Here is an excerpt from my short story, "An Unlikely Teacher." It's a story that will strike a chord with many and is available on Amazon (US) (UK) (Australia)

An Unlikely Teacher

Lessons in Freedom

by

Hilton Hamann

PUBLISHED BY

HILTON HAMANN

An Unlikely Teacher
©Hilton Hamann (2014)



 I first met Jonathon at a charity function held in a fancy, five star hotel in Johannesburg's northern suburbs. It was part of the world I effortlessly inhabited at the time. As the head-writer at the country's most exclusive and expensive, corporate public relations firm, I moved in high circles.
 Jonathon wore a tux but looked uncomfortable and out of place. A doctor with Doctors Without Borders, he was much more at home in his rural clinic but the organisation relied on corporate donations and there were times he had no option but to reluctantly schmooze at fund-raising events.
 He looked interesting so I made a point of buying him a drink and we got chatting. Jonathon operated a small clinic in deep rural Kwa Zulu - Natal that was the only source of medical assistance to a few thousand people who lived in villages in the area.
 He said he loved his work, but to be honest, I quickly grew bored with the conversation. He was an educated man, a doctor, but knew nothing of the world. There was no Internet where he lived, he knew little of current affairs and when it came to financial topics and investments, he was clueless.
 When I finished my glass of 12 year-old scotch, I graciously excused myself and headed off to chat with the CEO of a large bank. I never thought I'd see Jonathon again. Our world's were separate and different. Mine sophisticated and civilised, his backwards and primitive.
 And our paths most likely would not have crossed again, had I not been retrenched six months later. In a single moment, on a Tuesday morning, I discovered my carefully constructed, moderately well-to-do existence was, in fact a house of cards. Like so many of my age and generation, I believed the good times, the easily-available credit and an abundance of work would last forever. When it crashed, it came down hard and I was left gasping, neck-deep, in a sea of debt.
 In short order I lost it all...the wife...the dog...the house...the car and pretty much everything else in between. My retrenchment package was enough to settle my debts with almost nothing left over.
I thought I'd easily find another job - after all I was at the top of my game and over the years I'd built up an impressive network of contacts - I was wrong. No-one wanted to hire a fifty-something man, and after six months of making calls and sending out CVs, I gave up looking for work.