Saving one life a day…says sorrowful author
‘MAKERESEMESE LETUKA
MASERU – Her Melancholic personality has driven ‘Maboitumelo Pitso to raise awareness about toxic traits people have as well as their crippling behaviour in her new book. ‘You can burn those crutches now’ is a book about the many things that the author terms crutches that people keep doing, believing in and following yet they are not good – but which they continue doing even though they ruin their lives.
“These things I am taking about are influenced by family background, our environments, personalities as well as our different philosophies. Some of these things we know quite well that they are not good but we keep doing and believing, mostly because we know that one way or another we benefit from them,” she says. The 52-year-old from Maputsoe, Leribe, started writing her first book in 2019 and published it last month. She has recently resigned from her professional career as a school principal at Boiteko Multiracial School and ventured into business.
“My inspiration was compelled by my personality; as melancholic persons we are mostly perfectionists. Ntate Calvin Motebang says “li melancholy li koetetse lefatše” …and yes, I agree, because life in general is not fair. We grew up hoping that life was something meant to be enjoyed by all people. Unfortunately, all we experience is pain and suffering resulting from the way we treat one another.”
“I advocate for the general good, integrity is what guides my life. I therefore always wish all people would see the benefits of doing good at all times to avoid the unnecessary everyday conflict we all are part of. I love watching the three TV channels, TBN, Faith TV and Daystar. They are the ones that firstly inspired the title of my book, and secondly, they equip me with the necessary information regarding this, what I have always wanted to address. I have a belief that even if I can save one life per day, that would still be the greatest achievement of my life,” she says.
Therefore, she wrote a book to raise an awareness about almost all things that people continue doing, following and believing when it is not really necessary, while in the process they hurt themselves and their loved ones. She has also suggested what can be done to put an end to all this. People really need not to hold on to these crutches any longer, they are healed and it is high time they burnt them. She has also written so many poems- yet to be published and also a few in Sesotho and looking forward to compiling them into a book, started writing her biography which she hopes to publish soon.
“The sales are very promising, I am so humbled right now from the first time people saw my book. They got excited and were already requesting copies. Unfortunately, just like anybody else, I experienced a writer’s block. Covid-19 came into being and I was in turmoil too when it started and could not do any writing, that is why I took so long to finish it and publish it.”
“My husband deserves credit here. Right from the start he gave me a listening ear. He shared my dream and above all, he is the one that provided all the financial support to make the writing and publishing of this book a success and my other family members and friends,” she concludes.