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Thursday, September 1, 2011

From Crappy to Happy

       Life can be crappy sometimes.  You prepare for a presentation all night, only to be caught in traffic and miss it.  You give your heart and soul to someone, then find out he is gay. You invested all your money on stocks the night before the market suddenly crashed.  We do not want it, but it happens...shit happens.

      When life gives you shit, the initial reaction will either be anger or sadness.  We all go through this, but we shouldn't be discouraged by our setbacks.  We should accept the shit life gives us and make most of what we have.  This is exactly what the Maasai people did, and still do, literally.


      The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania.  As a historically nomadic and then semi-nomadic people, the Maasai have traditionally relied on local, readily available materials and indigenous technology to construct their housing.  The structural framework is formed of timber poles fixed directly into the ground and interwoven with a lattice of smaller branches, which is then plastered with a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and human urine, and ash. The cow dung ensures that the roof is water-proof.  (Wikipedia: The Free Dictionary.)


      So next time you feel like life gives you shit, think of the Maasai people.  As my brother aptly puts it, "When life gives you shit, make a house out of it."



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