On a dark and stormy night, on the 4th of September 1981, a star was born.
That star’s name was…
Beyonce Knowles. And this …
Is not her story.
For exactly a year later, on a similarly dark and stormy night, in a land far, far away… a child was born. This time, it was the cry of a baby boy that broke the uneasy nocturnal peace in the urban jungle of Nairobi.
That boy was me.
My claim to fame is being born exactly a year after Beyonce Knowles. Maybe that explains my barely repressed urge to get on stage and shake my butt in front of thousands of adoring fans.
But I digress.
I grew up in the rough, backstreets of Nairobi. They made me who I am today: tough, mean and rugged. (I had a beard by 9. I still keep it, but I’m thinking I’ll shave it soon because it’s graying rapidly, as my father rightly said it would). Those hard years prepared me for life in Pretoria, which is the capital city of South Africa (take that, Johannesburg). And that’s where I’m currently based.
Okay. Jokes aside. The true story about me. Yes, I was born in Kenya, but now I live in South Africa. I’m a practicing Catholic (I was Protestant until the age of 5), and a non-marrying member of Opus Dei. Opus Dei is a Catholic institution that aims to bring heaven on earth by bringing God into the ordinary (banal) everyday things. I love reading. I write (probably a bit too much) because its my peculiar gifting. If God had consulted me beforehand, I’d have asked him to make me the next Michael Jordan (the real b-ball GOAT. Take that, Lebron).
I overthink everything. During my waking hours, you’ll likely in a public library or coffee shop, thinking too deeply about something that’s probably not worth the thought.
Weird Things About Me
- I hate small talk, but after studying some books about the art of making small talk, I’ve gotten so good that people think I’m a natural. But honestly, I’m not.
- I dislike phone calls. Both making them, and taking them. Apparently, it’s an INFJ thing.
- Wide open spaces are my happy place. I’ve never been to a desert, so I don’t know how I’d feel there. But I love beaches, forests, plains…anyplace where you can see all the way to the horizon.
- I can watch children playing for hours, so long as I don’t have to play with them myself. They remind me that there’s goodness and beauty in this dark and troubled world.
- If I spend an entire day indoors, I get situational depression. I have to get out the house and move – even if only for 20 minutes a day.
- When I was young and foolish, I liked dogs. But now that I’m old and foolish, I like cats more. They’re far less admin.