Running Away From Home

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Photo: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

Covid-19 vaccination. We’re busy rolling sleeves to get the jab, so that we can go back to the, before pandemic normal of running away from home.

Because of lockdown, we cannot run away and go to work, coffee shops, the boardwalk, restaurants, the gym, church, swimming pool, weddings, naming ceremonies, lavish funerals, the pub, Oktoberfest in Munich, concerts, jazz festivals, basketball and soccer, Olympic games, or just sit in the town square and watch people playing chess.

It’s not called running away from home. We should not even entertain that notion. Home improvement, furniture and other industries that thrive on the assumption that home is where we want to be, will be out of business.

We vaccinate because we fear death, which is ironic since we don’t know anything about it, but we know a lot about depression caused by the inability to run away from home.

We need to run away because home is claustrophobic. It’s a confined space, not infinite like the beach, the woods or a public park. Ironically, we don’t feel contained on the platform waiting for the train and inside it, because of the destination. Infinity.

This is another ‘written podcast’ from Nonqaba waka Msimang. 

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