Intricate Knots

We constantly unpack as we move, rebuilding our spoken and unspoken contracts of how we agree to work with each other. Negotiating complex relationships that we grasp at an understanding of. Meeting and not meeting each other’s expectations. 

Our decisions and approaches have both intended and unintended consequences, and sometimes we explode. We need new agreements. 

There are multiple ways of looking at the two World Wars. The simple one is the defeat of Fascism. Another way is first the controlling Empires punching themselves in the face till they couldn’t sustain/justify Empires, then a couple of decades later Colonial Powers punching themselves in the face till they couldn’t sustain/justify Colonies. Ideas of Nationalism and Self-Determination, that also sowed seeds of xenophobia, protectionism and Apartheid. 

Another part of my story is a Romeo & Juliet marriage across the aisle of angry Boers fighting in one of the Anglo-Somebody wars. Descendants of people fleeing the European wars of religion, famines, or heading on civilising missions because of delusions of grandeur. 

South Africa becoming a single country on a Canadian model that was the response of British diplomatic architects reacting to the American war of independence. 

Layer upon complicated layer of people building up and unpicking the knotted mass of strings of who they are and want to be. Deciding on a path with limited information, and controlling a slice of limited resources to make that happen.