Bad Luck Follows Me

Tumie Modise | Monday May 23, 2016 16:01

I’ve always believed that a person makes their own luck and has an element of control over their own misfortune. Here lately, however, I seem to have run into a streak of incredible incidents that shakes my belief system and makes me wonder if I need to knock on wood after all. But I still believe that witchcraft is nothing but ancient village scare tactics.

Bad things happen in threes - at least that is what I’ve always heard from those more superstitious than me. So, where do I begin? Last week I was trending, and trending for all the wrong reasons! While trending isn’t exactly a bad thing, there is a thin line between fame and sleaze. As the gods of bad luck would have it, I got on the verge of the latter category, only common sense saved me on the very last minute, just before I could make a complete fool of myself, on radio nogal!  People are complex creatures.

The Monday morning, after Mother’s Day to be precise, I updated a post about mothers and parenting in general.  Nothing out of the ordinary, I do that all the time, my friends can testify. As I will repeat even here, today’s societal ills are best prevented even before they happen. Prevention beats cure any day, don’t argue! So what happened that day is I dared challenge parents like me to tighten security around their kids, danger indeed lurks everywhere, even in our homes! Trying has never ever hurt anyone. I then went on to give examples, shared a few tips which so far seem to be working for me. I am not a poster girl for any gender movement, though it wouldn’t hurt to be one some day. Our children desperately need to look up to something or somebody; it is something no one should ever be coerced to apologise for!

So three days later the proverbial pudding hit the ceiling! All of a sudden I was under heavy attack and criticism, new swear words were experimented and fashioned on me. I should copyright them, particularly the one that likened me to a dog. The ‘insult’ came complete with a picture of yours truly and a dog, sitting side-by-side. Ironically, I love dogs; I cannot live without dogs in my home.  I feel safer and secure around dogs. Dogs are loyal; their love is unconditional. As a kid, I have spent a few nights with my favourite puppy in its kennel; sometimes I would sneak it into my room. So no offence was taken at all!

Misery loves company. Unhappy people are only happy when everybody else is unhappy. Negativity feeds people’s souls, that is why as a country, even after 50 years of independence we are still going around in circles, we are not really achieving anything and we have nothing to show for that half decade of so-called peace and tranquility. We are not at peace at all. If a stranger can just wake up one morning and without provocation, stir brouhaha over nothing, entangle you in their anger, it is indeed a mockery of tranquility and all that it stands for. But I have seen worse, this is nothing.

Like that day many moons ago back when I was a child. On that Sunday, we were commanded to slaughter one of the chickens. I gladly stepped up to the challenge; I can’t recall whether I did the chasing.  As I placed the blade on the cock’s neck, It did not struggle; it just fixed its eyes on me. I set it free, someone else did the deed. So it still haunts me.

So this other time I was in a Home Economics lab during mock practicals. Practical labs during exam time are like hospital emergency rooms on weekends! I always nailed preparation time, to this day I do. Mrs. Rawther taught me well. My sponge cake ready to bake, I walked with it to the oven.

A classmate was freaking out, she had mistaken powdered soap for bicarbonate of Soda for her cake mix and time was not on her side anymore.  As I opened the oven, to my horror it was off! I had pre-heated it the moment I entered the lab.  Calmly I got a lighter, switched on the gas and BOOM, my hair and eye lashes caught fire! Could have been worse, much WORSE! That’s three, isn’t it? So what else can happen? But things can always be worse. What doesn’t break you makes you stronger so I just continue to count my blessings.