the Dung Beetle

"The dog jumped on to his back and snapped at the black curls, till, finding that no notice was taken, he walked off to play with a black beetle. The beetle was hard at work trying to roll home a great ball of dung it had been collecting all the morning: but Doss broke the ball, and ate the beetle's hind legs, and then bit off its head. And it was all play, and no one could tell what it had lived and worked for. A striving, and a striving, and an ending in nothing."

- Olive Schreiner; The Story of An African Farm (1883)

Comments

[Rachel]

Just came across your blog from google, and was intrigued by the name. My husband is from SA (Johannesburg area) and we have friends from Durban. Also I'm from Chicago and have been to Urbana a few times since a lot of my friends went to school at UIUC. So small world! I really want to visit SA in the future. My husband is a bit reluctant though because he says the town he's from is still a bit closed minded (he's white Afrikaans and I'm Asian American) hopefully one day I'll make it out there. Well, keep up the good work both here and in Durban.

[Martha Webber]

Thanks for your message Rachel - sorry to respond to it only now. I hope you make it over one day - perhaps you can just avoid the negative relatives? I've tried to challenge the negative perceptions some of my family members expressed in me traveling to SA twice, but it's really hard when their beliefs about a place or group of people are so culturally engrained. Have you seen District 9 in the theatres? It's bloody, but fascinating.