Thursday, 15 January: Comfortable chats with CS Lewis

What do I do for 'last minute 'nite time reading' when I am feeling a little overwhelmed by my responsiblities as I have during the past week? I trot over to the booklined guest room and take down a slim volume or two of CS Lewis. It may be Mere Christianity (which is not mere at all to Lewis or to me) or The Problem of Pain. It may be to journey with Clive Stapleton along the path of beauty and joy to finally find God on top of a London bus in Surprised by Joy. It may be to chuckle and squirm a little while reading The Screwtape Letters (am I really as mean and small-minded as that?) or to shed a silent tear reading once again, A grief observed.

Now I admire many great authors - their powers of imagination, dialogue, description and plot - but they don't make me feel like settling in a comfy wingback chair and saying, 'Oh, Sir, do you know I just feel the same as you!" Or "Could you explain the Trinity or predestination again to me, just using easy, everyday words?" Or " Won't you tell me once again what happened when Aslan sang creation into being or when the wardrobe door opened that very first time?"


Most of you, I am sure, have seen the bittersweet movie, Shadowlands, with Anthony Hopkins playing the slightly awkward English bachelor and Oxbridge don transformed by unexpected love. Or Debra Winger playing the ascerbic Joy Davidman, the doomed heroine. I have seen it twice, wept and decided that the love of that unlikely pair far surpasses that of Iseault and Tristran, Romeo and Juliet, Heathcliff and Catherine. But I sometimes wonder what CS would have said about the saccharine subtitle on this movie poster and his great love reduced to a blockbuster celluloid? Probably he would have chuckled, sucked on his pipe and made a dry and witty comment.

The scene in which Aslan is put to death, offering himself up of his own accord, bound and tied down in his majesty by the screeching denizens of the White Witch never fails to move me. And of course, his wonderful resurrection and great leap of triumph. And all this without irreverance or trivialising biblical truths!

Did you know that it was the character of Aslan, the imaginative type of the Lion of Judah (Rev 5:),that persuaded Joy Davidman, a self-declared atheistic communist of Jewish extraction, to become a Christian? Joy wrote: "God had been stalking me for a very long time...All my defences...went down. And God came in. When it was over, I found myself on my knees, praying. I think I must have been the world's most astonished atheist."

Now, if you will excuse me, I had a really hectic day. So I am going to settle down with CS and "The Four Loves" and just dip in here and there...

Friday, 9 December: Painters, alert! African skies at dawn

I popped the camera into one pocket and the dogs' ball into another before leaving for my walk at 4.45am this morning. These shell-pink and pale turquoise skies on the corner of Marais and Roper Streets are an invitation to be painted. And the dogs' had fun with the ball.

Chasing an extra-bouncy rubber ball was warm work.


Have a good day watching skies with Skywatch.

Thursday, 8 January, '09: 'Hello' in eleven official languages

Maria, who lives in Poland and is a veteran blogger in more ways than one, suggested that I add a Translator to my blog. Which I am doing...in process, as they say!

With that, the idea was sparked of chatting to you about the language policy of South Africa. In 1994, when the first democratic elections were held and the nation shifted, without bloodshed, to an entirely new Government of National Unity, the language issue was a thorny one, fraught with past bitterness and injustice. Previously we had a bilingual policy with two official languages: English and Afrikaans. This priviledged mainly white South Africans and excluded all other South African languages and their speakers. With reform came the entrenchment of language rights in the new Constitution of South Africa (1996). It was decided to give official status to all eleven South African languages. This development brought with it the usual hot public debate ranging from praise, optimism and hope to anger, cynicism and disparagement.

What has happened since?

Well, in my view, English has largely become the lingua franca of public discourse - certainly, the language of the formal workplace, education, government and commerce. But the multilingual policy, its intentions and the spirit thereof, are conciliatory and of merit.

Often our colloquial language is a mixture. I love to listen to South Africans chatting animatedly: moving from one language to another, peppering conversation with an approving 'Yebo!' (Yes!)

On my morning walk I am regularly hailed with: 'Morning, Mama' (Mother). Or more likely: 'Morning, Gogo' (Granny). Or on really 'bad hair' days, with 'Morning, MaGogo' (Old Granny)!

So, Hi there! in eleven languages:

Sanibonani (isiZulu)
Molo (isiXhosa)
Hallo (Afrikaans)
Thobela (Sepedi)
Dumela(Setswana)
Lumela (Sesotho)
Abusheni (Xitsonga)
Sanibona (siSwati)
Avuwani(Tshivenda)
Salibonani (isiNdebele)
Hello (English)

7 January, '09: Back to work

Suddenly it is 7 January and (Oh, panic, panic!) I haven't managed a blog. On Monday I went back to work. The lines have been humming ever since. I have seen students, submitted an abstract for an international conference, checked chapters of theses and collected draft chapters for a new book which I am editing. But fortunately, I work from home and only visit the campus once or twice a week. In such balmy summer weather I have moved my laptop from the study onto the table on the verandah. I challenge anyone to equal such an idllyic workplace.

However, today I was on campus and stopped by the main hall to take a quick pic of the Van Wijk Building with the inspiring banner calling students to change the world through education.


Here is a close up with the Great Man, our own Nelson Mandela, role model of endurance and of reconciliation.

1 January 2009: Voorspoedige Nuwe Jaar/Prosperous New Year !

'C'mon, Gal! One, Two Three!'

'We wish all bloggers (and their dogs and any other furry or feathered friends) a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!'

And? It's our blog birthday here at the Cottage too. We loved meeting every one of you and look forward with anticipation to sharing in 2009.