Ian On Sunday
Towards the end of life – and when you are seventy-six and counting you are not very distant from the end – you become more reflective. So looking back I wonder whether anything I have done is of any real significance. Take some examples.
Ian McDonald
I worked at a high level in the Guyana and Caribbean sugar industry for over 50 years – but, honestly, what difference did that abundance of work make? Very often it was exciting and worthwhile at a personal level. But in the great scheme of things I very much doubt that it all mattered much.
I played tennis at international level for a long time and won national and regional championships – soon forgotten as all but absolutely outstanding sporting achievements are. Again what good times one had but that only proves that it is the journey that counts and not wins or losses that vanish like morning mist.
I took part as Editorial Assistant in the far-reaching labours of the West Indian Commission in 1991-92 – and have lived to see its Report Time For Action steadily ga ther dust as the whole CARICOM project, so dear to West Indian hearts, falters and fails.
A similar fate, I might say, seems to have befallen the Report on Governance of West Indies Cricket prepared after exhaustive consultations by the Committee chaired by P.J. Patterson and including Sir Alister McIntyre and myself.
There it sits on a shelf too tall, as a friend suggested to me, for even Joel Garner standing on the shoulders of Curtley Ambrose to get it down. This is particularly hurtful since the cause of West Indies cricket is one of the interests closest to my heart and I sincerely believe that the recommendations of the Report, if implemented, would go a long way to restoring our fortunes in this great game which, above all other endeavours, is the “imaginative possession” which binds all West Indians together.
As a writer, I have gained great satisfaction out of writing these columns for Stabroek News for twenty years but I am under no illusion that they are anything but ephemeral and I am quite aware they will be quickly forgotten the day after I stop writing them.
The novel I wrote The Humming-Bird Tree has lasted well and I might hope, I suppose, that it will still be read for a generation or two. And if I have one wish above others about what I have written it is that a poem or two, perhaps even a handful, might be read and quoted as much as a century from now. Well, there is an overwhelming ambition indeed! But all in all I am well aware that the flame of time very quickly devours the writer moth.
Family – that has been all-important. Tales of one’s ancestors, treasured mother and father and sisters and brother and ever-widening and extending family.
And a loving wife who has been unimaginably good to me. And children, of course, the children, children no longer – they at least are one achievement which will last and go on lasting through their own children and their children’s children.
At the end the question must be asked: how comfortably has one lived with oneself?
And it is good to be able to say, despite regrets, comfortably on the whole, happily indeed. What one has done in life has been worthwhile, it has been satisfying, it has been shared with many warm and superb people, it has been exhilarating and fun.
But what about the answer to the big question whether what one has done might have made any difference? Well the answer to that may be expressed in what one of the characters in that great writer Alice Munroe’s wonderful story “Face” says at the very end. Did any of it make a difference? “The answer is of course, and for a while, and never.”
Dear Ian,
I do not think you will be forgotten, neither your writings since I am a very great fan of yours. I love to read all your articles, and I would normally keep copies of those that I love dearly. I have many favorites including “Painting the wind,” Growing Old,” just to name a few.
When ever I Heave to chance to read the Stabroek news, your column is the first I would read and would take note of some of the interesting and fascinating phrases you would used to describe events, stories and illustrations. My favorite lines of yours are these: “when the hours come tumbling on each other,” The Astonishing splendor of the heavenly skies,” The explosive colors of the evening sun. etc
To put it this way, you have really inspired me a lot to write, especially about the way I feel. As a result I wrote 25 poems, which include titles such as The agony of loneliness, I will remember you, Black is not a color, Fragile life, I think of you always, I belong to you (even in the darkness of times)
these are just a few that I would also like to share with you. My em is zaher3179@yahoo.com.
again continue writing, it is very well appreciated,
Solman
The Cuban poet Jose Marti once said, “A grain of poetry suffices to season a century.”
You have produced many grains of poetry, Ian, so rest assured somewhere in the distant future someone will discover and derive pleasure in reading your wonderful poems.
In the article above you omitted the great role you played in giving longevity to A.J. Seymour’s brainchild, KYK-OVER-AL. That alone will ensure continued familiarity with your name for a long time to come. Would you believe it, I still mine for gems in 19th century editions of the journal TIMEHRI. I have no doubt KYK will endure like TIMEHRI. And I thank you for publishing three of my short stories in KYK.
Since life should be lived for immortal gains and eternal fruits, rather than mere existential satisfaction, one can empathize with the nostalgia for the life that was lived, expressed in this column. A man of such infinite sensibility as Ian McDonald would be expected to seek the immortal fruit, the eternal flame, the everlasting legacy. And just as Solomon found out that everything is futile, McDonald has lived his life to find out that living according to the fashion of the day leads to the inevitability of forgetfulness. Sports stars, those boring experts, the good and faithful husband and father, fiery political leaders, the elites of our lifetime, all fade into that abyss of forgetfulness.
However, history is replete with those great souls who have built eternal fortresses that are impregnable to the ravishes of time. And in all these lives that have “benefited” the human family thorough the Ages, the one enduring theme is a deep care, a consuming passion, a great desire, to revolutionize the status quo. This is true of Jesus Christ, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Al Gore, Julius Caesar, Mahatma Gandhi, William Shakespeare, etc..
The people who make a difference that transcends time and space are the ones who innovate and improve the society of human beings. Improving the lives of others is thus the greatest legacy one can leave. This crusade to impact others for good so inspires and motivates people that the deeds are captured eternally in words. People write and sing and celebrate the deeds forever. It is, in fact, in words that our lives are built. And it is in words that we can live on and on and on. And there is a great lover of the beauty of words in the soul of Ian McDonald. So if I may be so bold as to offer a suggestion to this champion of a literate society, I would suggest that McDonald find a cause that moves him with deep passion. This cause is a condition of humankind today that bothers him. Then use words to speak and campaign about this condition. Launch a crusade using words to make life better for others. Spend the rest of life to apply the wisdom and the knowledge and the understanding gleaned from all those years of privileged living as a balm to heal the wounds that fester in human nature and human society. It is in offering creative solutions to pressing problems that one makes a difference. How pressing are Guysuco’s problems? and the West Indian Commission’s dream? and the cricket team? and expressing an appreciation for beauty through poetry or a novel? Even Shakespeare was a revolutionary and innovator.
As someone who has thought long and hard about this very issue McDonald raises in his column, these are the answers I have found. I too want to leave a legacy of great writings. But my writing can only beat time and space if I can innovate and offer creative insights that are solutions to one or more pressing problem that I perceive afflict my fellow humans. My life, then, is a sociological excursion into creating out of my educated imagination an inspiring new way forward. Humans are advancing into an unknown future. What can I do to make that advance into the future an experience that is inspiring, even joyous, for everyone involved? In that question is my life’s lasting legacy. What am I contributing to the human family, using words and nothing else.
Sadly, the great achievers all built their legacy out of a life lived in peril and suffering and pain. Those who spend this life in privilege and comfort and mostly happy seem somehow not able to learn to empathize with the awful condition of human nature. How can one change the world sitting on a comfortable sofa reading Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karamazov’? I have to glean the insights Dostoevsky transmitted through his novel – a great insight into the human soul – and apply that imaginatively to solve the problems afflicting the soul of my generation and the world the future generation is inheriting. These are weighty matters, but who ever said that taking on the world’s troubles and desiring to leave a lasting legacy is an easy matter?
We’ve never met but I feel like I know you. I used to look forward to hearing your commentaries on the radio. You express your thoughts so beautifully.
Now, to your original question. I am not a religious person, but I do go to church and read my Bible from time to time. I’d like to draw your attention to Solomon that wise, handsome and rich son of King David. He was blessed with all the good things of life and then some. He finally concluded that man’s only duty was to fear God and keep His commandments. (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
I’m sitting by my window enjoying New York’s beautiful fall weather and reading Stabroek News. I skimmed over the usual bad news and came upon your article purely by chance. I’m glad I did.
Dear Ian,
It is always a pleasure reading oyour weekly sunday column. Your writing add depth and quality to our lives. As it is said, there are 9 virtues of living…….Courage, Truth, Honor, Fidelity, Discipline, Hospitality, Industry, Self-Reliance, and Perseverance……we are but a speck of sand in the wide desert of life …..keep writing for our souls need nourishment in this brutal space on earth called Guyana. I often wonder what our politicans belive about their immortality…untimately…most of them do not or will not believe in a god…for then their aactions would puzzle us