It is not the relaxation that I have a quarrel with, if this is in fact a quarrel.
Here is the truth: it is now the 2nd of December as I write this piece but I feel certain that many among us will in our quest to make merry get so smashed that we forget the lessons that got preached on World Aids Day – which was just yesterday!
ABC – ‘Abstain, Be faithful, Condomise’, that famous catchphrase somehow flies right out of the window as soon as alcohol, drugs and loud music take charge. We so quickly forget to ‘end the spread … stop the spread.’
In our drunkenness during December we men for instance suddenly feel the need to overpower women and children, to abuse them in all manner of ways – physically, sexually and emotionally. As we pull our nice and flashy cars out to go show off, splashing wads of bonus cash in the process, some of us end up becoming marauding beasts determined to crash and maim women as we aim to satiate our thirst, our wanton lust for sex.
Even more painful is the fact that some of the abusers among us would have been speakers of note at one or the other rally highlighting 16 Days of Activism campaign. We would have spoken out against this vile tendency of sick men preying on women and children, but then in our quest to achieve a happy December, we’d feel this is unachievable without exercising abuse.
Some of us will sure feel emboldened to drive while drunk. Consequently, we injure innocent people, or even killing ourselves and others. At that point we think nothing of those we are leaving behind, or of the loved ones and dependents of the ones we would have killed through drunken driving. It cannot be that just because we want to make merry we must become a danger to ourselves and others.
Go to any nearby mall now and you will see that some of us have already started storming retail stores to leave thousands and thousands of our hard-earned cash on stuff we know we can live without. My observation is we do this without care, our main motivation being to impress and be seen to be the coolest in town.
If you want to see that people really have boundless desire to waste money, visit the nearest bottle particularly in this month of December and see the madness. Or check out how tens of cooler bags and braai stands get to suddenly people major streets in our townships and you will see what kind of happiness wastefulness can cause.
But the most painful thing about all the December frenzy is to see young girls availing themselves to older men just to be seen on the front passenger seat of that BMW or GTi. In the name of fun and proving that they are the finest this December, they enlist the possessions of older, often married men to help them realize some sick validation and prominence. They then pay for this through their bodies, the result of which can be unwanted pregnancies, or even HIV and Aids.
Truly saddening. But it is December … what can one say?
Since there is money all over the place, can I suggest – pretty humbly, that you spend some of it on buying yourself and one more person a book? I swear you will not be disappointed. Plus, in that way I know you are going to spend time under the shade of that backyard tree having a cold one while reading.
I mean, what can be safer than travelling the world without even getting onto a bicycle, or into a car, or a plane? That’s what a good book does, if you did not know.
Besides, as Fennel Hudson says in A Meaningful Life, “December, being the last month of the year, cannot help but make us think of what is to come.”
But non-stop alcohol and drug binging, all sorts of debauchery and orgies of unprotected sex, drunken driving, and wastage of money we don’t have can surely not be part of ‘think(ing) of what is to come.’
These are certainly not the measures we should be taking to slow down and revitalise, to forget for a minute about the pounding hustle and bustle, to forget about our enslaving bosses and crazy deadlines.
Not at all.
