My dearest Hogsback Community,
This month just highlighted again… Perspective changes everything.
I sat down to write about Christmas in July and somehow ended up writing two completely opposing articles. One celebrated the excitement, the volunteers, the guests, the laughter and the lights. And, not mine, but the general ridiculous joy of pretending it’s Christmas in the middle of winter.
The other was filled with committee frustrations, missing bunting, exploding power supplies, social media headaches, sore muscles, injuries and enough behind-the-scenes chaos to make me wonder why anyone volunteers for anything. The strange part…
Both articles were completely true.
My first thought was that perhaps I’ve finally developed multiple personalities. (If so, at least one of them appears to be reasonably festive.) But after sitting with it for a while, I realised something much simpler… Perspective is everything.
The way we experience almost anything depends on where we’re standing when we look at it. The same event can leave one person inspired and another exhausted. One business owner celebrates their best weekend of the year, while another quietly wonders why it wasn’t busier. One volunteer remembers laughter and another remembers figuring out table layouts at midnight. Neither is wrong.
They’re simply standing in different places. I think Hogsback is a lot like that… contains many perspectives anyway. We often spend so much time trying to convince each other that our version is the right one that we forget there is room for many truths to exist at once.
This village is beautiful, this village is frustrating. The people here are incredibly generous and the people here can drive you completely mad.
We have breathtaking forests, shocking potholes, extraordinary volunteers, endless opinions, remarkable resilience and just enough eccentricity to keep life interesting. All of those things are true… Perhaps wisdom isn’t about deciding which version is correct. Perhaps it’s about choosing which version we feed.
Every compliment, complaint, every smile, every sarcastic comment… every conversation over coffee and every Facebook post. Every story we repeat quietly shapes the village we all experience. You might be surprised how often both perspectives can be true.
As always, thank you to every contributor, every photographer, every business, every volunteer, every reader and everyone brave enough to share a piece of themselves with our little mountain newspaper.
Here’s to seeing Hogsback from another angle.
With gratitude and Love,
Miki
Please note: as of 1 August, Miki is no longer affiliated with the HTO or any other Hogsback association. My views and actions are those of a local resident and business owner, in my personal capacity. If you have any questions or would like to submit a story, letter or article, please email miki@hbtimes.co.za. Cut off is the 23rd of every month!