Force of Presence

"The blows stopped, and I knew I had crushed him. I had crushed him with the sheer force of my presence. I was there, and would be there to the end of time: a perpetual symbol of his failure to have a world without me. And he walked away to his car, a man without a shadow. The sun couldn't see him"

From Njabulo Ndebele's short story "Fools". This character (Zamani) says this after withstanding sjambock blows. He did not run and at some point started laughing until his attacker gave up and walked away crying. This reminds me of the concept of a 'soft vengeance' that is found in Albie Sachs' writings. As Albie puts it "Soft vengeance is the triumph of your life, of your ideals, of your goals."

I agree with him, as in the case of Zamani, it is the sheer presence of a you that is an undeniable force even though some wish you were not. Just triumph and that will be the best vengeance, the soft one.

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