Take a moment
Greetings,
Here are 7 things that I wanted to share.
1
We wake up every day, try to get on with the day-to-day, all the while afraid that the next message, or call, or Tweet will be a notification of another person that has succumbed to COVID-19. There is a heaviness in the air. It seems to hang there, just beyond our consciousness. We are unable to grieve because there is no closure.
The Phone of the Wind: Whispers to Lost Families
It left me in tears but I also found it cathartic. Check it out before September 7th.
"Hello. If you're out there, please listen to me." On a hill overlooking the ocean in Otsuchi Town in northeastern Japan is a phone booth known as the "Telephone of the Wind." It is connected to nowhere, but people come to "call" family members lost during the tsunami of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Many visit the phone booth including a mother and 3 children who have lost their father. This documentary looks at the unique role that this phone is playing in helping the grieving process of many.
2
For the last three or so months, I have been doing work for Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, sourcing and editing the work of African writers on the impact of the pandemic and vaccinations across the continent.
Pandemic culture: doubt and faith in Padua takes a different approach, coming from the perspective of a street artist.
3
I am still getting my head around what Marc Weidenbaum does but I have been down the rabbit hole that is Disquiet.com which is described as “a publication on the internet that consists of reflections on ambient/electronic music, sound art, and related cultural realms.”
4
I am currently reading Tom Vanderbilt’s book Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Lifelong Learning and have already signed up to a bonsai course, as well as compiling a list of things that I want to learn. There is something appealing about operating in a ‘beginner’s state’ regularly.
5
Every now and then, I think, perhaps I should try write fiction. I am stuck in the stage where I am constantly reading and watching advice on how to write fiction, like How to Write Creative Fiction: Umberto Eco’s Four Rules.
6
I got to jump onto Morning Live in South Africa to talk about my book #ListenToYourFootsteps. It’s still surreal, sometimes, that I have a proper book out and people are actually buying and reading it.
7
Lerato Mphaka is someone I have been following on social media for a couple of years to get insights into the development of the world of business in Lesotho, the country that raised me and where I worked in the family businesses for years before moving to Joburg.
In October, Lerato is putting out an eBook titled Career Navigation Masterclass Series which I think is the first of what should be many. I am still working my way through it - a friend shared an advance copy - but it is interesting getting a peek into work in Lesotho’s corporate world, which I was always on the outside of, even when I lived and worked in Lesotho.
One of the challenges with reading a lot of business and leadership books is that they don’t reflect our context.
You can pre-order now for R100 here: Pre-Order. It is well-worth it, methinks. When it launches, it will retail for R250.
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Easy, Kojo