It's been almost four weeks since I shared in my Blog group. Not, let me tell you, for lack of trying but rather because of groups. Groups. My life seems overwhelmed with groups. Support groups, special interest groups, groupies etc. In the last four weeks I've lost seven kilos, attended three Weigh Less group meetings, become part of the Sunday afternoon show-house shopper group, discussed Sex with my men's group, read poetry in a group, participated in two yoga groups and now wonder how long it will be before I'm in group therapy.

Psychologically speaking (I know this from group, you see) there is in-group and out-group. What this means in practice is that there will also be people who are in the group who don't want to me (like me and Weigh Less) for example, people who are not in the group but desperately want to be (other property owners in my case) people who travel on luxury liners across the oceans (as I write this, a fairy-lit ships sails past my window and I find myself wishing I were part of that group too.) In groups there are also levels of authority - the leadership always comes first but then, graduated like a flight of rickety stairs, are those who know the ropes just a little more than the newbies. In my Yoga group, I am no longer the newbie. Even though I can only hold some poses for a nanosecond while others not at all, my chanting is very impressive. Rich and resonating, my Ong bounces off the walls like the buns of that famous window-washer that Patsy Stone enjoyed. 

Being part of the fat group is the one I like least. As if in a sick twisted joke, only about three of the 20 or so people who attend fat group in a church hall in Main Road Sea Point are actually fat. I have resolved not to talk to anyone lighter than I and as a consequence speak to no one.

Tonight I was part of the concerned residents of Sea Point group who attended the mayor's no-show meeting at the Civic Centre. To their credit, the City's presentation and proceedings where excellently managed.

I was also again reminded of how ugly politics is and cringed, on more than one occasion, to hear people show their true colour when speaking of other's.   Wednesday is the AGM of the Sea Point Ratepayers' Association of which, a year ago, I was the chair. It is especially hard to turn one's back on a group that one lead, but I think that when it comes to making a contribution to Sea Point, I can better do that as an individual.

 Estate Agents are a group unto themselves. In the nicest possible terms, I judge most of them to be slimy and slippery creatures that seem to play a very meaningless role for which they are overpaid. On my Sunday afternoon jaunts I have wished myself offensive in the extreme just so that won't try to talk to me and point out the features of the overpriced hovel they're mongering. 

Projection is another psychological term that often arises in groups. Essentially, projection is a defensive act of projecting what is unpleasant and hidden about ourselves onto others. Group projection is what happened in Germany during the Holocaust when all the internal evils are projected onto another group. Apartheid is a more recent example. 

When I think of which other type of person does, like the hideous estate agent, point out the positive while buffing around the negative to bring it to a dull shine, something stirs within me... When I ponder which other group engages the subject in a story of how it could look with this or that tweaked, sweetening the deal with every malt-cloying word, I wonder...  When I question which other group brings two minds together for a fee then understand why I hate estate agents so - I am a publicist.