We all care too much

The reason that we as South Africans have such definite and often vocal opinions is that we simply care too much. Things affect us so deeply that we take every word, stance and comment as a personal attack - not just against our country but against us personally. While it would be naive to believe that things don't affect people. There is no water and no duck's back when it comes to South Africans. Everything we see and hear resonates with us to the point that we feel we need to take action, or at the very least, beat our chests and scream about our discontent from the rooftops. Can we change it? Unlikely I am afraid. It has been ground into our DNA. It is what fuels our passion for rugby, our love for the rhino and our distaste with everything that doesn't fit with how we feel. You see as a nation we are born from a melting pot of cultures, interests, languages and geographies. Our shattered past has to some extent left us wanting for an identity of our own. One we find difficult to carve as we grapple with too many adult issues, such as crime, corruption and to a lesser degree the remnants of racism. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge that instead of looking for the unicorn and rainbow filled Nirvana we crave - we should settle for who we are. We are passionate, often confused and sometimes drunk. We live loud, we speak loud, we party hard, we drink hard, and we will always care too much. So we can try and change that DNA in a petri dish as much as we want but we are who we are and in the words of a close friend "it is what it is"...