Aweh, My Dearly Beloved Fellow Ruminants & Groupies
As the year winds down, it’s time to reflect on 2024 and set intentions for 2025. How we approach these reflections depends on our worldview, attitudes, and, of course, the endless stream of self-help advice on “living our best lives.”
Let me start with gratitude—because that’s what the gurus say we should do. I won’t bore you with an exhaustive list, but here are some highlights from 2024. I have a wonderful wife and two thriving sons. Ollie, our eldest, is one exam away from his law degree. Connor, our tech wizard and budding archer, completed his second year in computer science and represented South Africa at the world archery championships in Turkey. (Yes, we found an excellent excuse for a fabulous holiday.)
Fortunately, we are financially secure in a country where so many struggle. I’m writing this from our holiday home in Southbroom, gazing at the Indian Ocean with immense gratitude. While there’s no shame in being poor, this anarcho-capitalist must admit, the alternative is preferable.
Nerine is the chair of the growing and thriving radio station Hot 102.7. I get to be the insignificant other and arm candy for Nerine at the many events and amazing concerts Hot arranges. To observe this radio station growing and the positive energy coming from a thriving and growing business is a joy.
I worked hard this year, and I am grateful to the Wits Business School for breathing life into this old dog. Our master’s program has kept me incredibly busy, and I’m proud of the progress we have made. Our Secunda reports were published in October, and our peer-reviewed green hydrogen paper was published in December. This was the culmination of a lot of work. So, it has been a productive year.
But self-help culture often stops here—with an airbrushed shop window of “living your best life.” This is false. As M. Scott Peck writes in The Road Less Traveled:
“Life is difficult. This is a great truth… because once we truly know that life is difficult, we transcend it.”
Difficulties don’t disappear with gratitude lists. In October 2022, my family and I placed my father, now 83, in a dementia care facility. His Alzheimer’s disease has worsened significantly, and while the care at Livewell is exceptional, coming to terms with this disease remains profoundly challenging.
Our publications have also generated a complex response, and it has been more difficult than I imagined. It is perhaps easier to keep your head below the parapet.
Sitting around the dinner table with our two boys and their wonderful girlfriends I was introduced to the concept of manifestation.
Manifesting is the art of turning your dreams into reality by aligning your thoughts, emotions, and actions with your desires. By focusing on positivity and believing in your limitless potential, you invite opportunities, abundance, and joy into your life.
This practice harmonizes your chakras, fostering balance and inner peace, while also reducing stress, which can naturally improve digestion and reduce farting. It’s a powerful reminder that the universe is ready to support you in creating a flatulence-free life beyond your wildest dreams.
For Christmas, I received the manifestation colouring in book which will help me to manifest more. I have learned that “Om” is the mystic syllable that when spoken or chanted is regarded as the entire universe. This is powerful stuff.
When we manifest with gratitude and joy, we intentionally cultivate the energy we want to attract because ultimately, what we think, we become.
Could it be that the mistake I made in 2024 was that I did not manifest enough? Should this be my resolution for 2025? Could I become what I think? I think I can solve Alzheimer’s disease and climate change.
And so, my dearly beloved ruminants, as we saunter into 2025 armed with gratitude, ambition, and perhaps a touch of misguided optimism, let’s remember: life is messy, flatulence happens, and the universe is as unpredictable as Julius Malema at a press conference talking about Jacob Zuma. Manifest your dreams, chant your “Oms,” and colour your way to enlightenment—but don’t forget to laugh at the absurdity of it all. After all, if we can’t solve Alzheimer’s or climate change, we can at least solve the mystery of why life insists on being so relentlessly positive.
Self-help advice may be everywhere, but mine? Mine is the best. People are saying it’s the best—truly incredible, like nothing you’ve ever seen before.
Thanks for reading, as always.
Regards
Bruce
Ruminant Pink Friday 