To Drink or Not To Drink (by Danie)

 

Always drink upstream from the herd. It’s easy to see why. The herd urinates and defecates in the stream and then that waste just goes with the flow. How will you know how contaminated your stream is if it’s all you’ve had from birth and never bothered to check if things are okay upstream?

So often we have been told not to question, or rock the boat, or make waves, but all that this means is that we could be chin deep in sewage, genealogical sewage. Every person born on this planet has parents who guide them and raise them according to their interpretation of what’s right and wrong, what to believe and who to believe in. Strange how geographical location also has a lot to do with these interpretations. Why are certain things so easy to follow and yet, so hard to question?

We believe everything we were taught as children and very seldom deviate from this. That is how certain movements or organizations or religions keep their memberships up. It’s more a generational movement than anything else.

Vladimir Lenin once said: “Give me any child for the first five years of his life, and he will be mine forever.”

Have you ever thought to challenge your ideas or beliefs? If not, why not? “It’s the Truth”? Okay, but that’s what all believers in any given group says. “What we have is better than what you have. Our deity is the only true deity.”

As a family, we were always searching for more, for the bigger picture.

Growing up I was a “special” child (I’m being dead serious here). I had certain premonitions, but due to a fear of the unknown, what I was experiencing was frowned upon in religious circles and deemed as being “evil”. Anything that could not be explained by the clergy was to be avoided at all costs. So, therefore, I suppressed my intuition and actually feared it.

Then I grew up and pushed those thoughts and fears aside. I did, however, have very profound dreams. I used to write down my dreams so that I could later share them with Tanja. Most of them are in my book A Man and His God. Sadly, due to the medication which I now need to take at night for my mechanical heart valve, I seldom remember them once I wake up.

I would like to share one of these profound dreams with you.

“’I was trudging through a dry, barren desert. My tongue was swollen from thirst and my strength was almost gone. At first, I thought I was alone but soon noticed others trudging along as well in search of something – water. Mothers with children, old people and youth - all searching for water.

Suddenly we all became aware of a voice calling out to us. We couldn’t quite make out what the man was trying to say but as we drew closer, we heard the word of life: “Water!”

My strength was instantly renewed and we all ran towards the man. Great was my disappointment when I reached him and witnessed him scooping water out of an old sewage drain with a rusted old tin cup and handing it to the people to drink. The people grabbed the cup and drank, but when offered to me I turned away. “You call that water? No thank you. You can keep it.” The strange thing is that many of the people stayed and gathered around this man, satisfied with what they were being offered.

I had hardly left this group when I heard another voice calling out: “Water! I have the living water!” Again, I ran. Maybe this man had what I was longing for, but my optimism soon vanished because there, standing beside an old waterhole, stood a man with a smug look on his face. Inside this waterhole was a dead hippopotamus teeming with maggots. He simply pushed the slimy surface back and dipped his cup into the stinking brown water and gave it to the people to drink. I voiced my utter disgust and turned away. But once again many of the people stayed, too happy to have something to drink.

Another voice: “Water! Come all who are thirsty!” This time I didn’t run. I was suspicious as I approached the man. Just as I thought. Only this time it was worse than all the others. This man, dressed in a long white robe with a holier-than-thou demeanor, which made me nauseous, simply turned his back on the people and urinated into a cup. Turning back again he gave his ‘water’ to the thirsty, unsuspecting crowd.

“No!” I shouted. “This is not water! You’re deceiving the people!” But he simply gathered his little group together and ignored me.

With my dying strength I moved on and decided that I would climb over the next sand dune and die on the other side. Half way up the dune I sat down to gain some strength and turned to look at what I had left behind me. Everywhere, groups were gathered together, big and small, all gathered around some person offering them ‘water’. Every now and then someone dared to venture over to another group, but everyone just took what was handed to them.

I stood up to continue with my final climb. On reaching the top of the dune I squinted my eyes to focus on the sight ahead. Was I seeing right? Maybe it was a mirage. No, it wasn’t my imagination. Just a short distance away a stream of water shot up out of the parched ground. Cool, clear, clean, bubbling water. I ran, I stumbled, I rolled and landed in the water below. I drank and drank and drank. I absorbed the water through my entire body until I lay completely satisfied on the ground.

I stood up from where I had been lying, full of strength and vigor. I had this compelling need within me to go and share this new, liberating discovery with those I had left behind in the desert. But would they listen?’”

 

I like looking up the dictionary definitions of words for clarity. According to the dictionary, here are the definitions of two words: Faith and Trust.

Faith - complete trust or confidence in someone or something. A strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.

Trust - your belief that someone is honest and sincere and will not deliberately do anything to harm or trick you.

After many years of deliberate searching for- and testing of- the water being offered to people, I came to the conclusion that all water is contaminated. So, until I find an uncontaminated, pure alternative, I will be content living without it and stop wasting precious time. People who know me, know that I don't do things in half measures. I will put all my remaining strength, thoughts, energy and time into finding a way to reunite with our children in Europe. That’s all we can focus on right now. So don’t give up on us, judge us, condemn us or try to convert us. Instead, support us in our quest of all quests! This is our story. This is our journey.