Wise words..........

Since this months issue of the Matopos newsletter has been released at the beginning of the year,we thought what better way than to start this new year than get wise words from a piece written from one of Rotaract Matopos members who is currently residing in USA, Tebogo G.H Ndlovu who gives us wise words in her beautiful piece titled "The misnomer of ‘better’"

The misnomer of ‘better’

Words of advice for my mirror image..

I see you, Lady In The Mirror

 Ever concerned about Being Better

 I’ll give you a hand then

 This is what being better is Not

Being better is not having the last say in a quarrel

 Or delivering the blow that kills

 Being better is not having the upper hand

 Or conniving to stay that way

 Being better is not owning

 The appeal of a coarse voice

 Or the sharpness of a sleek tongue.

 Being better is not yelling the loudest

 Or expertly throwing daggers with your eyes

 Or how large your fist is

 Or the charisma in your gait.

Being better isn’t the price of your perfume

 Or its scent carrying with it pomp and circumstance

 Being better isn’t in your last name

 -Your tribal inheritance

 Or which chunk of the country you hail from

 Being better isn’t lording your wealth over others

 Or using the sound of your accent

 To label them lowly.

Being better isn’t in how well

 You manage your high heels

 Or how far you’ve travelled

 From your hometown

 It isn’t in being a certain race

 Or boasting a certain complexion within a race

 Being better isn’t reserved for those of the first world

 Nor is it lodged in your background.

Being better isn’t being the best

 Or being the worst

 Or abiding in the security of mediocrity

 Being better isn’t about Comparison

 But about Exchange.

 Being better is understanding

 How common you are

 How fragile good fortune is

 And that chance -like music- is universal

 A gift awarded us by the grace of God.

Being better is stainless elation

 When your best friend gets married first

 Being better is admiration

 When your nemesis wins the race

 Being better is blameless pride

 When your sister succeeds

 In changing the world.

Is there someone you don’t like?

 And for no particular reason?

 Being better is neutrality with all

 -If not outright fondness

 For that stranger who could be

 A beautiful person

 Believing

 That everybody is magnificent

 Acknowledging

 That your worst enemy is only so

 Because of the weight of his worst days

 Extract the color of discrimination from your vision

 View the world in black-and-white

 For you are the same as your worst enemy

 And his too

 -You are human.

Copyright © 2012 Tebogo Ndlovu

First published ; http://theamateursquill.wordpress.com

Second publication;   http://scribbledn.blogspot.com