Straatwerk

Many hours in one’s car ensures that you find your escape by listening to the radio. Then, as it goes, you jump from one station to the next. “The minimum and maximum temperatures for today..” – please not another weather forecast; “Tonight is the night to be out on town...” I’m working tonight, what does it help listening to other people’s evening plans; “We don’t care, we just don’t care...”- John Legend, he’s good, but not now... and so I keep jumping from one station to the next. The preacher preaches intensely, the Classical music plays loudly and suddenly another phone-in programme, with a generic theme- How long do women take to prepare for their night out? I listen, in the hope that they can provide new insight on this old topic... I’m shocked. Obviously I am from the old school. Or more than that, apparently I am from THE OLDEST school. Getting dressed has become a science, it seems.

The woman who presents the programme takes 2 hours to get ready. Half an hour for hair, an hour for make-up and another half an hour to get dressed- only when she has already decided what to wear during the week. Somewhere she still has to find time to shower or bath. She makes decisions about her outfit based on the shoes that she wears, because she has a few shoes for every outfit. What became of 3 pairs of shoes that are comfortable and work with most outfits (my mother taught me to have a pair of black, brown and church shoes)

The young man co-presenting the programme says that his hair take the longest- 15 minutes and he doesn’t shower before he goes out, because he sweats on the dance floor anyway- he showers once he gets back. What takes him the longest is to decide what style he is wearing tonight- retro, funky, branded or neutral clothing?

The lines are busy with people complaining about how long it takes, others arguing that it is worth it to look good, some women complain about men that take longer than them to get ready for a night out.

"I take an hour to do my make-up because I like detail.  If I do smokey eyes for the evening, I need to know that I have the best smokey eyes in the club.  Later when I go to the bar, I need to know that people will notice the detail from my eyes to my shoes.  When I enter the club I need to know that I will not go unnoticed."

When I walk in between the different clubs during our night outreaches, I keep wondering: “How many hours is yóur face worth?”

....because you are worth this? You are worth wearing the best clothing, worth eating healthy food, worth having a personal instructor at the gym, worth an operation to be healthier (or prettier) and worth buying more magazines with the slogan: ‘Because you are worth it!’

Caroline doesn’t have a 3 hour face. She doesn’t even have a 15 minute face. Cuts, marks, dark circles under her eyes, few missing teeth and walked out black shoes. She coughs and walks with difficulty, but has the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. Her entire face lights up when she laughs. I wonder how she would look with smokey eyes? Detailed smokey eyes? Shame, her eyes are watering to continuously that the mascara would probably leak onto her cheeks within a few minutes. What a spectacle- so much for smokey eyes. Leave Caroline with the Vaseline (if there is) night cream and Vaseline day cream and Vaseline base and Vaseline blusher and Vaseline smokey eyes. She is beautiful, and Caroline, my girl, you’re worth it!

Afterword:

We live in a time where it is important to look right, it is also important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and just as important to be seen at the right places, because you’re worth it. This is how we show respect for life.

 

“For many others sport and pills come too late, as circumstances, living standards, poverty, working hours, getting food on the table and housing already affected their health, lead to illness and disease and even broke their will-to-be-healthy”

Look after yourself well, the Bible says: a Healthy body is home to a healthy spirit. Because yóu are worth it?

Yóu are only with it if your own will to live a healthy life lead you to help others that have given up that will, simply because it isn’t plausible for them.

‘Our own will to live a healthy life needs to overflow into our will to help others to improve their living standards, and, if needed, to entirely transform their situation. If no other way remains, it needs to become the will to transform the entire society, so that, in the end, a better life for everyone is guaranteed. Where some live in poor health through no fault of their own, we cannot, with a clean conscience, claim the right to live a healthy life. If our neighbour becomes ill due to living conditions or the environment they live in, it will sooner or later touch all of us- despite our efforts to isolate ourselves, even though it can seem temporarily successful. If one person is sick, an entire society is sick. In the fight against illness the answer can never be isolation, but only community.”