No More Lemons

I guess I was tempting fate with the subject of this week’s letter that had been inspired by  Will Santino’s cartoon that I thought captured what we are all feeling.

The plan was to explore that whilst the mental health and resilience initiatives that have exploded over the last year are immensely powerful and well-received, we must also ensure that we don’t shift all the burden to the individual. Sometimes, you are incapable of making more lemonade. Sometimes, what needs to be turned off is the lemon-shooting machine. The solutions rest at the level of strategy, organisation and process. They are sociological rather than psychological. In doing this I was hoping to provoke some thoughts about how we might lead our societies and organisations differently, that in doing so we may find different ways of running our organisations and so alleviate the pressures that we all face, rather than a singular focus on strengthening the individual’s capacity to deal with what is, sometimes, unmanageable. And we were going to do this, through the lens of political anthropologist James Suzman recently published Work: A History of How We Spend our Time.

As soon as I concluded that ‘no more lemons’ would be today’s theme, the mildly ‘off’ feeling that I’d had since Wednesday evening erupted into its full feverish glory. I don’t yet know whether or not I have Covid. I am waiting on the test results. I snack on a nartjie every two hours and high five myself each time I can taste the tart citrus. Not scientific, I know, but hey one must find solace where one can.

As the fever took hold, I definitely started to feel like a ‘ballie’ (for my non-South African readers, an ‘old guy’) and so I was grateful when a good friend sent me Van Pletzen and The Kiffness’s latest video “I’m Not a Ballie, I’m a Baller”. I still don’t feel like a baller, but it’s always fun to see the craziness that happens when hip-hop meets a very particular South African sub-culture.

In any event, my body and brain are in so space to provide you with useful insight today, so I am going to leave it here for today. I felt it was important to let you know that I wasn’t going to pull off a full newsletter today and not just disappear on you. Equally,  I would be doing myself, and you, a disservice if I tried to push on through and write something. I need the rest and so that’s me for now. I hope to be back to our usual fare next week where I can introduce you properly to Suzman’s work.

All the best

Karl

PS: The Kiffness enjoyed a lot of buzz at the beginning of the year, for their club remix of Bilal Göregen’s rendition of a Finnish folk song. David Scott, founder of The Kiffness commented that “This song for me, is a true testament to the human spirit. The fact that we’re seeing Chinese children vibing to a Finnish folk tune, performed by a Turkish street drummer, made viral by a vibing cat, remixed by a South African & currently charting in Italy, is truly amazing. No matter where we are from, I truly believe that we have way more in common than what divides us. My wish for 2021 is to give more energy to the things that bring us together.” That seems like a good place to end. I’m headed back to bed. See you next week.

(This letter was first written on 27 June 2021)