Optimist - Pessimist

Crafting with words is what I do for a living. Writing this blog is supposed to grow what I do for a living and a way to connect with the world. Yet, writing it is a bit like the fly trapped between the curtain and the window. You cannot see it, but the buzzing is just irritating enough to push you to do something! Anything!

And so, in talking about writing, I reflect on this obsession that we as South African’s have with our language heritage. It is not nearly as many languages as in India or as complicated as the dialects in China, but on top of the different languages we have also mastered the art of speaking in euphemisms. When we have a problem (difficulty, trouble, crisis, predicament, quandary, setback, hitch) we call it a challenge (comfort, brave, defy, face up to, dare, test, dispute). The more I think about it, I begin to see why we can fall for this. It is maybe this shift from being a pessimist to being an optimist – for all, the growing necessity to get out of bed in the morning and move life forward. I offer four very different pieces (Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) to maybe contemplate our swinging between our problems and challenges!

Don’t Judge
Don’t judge
You always urge
How to do this
When it is so inherently
Human nature
To analyse and contemplate
Issues of family
From opposite ends
Very difficult
Hastily uttered comments
Openly made
Considered
Hurtful and unkind

Don’t judge
Your general sentiment
How do you then
Some actions
Reactions
Comprehend
Selfish visions entrenched
Challenge
Not the same
As the no-judging regiment
For in the end
Judgement
Is all we sometimes
Comprehend
Pessimist
See the world unkind
Optimists
Accused
Looking at the realities blind
Judgement
Perhaps
The only way to
Sanity find

By Simone Beatrice Naik Noemdoe, started sometime in 2007 and completed on April 5, 2011.

Happiness
Happiness
We with others
Seek
When it is
The happiness lacking within
That makes us
Weak
In this search
We should remember
That no one
But ourselves
Can us
Unhappy render

Happiness
Not sold
In a shop window
Or dished out
At the charity table
It is only
When we
Internal harmony find
That happiness
Will follow blind

Happiness
In continuity elusive
Not a constant state
Conclusive
But happy seconds
By the millions
Leaves us
Overjoyed
It possesses the power
To unhappy moments
Destroy

By Simone, 07/09/10

Much of the Sameness
Much of the sameness
We wait for and actively seek
Is that the best way forward
When we life partners
Want to meet

Adaptor or innovator
You might be
Seeking much of the sameness
Or someone who will
Complement and grow thee

Much of the sameness
Kept together by
Social, emotional acceptability
Adaptive or innovative
You might be
What the give and take would be

Adaptors to innovators gravitate
Friends will be sought
Who are alike
That is when we start
Social discord and a fight

Much of the sameness
We in society will seek
The best way forward
It will for most be
At least if only
To keep the peace

By Simone Noemdoe, 12 October 2006 at during an “Innovative Leaders, Excellence in Performance” workshop presentation on adaptors and innovators

Rules of Engagement
Rules of engagement
Concepts used in war
Why not
In any other life battle

Would it not offer
Some mechanism
For all… in everyday life
Instead of just following
Instincts blindly

Rules of engagement
Expected to be fair
Very difficult to ignore
The results of transgression
Will be disastrous

Rules of engagement
In all contexts do exist
Mostly unwritten, unspoken
Life lessons always growing

By Simone Noemdoe, 17 August 06