SATURDAY, 10 DECEMBER 2005
Our existence is to some extent an expression of free will. That we came to exist in the first place was, however, not our choice. By the time we realised this “thing” we were experiencing had a name, and that it was called “life”, we were already fully-fledged beings-in-existence.
MONDAY, 12 DECEMBER 2005
I spent the past ten to fifteen years caught between two extremes: a cynical world where everyone fights for himself (and maybe his family) and where everything can be justified as long as there is money involved; and the “Feel God” Christian response, which is so popular among modern Christians.
I hate that people will lie and cheat and step over other people and then justify it by talking about a tough world and “every man for himself”, or the justification that it was done for the welfare of the family. I have also developed a growing aversion to the anti-rational, anti-intellectual, emotion-driven direction that many so-called Christians have taken.
What are my options? I do not want to become a disciple and/or victim of cynicism and the blind pursuit of material gain, and I do not want to find comfort in the arms of an anti-rational, emotion-driven religious community! What to do …
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[On the back of a telephone bill]
“Personal Agenda” follows the second self-imposed socio-economic exile of a white, male, Afrikaans-speaking South African in Taiwan (the first “exile” being two years spent in South Korea, also as an English teacher). The main character/writer examines over a period of six years the reasons for his self-imposed exile and the possibility of returning to the country of his birth. In the process he questions his identity, the meaning and possible purpose of his life, and the accepted truths and ways of a life with which he had grown up …
MONDAY, 19 DECEMBER 2005
If you do not get up and walk, you will end up flat on your face. People – friends, family, and some strangers – will help you up to a point. But after a while they, too, will continue their own journeys. That is simply how it is.
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