Real Shit

Real.

‘Actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact: not imagined or supposed.’

Not artificial. Not fraudulent. Not illusory. Real.

That is a word that often scares people, because sometimes that which is real, is not pleasant.

TuPac Shakur said ‘There should be a class on sex education, a real sex-education class. There should be a class on police brutality. There should be a class on apartheid. There should be a class on why people are hungry. But there are not. There are classes on gym. Physical education. Let’s learn volleyball.’

Now that is real.

As I look around, I see girls who have just reached high school, falling pregnant. Some walk around with their big bellies, proud of the fact that they are with child. And yes, a child is a blessing, this is a gift from God, but surely it cannot be right for a child to be raising a child. It cannot be right for a young girl to show off her pregnant belly to the world, when she does not fully know what this world is about. It cannot be right for a child to give life, when she does not fully comprehend this thing called life. This is real.

Those who are supposed to protect us often harm us. Those who are supposed to take care of us, are often the ones who injure us. Those who are supposed to be our light, are the ones who bring about the darkness. Yet, these things are pushed under the rug.  They are not brought to light. And until it is, it will remain that reality that we fear. This is real.

We were all given this world to live in. To bloom. To fly to greater heights. To live and to give back to this Earth that we have been blessed with. Yet, at times we think we are superior and can treat people in any manner we want to. There are some who manipulate others without feeling bad about their actions. We waste, we destroy, we take for granted that which we have been given. We do not value the soil from which we come. This is real.

Our brothers and sisters go hungry, out on the streets with no food to eat, but we pass them by, hoping that a silent prayer to the most high will change their fate. We hope that this will be enough. Yet, we do not pray with conviction. We do not want to get our hands dirty either. It takes too much effort to stop and offer them something to eat. So we pass them by, hoping that the silent prayer will put us at ease. This is real.

The real shit goes unnoticed. The superficial is exalted.

And so I ask myself, why do we let that which is real go by unnoticed? Why do not do something about it? In our own capacity, privately, why do we not do what we can?

Because when we look at it, there is always something that needs to be done. There is always something that we can do.

The real does not have to go unnoticed. The superficial does not need to be exalted.

This is real.


Take Care


Miss Stone