Today is a rather special day in the calendar of my family and I, perhaps not for the reason we would like, but it will remain a landmark day... eight years ago we lost a father, husband, brother and son. >> My Dad, Keith Benjamin. I was planning something else for today, but events led me to this post... I've never really made this blog personal as such, apart from one or two rare posts, and I'm not about to start, but for today I'll make a concession. A couple of weeks ago it was my Birthday - and how beautiful it was, with the rain and cloud disappearing for just that day, it seemed. It was a yet another reminder of how blessed I am. I've been counting my blessings of late - being alive for one, as I was involved in what could have been a very bad car accident in pouring rain, thankfully that too is behind me, just about. The times above is when you're most acutely aware of you're own mortality, conscious of your next breath, laughing with your family - it realigns your perspective, clears away the complications, of which there are many. So today I thought I'd take stock; this past year has been both big and small for me... one 'event' that passed by without much fuss was that this, my blog, turned one year old (in mid July), but more important than that milestone, is the journey I've been on in the interim. It's a strange thing, the spirit; to say that my spirit has grown so much in the past year can mean many great things, and yet for some, can mean absolutely nothing at all. You see, the world doesn't measure greatness, or success or even development by that thing called your spirit... It really is a strange thing, both ancient, and alien to us; for those who acknowledge it anyway. It's kind of like undertaking a long arduous journey, requiring great mental and physical fortitude (as I did along with some friends earlier this year, and last year as well). At the end of it though, what are you left with aside from memories? There is no material pay-off, only your mind feels enriched, your muscles feel weaker (for a little while immediately afterwards anyway) before healing. You may even feel older, or maybe just downright tired. And yet, the investment is there, in the spirit also. And so I'll say this - this past year has been big for me personally, and the next one will be even greater. To achieve the biggest arc and the highest heights, one must pull back the arrow the full length, till only the arrowhead remains in front of the bow - when the tension is at its greatest - and with it, its potential... I've been on a deep spiritual journey, discovering what it really takes to be a man - that journey is an on going affair, and its essential, especially considering the timing of it. My tree may not be bearing much fruit right now, but I assure you it will - as is always the case when leading a spirit led life. To everyone who has read this blog, commented and liked etc, I thank you. To all my friends, both personal and professional, you support has been invaluable. Thank you to my family for your endless support, without you I'd be living on the streets right, if not for the grace of God, and to wit, my biggest thank you of to my Lord and saviour, without you, I wouldn't be living at all. Lastly, I'd like to congratulate my friend for finding the woman of his heart. Wishing Vaughan and Monique all God's richest blessings. The wedding was beautiful - may it set the tone for your future, and may you strive to reflect God's love for one another. Much Love, dear friends! Steven To all married couples: "earthly marital unions were established by God to be a type and shadow of the greater marriage between God and man"
2 Comments
The video below is simply beautiful to look at and listen to and makes for a very fitting tribute to the Man in Black. It was done by The Johnny Cash Project (follow the link to learn more). It was uploaded last year, but I only caught wind of it via a TED talk presentation as an artist engineered project involving crowd/user sourced drawings. The song featured is the timeless "Ain't no grave", this is the 2013 updated version. The song itself is as hauntingly gritty as ever and is enjoying something of a resurgence in modern pop culture. For more on Johnny Cash (1932 - 2003) visit the official site dedicated to his work and memory www.johnnycash.com [This makes up the Artsy part of the post, scroll down for the Fun part, and then the Inspiring part,if this isn't fun and inspiring already] In The Kan Competition: "Ruff Cuts" - Name a Superhero in the video... Video courtesy of ITKNetwork: Part 2 in the Comic Legends of Cape Town. This is to continue our youtube drive toward our much anticipated series currently in the works. Epic ArangiesKop Hike Here's a collage and a few video clips from our recent hike up Arangieskop - compiled by Ricky White . Note: the video is quite long. (No one could figure out what "Arangies" actually means - 'something' peak, if you know, please inform me in the comments). My first post back, and I must say there really is such a thing as "car-lag", the car version of jetlag... Anyway here's something random I wrote whilst on my travels with family and friends, along with some of what I've seen recently: Just like a drop of water or small splinter overwhelms an ant, so could one equate life defining events we experience and later describe as “pivotal” in our lives… it thusly inspired one grey haired man to exclaim, with pointed finger, “It’s all relative”. When you think back on your life you may well recognize several or more “way-points” which greatly influenced the evolution of you. Some of those points will be bright with achievement, or dark with sorrow or failure even, but the ones in between are a little more subtle - in and amongst all the boring bits. They come and go and sometimes pass us by due to untimely distraction or stubbornness on our part, when we’re so set in our ways. They may be shocking and surprising; the modern day ‘intervention’ coming to mind, or they may come in the form of a soft whisper, if we’re attentive enough to lend a spiritual ear. To some who are willing to see, to look past the obvious, morsels of treasure could well be found. In great detective stories they talk about ‘knowing what to look for’ – and the same could be said in the case of ‘life moments’ or just life in general… if you’re in that place where you’re either looking for change, affirmation of something or a blunt tap to steer you in the right direction. If you’re looking for it, whatever it may be, you’ll see it, nestling within simple conversation, or the words unspoken. Sometimes, it’s an event itself – maybe not even happening to you, perhaps you’re only an observer, learning from the lessons of others… As a writer, it’s easy to observe, but getting involved and allowing myself to be moved by the things I see and people I meet are essential, fundamental. Our evolution and growth depend on it. It doesn’t always come easily, because sometimes we can be too settled, distracted, or maybe we’re afraid of change or comfortable in our ways that we just tend to get in our own way… Anyway, a great story inevitably surrounds a great character (insert yourself here), overcoming, achieving, and most of all, living. You may not always get what you want, but in becoming the best character, you must first overcome... to be forged. Special Mention: Also: Congrats to Tebs and Bontle... simply beautiful! Yes people, this was a two wedding hit and run trip! (*All pics in this post taken by me... - And I thank you!*) Image from snorttumblr A short piece on drugs, hallucinations, hazy dreams, being swallowed by the barrel of a gun, and a man thinking he's a dragon. This story was not inspired by my life events, just so you know, though felt it is quite relevant to Cape Town right now (and much of the world for that matter. I grew up pretty insulated from the bad and the ugly, however there are those quite close to me who came in for more than just a bit of a scrape. Although I must add, the reoccurring dream - that's mine. The White Line Short fiction by Steven Benjamin The man: His stare wasn’t empty; instead it was filled with years and years of what was best left forgotten... Every red vein in the former milky whites of his eyes though, which over those years of abuse had turned a faded yellow, told of a more material ruin, like glazed windows that would never again reveal what lay in the shadows on the inside. His dried crusty lips quivered. His gaze fell down, catching sight of his own trembling hands. And then the deep familiar hurt welled up in his chest. His mind drifting to the thought of a woman he once knew – who once called herself his friend – and how she’d hung on in those final minutes. He wondered about that; what hanging on to life must feel like. From where he sat, it was all a little sad… a sad quiet; no more talking, no more pleading, because a life had been terminated, swept aside, and there was little fan fair, little commemoration. So anticlimactic... As if someone had asked him “… may I live?”, and he’d looked down and answered: “No.” But instead of that word, he’d used his hands. The stare, the coffee table and the R381, ‘Oh yes, that road…’ he remembered it all now – was it the right one? Just like the hurt brimming inside, so came that old guilty feeling, settling like foam. He knew; he saw and he knew what would make it all go away. It came to him like a dream; ‘oh yes, that dream’ he remembered that too now… it sometimes happens that way; you’re thinking of something else and then suddenly fumes of recollection of a different world wafts in… My Dream: It was about time running out, and of course, just running away… I suppose it’s always something like that, isn’t it? A gravel, dead stretch of road, somewhere in the Karoo, wait, no, there was grass, so it had to have been further north, closer to where the flowers grow and bloom in spring… or was it south, the R353 maybe, from Leeu Gamka. Only, this time there was no flowers, and it was in the dark, at night. Sometimes I’d pass by a windmill – just the silhouette mind you – funny that, since there was no moonlight. In some of them there’d be two lights heading directly toward me, growing brighter in the darkness. In those ones I’d always wake up just before the light engulfed me; just before impact. Mm, there were never any stars or moon in the sky… that’s how I knew I was dreaming, even in the clearest night sky: nothing, just blank, every single time. I knew what it was all about… The getaway: One of his greatest fears arising from the unseen depths within him, percolated to the surface every so often. This was all he was good at, and, it was the worst part of him. It was a way of getting in and getting away at the same time – his only escape. It committed those around him to believe they knew him, “his kind” – whatever that means. But the few he trusted believed it was a necessary evil. Once he’d even tried liberating himself with Muti – he didn’t believe in it mind you, but when you scrape bottom, you’ll be willing to try anything once, sometimes, just to get a leg up. When you’re down, you’re really down. Sometimes when your brain is on a ‘go slow’ it can convince you of the strangest things. He knew the lie he was living had matured over years and taken root within a hidden truth – one he kept very secret. A small confession he betrayed only to himself, and only in the darkest, lowest moments – the truth that he actually liked it. Was it really a revelation? No, it’s not like he was alone in this struggle. Be it lines, holes, rocks, pipes, money, smoke; everyone has their fix, governed only by the tick of the everyday clock. He looked down at his watch… the hands of time ticking away as always. Time. He was beginning to make sense of it again, slowly, the same issues, the same old habits. Time. He’d lost quite a lot of that. read more... What is it about mountains, rivers, valleys, cliffs, jungles, frozen no-mans-lands and every other area most would regard as unlivable? What is it that draws us closer and makes us forsake all rationality and venture off into the desert to climb a dune and listen to the sounds of silence? A few days ago Sir Ranulph Fiennes (former SAS Special forces captain, second cousin to actors Ralph and Joseph, author of The Feather Men - which was turned into a film starring Clive Owen and Robert De Niro) departed Cape Town on yet another expedition. Setting sail for Antarctica aboard the ice strengthened Agulhas, their mission: to traverse the frozen continent in the dead of winter (a feat previously regarded by all authorities who cared, as impossible - a veritable suicide mission as the human body was not made to withstand such conditions - the entire trek will be conducted in pitch darkness because by the time they get there, the south pole will be in the season of no sunlight). Apparently technology has advanced sufficiently to allow the six man team the "go-ahead" nod by the commonwealth. So it becomes a "slightly-less-than-suicide mission". Among his many feats, summiting Everest on his 3rd attempt being one of them (at 65yrs of age), he and a small team completed the Transglobe some 30 yrs ago circumnavigating the globe by passing over the North & South poles - and remain the only ones to have done so (its in the Guinness book of world records). Although this is surely their most dangerous challenge. Team member Anton Bowring (63) stated this on his blog "It will be extraordinary if something bad doesn't happen during the crawl across 2,400 miles of ice in temperatures of -70°C and perpetual darkness where crevasses can swallow up a 25-ton bulldozer in the blink of a frosted eye."
Another adventurer and Laureus Award winner/Committee member, my countryman now residing in Swiss country, Mike Horn - He won the award for circumnavigating the globe unassisted along the the equator - is currently conducting his Pangaea Expeditions project. This initiative takes young people on adventures to highlight the plight of the world and open the eyes of the young to the magnificence that exists waaay off the beaten track - a world which they will inherit, a world in desperate need of protection and preservation. Of course these men are at the extreme end of the spectrum. For most of us, the spirit of adventure entails a hike up a mountain or a week long camping/road trip, bundu-bashing and star gazing among other things. And you don't need to be the next Erden Eruç, Nellie Bly, Bear Grylls, Freya Stark, Amelia Erhart et al. to feel itchy feet every now and then. "... The second one, it was like we was both back in older times and I was on horseback goin' through the mountains of a night. Goin' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin'. Never said nothin' goin' by. He just rode on past... and he had his blanket wrapped around him and his head down and when he rode past I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn the way people used to do and I could see the horn from the light inside of it. 'Bout the color of the moon. And in the dream I knew that he was goin' on ahead and he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there. And then I woke up..." -- No Country for old Men, 2007 -Article by Steven Benjamin. The links to Ranulph Feinnes and Mike Horn's official websites: http://www.ranulphfiennes.co.uk/ http://www.mikehorn.com/en/mike-horn/ Why I write... Posted a few days ago, here's a piece I wrote on 'Why I write...' published on Shinazy Linda's blog BOBB - 'Bitchin old Boomer Babe'. Click HERE
For this week we turn our attention to Jason Hayden, Photographer, Oceanographer, and in his spare time, rock climber... I won't get into the whole "is photography art?" debate, because quite frankly, I believe it is - and I'm not alone. Without further ado though, lets look at the evidence through the lens of our main protagonist, Mr Hayden: photos by Jason Hayden (obviously) Mini Biography I got hooked on photography back in 2002, in the birthplace of some of the most phenomenal photographers, and one of the most photogenic cities in the world, NYC. I attended the Nikon School of photography there, and began to shoot EVERYTHING. In 2003 I decided to pursue my life long dream of becoming an oceanographer. Unfortunately this put my photography on the back burner for a while. Full frame digital cameras finally began to rival the quality of film, and I got drawn back into photography. Once again, I find myself photographing one of the most photogenic cities in the world, with natural beauty that just cant be been rivaled, Cape Town. I have traveled to over 20 countries in the last two years and Cape Town is by far the most beautiful city I have ever seen. Q & A: - What model camera do you use/ What would you like to use in future? I am currently using a 5D MKiii, and in the future I would like to use a Canon 5D MKiii..They are fantastic cameras. I am also starting to include video in my repertoire, and would love to get a RED Epic camera. Check out a sample of a time lapse I did, Empty Places On My Own! from jason hayden on Vimeo. - What's your favorite time of day? I enjoy photographing bugs and around 16:30 they start slowing down just long enough for me to get a decent shot. So between 16:30 and 19:30 is my favorite time of day..When I can drag myself out of bed before sunrise it is also EPIC! - If you had to have breakfast with 3 famous people, who would they be? I would say Ansel Adams..But having breakfast with a guy who has been dead for so long might not be a good idea..I might just be put off my bacon. So I guess it would be Thomas Shahan (http://thomasshahan.com/), Brian Skerry (http://www.brianskerry.com/) and Rob Whitworth (*see below*). - A random favorite quote of yours (something you said or something someone else said) V for Vendetta (2005): Nasoj: aka JASON HAYDEN the MANboy himself - What do you love about Cape Town, aside from the views? The diversity! Cape Town has such a diversity in people, fauna, flora and marine environments. It is a place where diversity is truly a blessing.
Thank you Jason for sharing your talent with us... It occurred to me that there are no Creepy Crawly photos - perhaps we can do a follow up piece in a couple of weeks... ... And, just because I can and because its cool (and mind boggling), I've uploaded the time lapse video by Rob Whitworth, Enjoy and have an awesome week! A quick look at my home city of Cape Town. Since most see the daytime shots, I decided to go the opposite route... enjoy! (sorry no, I did not take these pics, I just found them, I was lazy in this regard I admit... hehe)
|
[Banner illustration by Joel Kanar]
WRITING
|