Sometimes I Say Stuff Just To Piss You Off

Yesterday the funniest thing happened. So we received the fabled World Cup Trophy (YAYS!) and everyone is like "All Hail Magical World Cup". Of course Mandela gets to see it first. So far, so South African. What was Loltastic, however was the absolute *sideeye* I got for tweeting the following about Madiba "He's still alive?". My goodness the FLAMES I saw for questioning the mortality of a 92 year old man. Shame on me! What scares me more is how we have deified the Old Man. South Africa needs to let Madiba go, while he is still alive, so we aren't plunged into the hysteria Britain was when Princess Diana died. Mostly because we won't cry and sleep in the streets. We'll fucking go crazy and loot shops and shit. White people will freak out and leave the country en masse (wait.. they're doing that anyway.) and we'll lose all credibility as the sane African country.

I sometimes wonder if there's ever been a person with such power and influence before - someone to whom the most powerful bend at the knee and the rest lie prostrate before their magni-fuckawesomery. It has to be amazing but at the same time shocking, because no one person should be treated like that. I don't care if you found the cure to AIDS. Good on ya, but the cynic in me fears that we place our pseudo-religious adulation on mortals who will disappoint us, who will fall to scandal (and it all comes out after death, believe me) and who in the end are as human and flawed as the rest of us.

Perhaps I'm projecting my own fears of fame on the situation. I fear it - not because of the being well known bit - that is something meinen Father has already taken care of - but the creepy, scary invasion of privacy those in the public eye face. I have even stopped reading tabloids, gossip sites and gossip rags in an effort to cleanse myself of the bad vibes I get from it. This constant grappling, grabbing on to mere mortals needs to stop. They need to live their lives. I know that it is a job - I totes get that, but it's more than allowing people a semblance of normality - it's the sense of danger that the situation presents. Can you imagine what it must be like for people to know where you are at ALL times. Not just your family and management teams, but MILLIONS of people can access your location at the click of a button. The idea of it freaks me the fuck out. So if I ever become a famous author, I will stop blogging. I will delete my facebook and twitter. I will erase every sign of my personality from cyberspace. I will want to protect every shred of evidence that I exist apart from my public persona like a lion. So that I can protect my family, and friends.

I think that's one thing Madiba has managed or rather his P.A. Zelda La Grange. Mandela's private life is private. Whether his children or grandchildren expose themselves to the scorn of the media and general public is really their business - but Madiba knows what he wants: a life.