Painting Pictures in the Mind

One who plays the drum for the mad man to dance is also mad.  There is something about African proverbs that paints such literal and figurative pictures in ones’ mind.  I want to start this year painting pictures and so this blog will share a few more of my all time favourite African proverbs.

So the mad(wo)man.  There is a very famous TV show called Mad Men, a drama about one of New York’s most prestigious advertising agencies at the beginning of the 1960’s.  Advertising is pertinent to me right now, being my day job, so by association the title of the show speaks and relates to me. So by some stretch of imagination my storyline will be in keeping with new age advertising.

So what is my take on this first proverb?  I think about the amount of time we take trying to keep up with what is around us.  The internet has exponentially increased our awareness of everything good and bad going on in the world.  Social and indeed any digital media has us desperately trying to get the next great post or read to garner the most likes and with that, a following grows.  Dopamine high voltage shots right there when we get a post which gets lots of likes.  Look, if that is your business or day job, there is more than that dopamine kicking in, there is big time money! The adverse is also true. A serotonin drop when no-one responds, and you don’t hit target engagement.  Career limiting in every sense.

So right there we are beating drums for ‘madmen’ out there to dance.  Is my logic logical?

I spent a week trying to see if I made an effort to post across my social platforms every day I could get a multiplier in followers or likes.  I even pushed buttons a little through slightly more ‘racy’ images with a tad more exposed skin, this at the risk of many side eyes on the home front with questions like ‘Are you going to post that?’ The result of that little experiment despite the risqué moves was, I need to beat that drum a lot harder as the madmen (or women) did not dance!

So let me follow this thought with another mad(wo)man African proverb.  This particular proverb goes as follows. A person is washing in the river, having left their clothes on the shore.  A mad(wo)man finds the clothes and takes off with them.  The bathing person gives chase stark naked (they were bathing not swimming!).  Now for anyone seeing this scenario as the two run through the streets, who will they think is the mad person ?

I particularly like to share this proverb when I talk to one of the tenets of emotional intelligence, learning to respond and not react.     

Let’s continue on the social media vein and share my experience on observing negative media posted about an individual, especially when it is targeted to discredit a reputation.

Many a time, when this happens, the first  thought of the recipient of the unflattering attack is, I need to respond.  Actually that will not be a response, it will be a reaction.  You will be tantamount to jumping out of the river naked and chasing a mad(wo)man who has stolen your clothes.  Now, how will anyone know who the mad person is? 

Stay in the water, wait for help. That is dignity. Respond, do not react.

I am really on a roll now, but I have run out of madperson proverbs so I need to pivot to positive motivational images.   Nothing does that more than “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree you will think it is stupid.  If you judge it by its ability to swim, you will see it is brilliant’.    What more can be more inspirational, less judgemental.

I am here feeling stupid that I have not moved the dial on followers with my social media posts, but it is not my full time, deliberate job.  Ask me to think of solutions … aaaah then I am in my element.

To all those reading this, I share the last proverb said to me by an old good friend.  It goes as follows; “Once upon a time, a hyena came across a stone.  The hyena stopped by and hailed the stone but the stone did not respond.  As it passed the stone, the hyena turned around and said, ‘Even if you have not responded, you have heard’ and with those few remarks I beg to move on.”

For those who read this Chips Blog and any of the others and see them as just rumblings, musings and jumbled thoughts, I know you have heard, so I beg to move on!

Photo Credit: Painting on Banner headline by Kenyan Artist Michael Soi