At 2.16 m, Shaquille O’Neal, widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, was having a bad, a really bad day on the court. It wasn’t going well against the NY Knicks and the score reflected that. He couldn’t make for the dressing room sooner – the pressure got to him. Here, speaking to his father, his old man told him to get his (place appropriate body part here) on the plane and get home.
On arrival, his father told him to get in the car. They drove to a poor part of town. “He asked me if I couldn’t take the pressure, and I said yeah, the pressure got to me.” His father parked the car. In the middle of the street were a man, his wife, and their two kids – a homeless family. Shaq’s dad turned to him and said, “This is pressure, not knowing where your next meal is coming from.”
What a wake-up call. The story goes that Shaq immediately took care of the homeless family. He soon learnt that the father was good at gardening and arranged for a job for him at a gardening service.
So, look around you, there are tins of food in your kitchen cupboard. Is Janu-worry really prevalent in your household? Of course, it’s the stark reality of many of our fellow South Africans. Maybe, this year you help another to relieve the daunting pressure of having no food. Let alone a house with kitchen cupboards.
Tomato paste is the ingredient of the gods. Get the can opener, rope in your family, and make the best homemade pasta sauce with WHAT YOU’VE GOT. That spice rack is stacked to the rafters. Shake it, baby! And gift that huge pot of homemade South-African/Italian spag boll to a hungry family. There goes your worries, replaced with gratitude that you have more than enough.
Pretty wholesome, isn’t it?
