Reflections
June, 2020
1st June
Reminiscing about the night lights of Kampala.
3rd June
Regret
Noun
/rɪˈɡret/
a feeling of sadness about a situation, especially something that you wish you had not done
(Cambridge English Dictionary)
5th June
Melanin
This is in appreciation of all the melanin poppin queens who have embraced their dark skin and kinky hair. You set the standards of beauty against which all should be measured.
17th June
Introspection, self-forgiveness, and healing
This was a tough lesson to learn and may take years to master: the need for introspection and self-forgiveness, no matter who or what we believe to be the source of our unhappiness and insecurities.
19th June
Abyss
I attended a number of classes with students who effortlessly quoted Nietzsche and Descartes while I struggled to define philosophy. Their conversations motivated me to register for Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Epidemiology, and causation and the sciences courses when they were offered at the university. Thus began my on and off love affair with philosophy.
Some readings remain incomprehensible but one of my lecturers, a very brilliant fellow, assured me early on that philosophers are wont to write long and winding articles and I should not let this deter me from reading philosophical texts.
I now take the opportunity to quote Nietzsche from the book “Beyond good and evil”. I readily confess that I jumped straight to chapter iv and may one day make it through the entire contents of the book.
“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”
21st June
Plus size goddess
22nd June
Beauty for ashes
“Dhako en onget ma umo ran, gi fuo, gi dhier.”
I heard this Luo saying about the role of a wife in the family oftentimes during my childhood. A woman is like a covering that conceals her husband’s shortcomings from prying eyes and safeguards the secrets of her marital home.
Growing up, this sounded like a very noble role but I have observed firsthand the heavy toll it takes on many women. Some burdens are too heavy to bear alone and boundary lines must be drawn because the consequences of keeping some family secrets, such as persistent physical and emotional abuse, can be fatal.
22nd June
Mug shot
I spent the better part of the day reading about and looking at hundreds of police mug shots on Google.
I had no apparent reason for engaging in this exercise but it eventually inspired me to paint a mug shot with a hip background, quite dissimilar to the stark backgrounds of police mug shots.
22nd June
Rookie mistake
I have had this African beauty in my bucket list of things to embroider ever since I chanced upon her poster on the internet over ten years ago.
Unfortunately, I have just realized that I made the wrong choice of fabric for this embroidery and will have to start all over again with the right fabric.
Yes, sometimes we make wrong choices in embroidery as with life, and must decide whether to continue along the wrong path or start afresh.
23rd June
Random shapes, random thoughts and a splash of color
24th June
Work in progress
I find it interesting how many of us fall in love with the whole-package and then spend the rest of our lives trying to mold our lovers into our idealized images of Adam.