Issue: We The People 22

For this edition of We the People, we invited a cross-section of writers into our shared moment of introspection as we came to the end of the year. Each was tasked with recounting a significant event in their lives and the change it wrought in them and others. The brief said,

“At the end of this process, we should have a picture of the collective (we) as who we are and hope to be; people. In it, we hope to document not just our history or present but to create a record of hope for ourselves; in stressful uncertain days.”

What I expected, at the least, was maybe to read about war, poverty, significant sickness, or life-threatening events, the core of history books. Instead, what we received is a picture of every day. We received an understanding of how mundane and seemingly benign occurrences trigger decisions that multiply into unexpected change and how a stone rolling downhill eventually becomes a cataclysmic event.

When we read A Dance with Charisma, we come face to face with our love for charisma. We applaud those who can move the crowds and are drawn to them even as we suffer the disappointment that comes with their blowing hot air. What happens to the bodies that carry that failure for days, months and years?

Who Repairs Broken Gold assesses the understanding of manhood and its meaning. How does a man navigate everything he is supposed to be within the constraints of the society he exists, and what does society do with that man in the context of these? What, then, do we do with men unable to navigate these demands, who are faced with a sense of inadequacy and are left, in despair, in need of repair?

Deciding life goes back to high school and investigates the knee-jerk reactions triggered by fear from verbal onslaughts from authority. We see how these words warp a child’s mind, telling them they cannot, they are not good enough even before they have tried.

The Bully takes us all the way back to primary school and the bullying of a 7-year-old. The story highlights the dangers in schools, how children hurt others, and how adults paying attention can quickly mitigate these.

Stand by Me shows how a child raised with goodness can succeed, except in a broken system. A system that destroys not by doing but by its inability to protect. What happens to an eager young adult with the weight of expectation on his shoulders and fear in his heart?

The Cost in Full declares that there is a price for ambition, anxiety, duty, and expectation. It demonstrates this in a child’s body, the author’s own. The essay deftly intertwines the medical detail with the memory of a teenager experiencing terror in their body, asking us at each step whether we know the price of our choices.

In These Are Ever Changing Times, the author looks at himself and the change in our architecture and proposes that there is a beauty in the past that we are quick to run away from. While our world advances and changes its architecture, the energy in a space is transformed. The author demonstrates in his own changes the effect that our buildings have on us, often unrecognised.

In the Company of One looks at our homes and focuses on the process of becoming. How our environments create who we are, and how easy it is to create stereotypes. It speaks too about the joy in low-income neighbourhoods juxtaposing this against the lonelier life in high-income settings. It asks questions about community and what is lost in the pursuit of plenty.

Time Happens to Us All, in simplicity, demonstrates the sacrifice that love exacts from families. With a light touch, the essay explores the complications that abound while demonstrating the humanity of the elderly. In the familiar story of caring for the old, we see the interaction between three generations of women; grandmother, mother, and daughter.

Shifting Sands talks about having children, the desire for them, the pursuit of them, and their goodness. It does so in a light-hearted laughing manner because we understand that having children upends all our belief systems, making madmen of the best of us.