

IT’S AS if there’s tension all around these days. But I am not referring to the stress you feel when the cashier starts ringing up the items in your shopping cart and you start wondering if you can afford it. 

But speaking of that, where are prices going these days? And now with the United States slapping South Africa with a 30% tariff, and this set to come into play this week, “till tension” is going to be even greater.

As a result of all of this, tensions between the US and Mzansi are pretty high. One wonders how long before something ridiculous happens, like either of these countries warning their citizens to be wary of travelling to the land of their “foe”. I suspect, and above that hope, that this is a long, long way off … in fact, I am hoping that never comes to pass.

As South Africans, we can hold out the olive branch already, and treat visitors from foreign shores with respect, dignity and kindness. Send them back home totally confused, wondering why their leaders are speaking so badly about our nation. 

You can be sure there’s some propaganda being spread somewhere, and though there’s nothing you can do about what people say about you, you can act in a way that exposes them as liars.

But, anyway, that’s not our fight – we, the citizens, that is. That’s for our diplomats to thrash out. Let them get their hands dirty for a change. I once read a quote that goes: “War is a place where the young kill one another without knowing or hating each other, because of the decision of old people who know and hate one another without killing each other.”

Now, though that’s referring to literal war with bombs, bullets and brutality, maybe that thought applies to more kinds of conflicts. After all, it takes real character to treat someone with kindness while they’re treating you with disrespect, and especially when you know that you have done nothing to deserve the bad treatment. And sometimes they’re mad at you because someone lied about you …

Granted, you don’t always have to be a doormat, but you don’t need to be a bear trap either.

It’s not healthy for one to walk around half-cocked, ready to explode, vent or do violence to someone who offends you. Pausing, taking a deep breath, and resetting could work wonders.

Here’s what I mean: I once heard a tale, though I have not researched its veracity. The story goes that a woman came home late one night and, having always been suspicious of her husband’s fidelity, quietly opened the door to their bedroom. 

To her utter despair, there under the blankets, she sees the forms of two people in the bed. Furious, she reaches for the emergency cricket bat by the door and dishes out a beating to those in the bed, swinging as hard as she can. 

Once she was satisfied that they had learned their lesson and her rage subsided, she went to the kitchen to have a drink to calm her nerves. As she enters the kitchen, she sees her husband there, reading a magazine at the counter. 

“Hi, darling,” he says. “Your parents have come to visit us, so I let them stay in our bedroom. Did you say hello?”