Documenting His Past
There is one extremely worthwhile piece of writing I’ve been waiting to write and have battled with how I’ll tell the story. It’s like when you’re sitting on land with discoverable oil beneath the surface and you don’t know who to properly drill it out. That’s how I feel with his story and I know that’s how he feels about his past as well. His story has such depth and complexity and I feel that it’s my duty to help deliver it to the world.
When you’re sitting on an incredible story, is it better delivered as a feature film or a Netflix Series? Is it best written as a series of articles or in a long-awaited novel published by Penguin? These are the questions I’ve grappled with as I’ve spent a series of Sunday afternoons interviewing my father in law about his early life endeavors. My father in law is a 76 year old South African immigrant with a background and story reserved for the plot line of a great odyssey.
His life has coincided with the rise and fall of South Africa and some of the greatest social friction we’ve seen in our lifetime. He lived and thrived in the glory years of one of the great divided nations on earth. He built successful companies at a time when South Africa was industrializing and growing its wealth. He was a modern day David amongst Goliath of industry. He was the king of his community, a man of faith, family and fortune. As they say in life, “choose your hard,” and Michael chose and rose to great challenges that were worth fighting for. His ultimate mountain to climb came during the post-apartheid era when he launched the nations’ first ever Black empowerment business that upended the social dynamics of the country.
Here stood a white man in South Africa delivering social and economic prosperity to the poor black goldmine workers on the Johannesburg fringe. A man who stood up against the tyranny of greed and fended it off to build a publicly listed company that sought to change the lives of millions and lift up a historically overlooked set of people. Ultimately the heroes and these great nations have a fall from grace or it wouldn’t be an epic voyage. Such is life. I’m still learning all the details of his story but the pivotal moments and lessons learned are magnanimous and I’m lucky to get a second hand accord of all this through our time together. Our Sunday back-porch interviews are special.
I’m lucky enough to sit with him on a weekly basis and hear his story. How I’ll package and deliver it is my biggest conundrum. How will I do it (and him) justice? How will I help the reader (or viewer )visualize not just what happened but how it felt? These are my challenges as I gear up to write and structure it. I’ll try not to let perfection be the enemy of good.
These are the stories of our past that we can’t let vanish. We have to tell them and broadcast them for all to read and learn. I fear that too many great stories are left untold and one of my callings is to ensure that doesn’t happen.