Ma Wa Gray

 No Forest, it’s not like a box of chocolates - unless  they’re the new Quality Streets which have left the soul of South Africa very perplexed at Christmas time. Remixing packaging and leaving the fruitier flavours out has left many guessing as to what they’re gonna get…but no, life is like a game reserve.  I wouldn’t say I’m a game reserve fundi. I don’t go all ‘when Harry met Sally eating a sandwich incident’ when I smell the unique aroma of thatch and bedspreads that haven’t been updated since the 80s and immediately fall into a reverie imagining lamb chops on the braai at Satara.  I also don’t need to stop my vehicle for every brown bird that comes along. Give me the big show birds like a secretary bird or a kingfisher or anything with flashy colours and I’ll say, ‘That’s naas.’ And move on with my life. I have, however, had the uniquely South African experience of growing up in a country littered with game reserves. Travel a few hours in any direction and you’l...

  I had a delightfully funny digs mate who used to tell me a delightfully funny anecdote about how she used to spy on her baby brother after he had been disciplined. She says her beautiful, curly haired brother would sit cross legged and weep in front of a mirror, stroking his reflection saying, ‘Sorry Lawrence, poor Lawrence.’ It was the perfect pity party. I am actually envious of his balls to the wall sympathy for himself. If we ever found ourselves feeling a little sorry for ourselves she and I would stand in front of our bathroom mirror in our little digs pretending to wail, stroking our reflections saying, ‘Sorry Lawrence, poor Lawrence.’ I think it’s important that children learn to self regulate and deal with rejection or disappointment or making mistakes in a way that helps them to recover and move on. There’s nothing wrong with the occasional pity party, there is, however, something wrong if at some point you don’t pull yourself towards yourself and walk away from the mir...