If you were having coffee with me I would be happy to have you visit my these tangle of words. So, the other week I broke my favourite coffee mug and this week the kettle broke. As I wait for the water to boil, I am sitting here pondering how on earth we lived life without kettles.
A watched pot never boils but before it broke the transparent kettle made the process of waiting for the water to boil a meditative process looking at the swirls and ripples highlighted by an eerie blue light. So you see you could watch a kettle boil, and yes I know that the expression isn’t meant to be taken literally, lets’s just take it as a reflection on our mindsets and the fickle nature of what is versus mindsets.
If you were having coffee with me I would tell you that I have been pondering a lot over mindsets as it was a point which was raised repeatedly over a Litfest symposium on Black History Month on how our Traditional Knowledge Systems seem to not be commonly accepted as authoritative when compared to Modern (read that as Western) Knowledge Systems. An interesting point that was raised was how the pandemic had taken us back to our roots (both literally and metaphorically) people became more receptive to the idea of traditional remedies and alternative medicines in health and wellness.
How many of you have tried out steaming with different concoctions or taken all sorts of herbal tonics in the hope that it would help with the dreaded corona, whether curative or preventative? At the flick of a pandemic’s wrist, almost everyone suddenly became a herbalist of sorts. The most interesting thing is that some of these remedies have always been there, but before the pandemic mentioning the word herbs or roots seemed like quack remedies.
Sekuru Chamunorwa made an interesting remark about how we need to “swaggerise” our Traditional Remedies, package them into a product that’s trendy, stylish, acceptable. At times innovation does not simply mean reinventing the wheel but simply giving something that’s always been there a makeover, for example packing and selling a herbal tea in classy teabags.
We need to take pride in ourselves and our histories and preserve the little we still have left instead of seeking validation from beyond our shores. I have always found it crazy how the things we do go unacknowledged until the global world gives its acknowledgement and then suddenly we are falling over backwards trying to show this was something we always had… Did we have it and not know the value of what we had? Yeah, we need to work on our mindsets.
If you were having coffee with me, I would tell you that the thing about our mindsets is: are our thoughts really ours? All newspaper headlines have been on the invasion or the specialised military operation that even the dreaded pandemic has taken a backseat; when was the last time you heard anything about it?
The last thing I heard about the pandemic was our president addressing a rally saying that we need to get booster vaccines. Have you gotten yours yet?
Election rallies are weird, you find politicians going at it to say, oh my rally had more people than yours, comparing numbers like kids in the playground bragging who has the bigger TV at home. If only change could come from packing the biggest audience, meanwhile, the answer will only come out when the votes come in and still even then, as everyone knows, its not the voting that counts, it’s the vote counting.
Anyhoo the invasion effects will sweep over us too, according to our Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Monetary Policy Committee, in 2020 Zimbabwe averaged imports of a combined US$26,46million from Russia and Ukraine. Global prices are already being affected and so are ours.
The president’s mantra nyika inovakwa nevene vayo (a country should be built by its people) makes sense on this backdrop where we rely more on others than on ourselves. Its about mindset shifts, it begins with us.
What are my thoughts about all this? War is Ugly and Love is lovely.
What’s been going on in your neck of the woods?
~B
Becoming The Muse 
Love the term “swaggerise!” Swaggerization is a thing I’m seeing. $$$$. I remember the beginning of the swaggerization of yoga back in the day. Lots of fancy packaging and accessories and gimmicks to appeal to the masses with short attention spans. Now we have goat yoga and beer yoga. WTF?
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Sometimes you need to get in on the marketing and packaging gimmicks to grab the attention of those who need convincing…
Big pharmaceuticals have long since grasped this idea and you’ll see how we are more likely to trust some brands over others.
Laughing out loud over the goat yoga and beer yoga had to Google it just to check if was a real thing or just the badassification of yoga 🤣
Have an awesome one
~B
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Yeah, gas prices here in the US are already shooting up. I can’t wait to see how high they go 😦
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How much is gas where you are?
For comparison, because I kinda feel our price adjustments are more about reckless profiteering but I could be wrong 🏳
Currently ours is at USD$1.51 per litre
~B
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We’re at 4.30 a gallon at the moment.
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We were at 5.50 per gallon when I first wrote that now we at 6.30 … Today seems like there’s less traffic on the road I guess people are self regulating
~B
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Each time i catch a cold, i do steam with some herbs and it’s so releaving
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Quick question: before the pandemic did you do steaming with herbs et al
~B
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Educative and awakening message!
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Thank you for visiting and hope you took something with you.
Have an awesome one
~B
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You’re welcome. Sure I did
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No, I didn’t steam😂
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And now look at you skin glowing from steaming and imagine of you had been doing it sooner 🥳
When the world becomes normal are you going to stop?
~B
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I stopped
I only do it when i catch a cold or suspect being exposed😂
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Thanks for the coffee B! Interesting stuff with the swaggering of things to make them more commercial. I agree the pandemic has taken a back seat to the Ukraine/Russia news which is all so very sad to me. Praying for peace ♥️🙏♥️ the mask mandates have really loosened up here which is good. And gas prices are now over $5.00 a gallon and in some cities on the west coast up over $7 a gallon. Not fun stuff….. Inflation is everywhere! YIKES! We are staying afloat, and I try not to watch the news. So depressing. Have a great week!
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The swaggering of things isn’t only to make them commercial but to make them cool and acceptable…. Like let’s say we bedazzle your reins and saddle then get some custom horse accessories and your riding kit is designer matching with the “new” trends and suddenly your videos become an internet sensation and you become super super cool 🤣 but the thing is you were always cool they just hadn’t noticed 🥳
Gas prices went up again then again and we just north $6 a gallon….. And of course it means the prices of everything else will go up… *sigh*
We stay breathing and try to stay away from the news 🤣 and fail 😅 but yeah one day at a time
Cheers
~B
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Swaggerising herbs – sounds like a great idea.
I notice that like history – things that were trendy in the past will be trendy again in the future. Once, my grandmother’s clothes were considered ‘old,’ then, one day those items became vintage and trendy. The more ‘digital’ the world becomes, the more ‘different’ and interesting the analog things become.
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I suppose if we are too learn anything it’s that nothing ever really goes away 🤣
Had a funny moment with my niece when I sang along to a song and they were surprised I knew it.. I didn’t know that particular one but knew an older version from the 90s and mum (their grandma) happened to be the laughing like oh no that’s a song from way before then…. Same words just different beats and different voices.
As you mention with fashion a trend becomes old then comes right back again sometimes with a new name just to give it that sign of the times but same stuff.
~B
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Thanks for the interesting post.
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“It’s not the votes that count, but the vote counting” well that’s quite literally going to haunt me for the rest of my life, for as long as ‘democracy’ is alive🥲🥲🥲
Because there is so much truth in it
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It is what it is…
Sometimes I am like can we just do away with the farce of democracy and stop pretending.😅
But hey maybe our votes might one day matter 🕯
~B
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We can only hope
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Profound…
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Thank you
~B
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Blessings
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☕
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