I don’t really want to be pope
when I grow up, but I imagine there is a little girl somewhere in this world
kneeling in a Roman Catholic Church praying she gets to be Pope one day, so
this one is for that little girl. I’m not a very religious person. By religious
of course I mean I don’t belong to a particular church. I’m not atheist either
because I use Rollo Reese May’s definition of an atheist, “call
it confidence in the universe, trust in God, and belief in one’s fellow men or
what not, the essence of religion is the belief that something matters- the
presumption that life has meaning. So the religious person is one who has found
meaning in life. And an atheist is one who cannot, or has not found it.” I
have found my own meaning. I don’t think my issue is with religion, or God.
Although I've been told there is a special place for me in hell, that’s not my
issue. I think my issue is with institutions in general. I don’t like
institutions, religious or not. I simply do not want to be institutionalized.
Albert Einstein apparently said
“Imagination is more important than Knowledge.” How true would you say this
statement was? How important is innovation in any field? The thing with
institutions is they slowly murder your ability to be imaginative. Like, Harper
Lee said, “The book to read is not the one that thinks for you, but the one
that forces you to think.” You know what the problem with being institutionalized is? The problem with being institutionalized is we have a bunch of rules dictating what you can and cannot
do. You know what the sad part is, you have a billion people in the world
walking around thinking they’re special. In the words of Dash Incredible,
“saying everyone is special in their own way is just a nice way of saying no
one is special.”
Do you remember in primary? There was a stage where you learnt
that little speech. “My name is Tshepo. I am 7 years old. When I grow up I want
to be a Insert Teacher’s choice.” that sentence is the first step into
being institutionalized Fire-fighter, soldier, teacher, doctor all of these
careers these teachers picked for you are that first step. Of course unless
your parents are “baby boomers” they've also been institutionalized No teacher
picked I want to be “a broke poet travelling through Europe appreciating art
eating French croissants, and bar-tending for a little bit of money.”
I mean my baby sister came home
the other day and told me she wanted to be a doctor. She is seven. When I was
her age I wanted to be a princess. So I’m thinking she is either really smart
and has figured out her older sister is a flop, ( I've decided I want to write
for a living and be an activist I’m typing this in the hope that it will save
me the conversation with my mom. Hi mom.) and her parents need something to be
proud of. Or I've been screwed from day one. Anyway back to institutionalization.
We live in a world where we’re
fed mixed singles. On one hand you’re told you’re unique, be yourself, you’re
special, on the other you’re fed mass everything. Mass education, Mass
religion, Mass clothing, even be unique is becoming a mass message. So here we
are humans, who are brought up in homes with individualistic believes then
taken to institutions with mass believes. Imagine if my family had been
catholic, I’ve spent my whole life with my parents telling me I can do anything
I want, I can be anything I want. Imagine then that I came home from Sunday
school and told my mom, hey mom guess what I've decided I want to be pope. I’m
imagining my mother has to tell me why I can’t be pope, which from the research I've done stems down to me being a girl. I’m imagining telling your child they
can’t be something because they’re not allowed to must be traumatizing.
So I don’t like institutions. I
don’t like schools. I didn't like reception. I didn't like primary, middle
school or high school. Unfortunately varsity has changed nothing. I like
education. I like knowledge. I have an undying thirsting desire for knowledge. I’d
rather read my text books at home than sit in class. But I would also rather
sit on Google and find ways to prove those text books wrong. I’m probably just
anti social but truth told I don’t think I even like the institution of a
country or a government rather. I've read this blog post over so many times and
feel it makes no sense. But let us see how this will work out. I have no reason
for hating institutional-ism other than that I am also a sad result of it. I
wish I wasn't because maybe then I would believe my dad when he said I should
be Botswana’s first female president. But unfortunately the institutions tell
me I won’t be, because Botswana’s Political institutions do not foster female
presidents or even politicians. So I’m sorry, I’m sorry to all the Catholic
little girls that will never get to be pope.
