Slip Sliding Away….
It’s the 19th September 1981, two days after I entered this crazy world in the heart of a bustling city of Joburg in the Apartheid years of South Africa’s history. In and around that time, my parents where living illegally in the a part of the city called Hillbrow (black people living in an apartment only for whites). It is currently(2017) a dilapidated area of the city, on the road to gentrification hopefully, but back then it was the hub of activity for people of all walks of life, a likeness to a city like New York.
I can imagine my dad watching the news and hearing about the famous ‘concert in the park with Simon and Garfunkel’, to this day one of the biggest concerts held. He would then head over to his Pioneer stack system, (his prized possession he bought before getting married) and pull out his Simon and Garfunkel, Sounds of Silence album, set it up on his turntable, and play it, letting the sound travel through Branksome Towers flats, while he sang aloud making up the words as he went along.
He never let his passion ‘slip slide away’ as the lyrics of the Simon and Garfunkel song related to in the title of this article explains. He was a musician first and even with four kids and his other forced family, ‘work’, he somehow managed to continue practicing his passion. It was really hard at times, almost impossible at times. The word ‘Passion’ is also used to express the suffering that Christ had to go through on the cross, so i guess it goes without saying that following a passion is not an easy thing.
He was a common addition to family bands and would often go up to sing a song or two at events. Whenever Xavier attended a function that had a band it was expected that he would sing. He was unfortunately unable to fully follow that first passion but i think was able to live out fully a secondary passion of his, which was to be a loving father and a proud family man.
He died last year in June having given his kids and wife the biggest gift he could… the example of the Joy and Peace one received when following your God given passion and hence bringing Joy to others through sharing your gift. His ego and pride for a long time prevented him from being this example but as fate would have it, before he died he found his way back to this way of being, and that is what he will be remembered for. It is why i am sitting here in my home, listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s Concert in the Park album (on my prized possession) and thinking of my dad’s legacy.
We are all going to leave a legacy when we depart this life, surely the best message would be that we didn't just let life, ‘slip slide away’, but took every circumstance, every twist and turn that life threw at us and manifested our passion in our actions as much as possible.
Are your dreams ‘slip sliding away’?
