I’m a think-positive guy, not from some Pollyanna position, but largely because that’s how my mind works. In every place I’ve lived I’ve known people who are perpetual grousers – every time you meet them, whatever the occasion, immediately after the “hello”, they launch into the latest complaint, the latest project gone wrong, the latest big name caught with his/her hand in the till; the latest political shocker. As a rule, I avoid those people. They come up to me, I know what’s coming, so I find some excuse to move away. Fair enough, we have to be aware of what’s going wrong, and I’m willing to give you five minutes or so for that, but pretty soon I want the conversation to move, as the Jamaicans say, “forward, bredrin”. Consequently, in the songs or poems I write, in the plays, in this very column, while I do my share of grousing, most of the time I want the chat to be about ‘forward’ – about repairing, restoring, improving, introducing.
Lately, for example, as various intimations are emerging about plans to celebrate Guyana’s 50th year on our own, I find myself taken aback by several comments along the lines of “Celebration? What is there to celebrate? What have we achieved?” I’m not living in a cave; I despair over some of the things before us; just yesterday I drove through Montrose on some of the worst roads I have seen in my life; the word ‘roads’ doesn’t fit; what I drove on were passages. It rocked me. But you can’t let negativity consume you. If you look at our recent history and say we have nothing to celebrate, you’re just looking through one lens.
The moments of light are there. Look through that lens.
I look back at Guyana in those socialism years when life was rough.
