This was the opening line of Kris Kristofferson's “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. A version recorded by the outstanding Jamaican singer, Ernie Smith, was part of the soundtrack to my childhood. I now wake up with the words in my head on occasion, usually after a night of excess.
So it was that I woke up recently in comfortable surroundings, the words filling my head, “And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad, so I had one more for dessert.” I passed on the beer and opted instead for a litre of water and four grams of vitamin C. It was one hour until I could hit the coffee and six until the first meal; the beer would come in between. I considered checking my phone, almost did not, then decided on a quick look. The first preview was an inquiry from a major international broadcaster wanting to know if I would appear on a news show. I put the phone down without finishing the preview, much less opening the message.
“Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes and found my cleanest dirty shirt.” It was no surprise that there was a message from a producer at a major international broadcaster on my WhatsApp. I had just come off a major publicity blitz around the Beijing Olympics and had been interviewed by everybody, everywhere. Of course, most of the interviews were about Jamaica in the Winter Olympics, Jamaica Bobsleigh and the first Alpine skier from Jamaica, Benjamin Alexander. But a few from notable programs, like the BBC program Outlook, were more in depth, looking more at me, and helping (I hope) to build my escape velocity from “Dudley Stokes, Cool Runnings” to “Tal; Life is for Living.”
“Then I washed my face and combed my hair, and stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.” Get the sunlight in and reset the circadian rhythm or you will regret it later. Fully awake now, I was more alive to the opportunity, but loath to have another conversation about “The story of Jamaica’s historic first 4-man bobsled team to qualify for the Olympic Games is a quarter-century old,” but what if this was different? The chance I wanted to break the bobsled mould? Back to the phone. The producer was unfamiliar, no doubt a colleague provided my details. The message, though, filled me with excitement and anxiety almost in equal measure. Would I be willing to come onto the evening news and discuss why it is that Jamaica wants to become a republic?
“I’d smoked my mind the night before with cigarettes and songs I’d been picking.” The live band the night before had delivered an outstanding rendition of The Eagles’ “Hotel California”, one of the truly great songs of the modern era. As usual, it excited my already overactive imagination and I spent the evening with the thoughts rushing through my head. Thoughts of everything; scenarios playing out in my head, global, local, political, personal, business, pleasure. Every person a story, every story a backdrop to the large events moving regardless of me or them. It is after moments like these that I understand that I cannot sustain the superficialities necessary for mass appeal; I take everyone too seriously. Nevertheless, I know things that people ought to know, things that they will benefit from. I need an alter ego to deliver. Advice: build your team and listen to them. I messaged my agent not expecting a reply for a while, after all, it was Sunday morning. The answer came in minutes, “yes I should handle but I am by my fathers side, in hospital, stroke”.
.
“But I lit my first and watched a small kid cussin’ at a can that he was kicking.” Never mind Sunday morning, a family medical emergency. Now to do this I am going to have to deal with somebody over fees. I have never learnt to ask for my money, having never escaped the bias of a Jamaican middle class upbringing. With a preacher for a father and a teacher for a mother, money was crass and not to be spoken about. More procrastination, then. Okay, let’s start the coffee early. Finding the right mental tension. Do I need to do this? What is the tension for negotiation? What is the tension for execution? What should I say? Well, I don’t have to think long about that. I have thought this through many times. It’s important to tighten up the thoughts, work on the soundbites. But first, close the deal.
“Then I crossed the empty street and caught the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken.” I send a quick message,
“am prepared to do, fee?”
“That’s great how about $200”
“If that is usd then great”
Okay! What are your thoughts on becoming a republic?
Too much to type. I send a slightly breathless voice note summarising my thoughts. A pause… Then the reply,
“Cool! Send me your email I can drop you the Zoom link.”
“And it took me back to somethin’ that I’d lost somehow, somewhere along the way.” Nine minutes passed, enough time for what? Chat with the editor, the evaporation of the time needed for this segment,
“sorry, next time.”
Disappointment, resignation, certainty.
On the Sunday morning sidewalk
Wishing Lord, that I was stoned,
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
Makes a body feel alone
There is nothin’ short of dyin’
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleepin’ city sidewalks,
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down
“In the park I saw a daddy with a laughin’ little girl who he was swingin.” What are my views on Jamaica becoming a republic, as summarised in my voice note? What are the practical, concrete advantages of becoming a republic? The Queen is a figurehead, represented in Jamaica by a Jamaican since independence. The role is largely ceremonial, with any real action possible only on the advice of the government. So what does this figurehead represent? Is it our past colonial history, which in order to fully escape from we need to remove? I think differently about this. I think the Queen is a figurehead; a symbol of the monarchy, a one thousand year old institution which has shifted, changed, and evolved to become the embodiment of a system of behaviour which underpins not only the United Kingdom and much of the Commonwealth, but a substantial part of the world. One does not need a degree in history to understand that the journey of the monarchy is the journey of people to greater freedom, to the chance many of us have today to pursue our lives. From the Magna Carta, to the unification of England and Scotland by James (who also authored the Bible that bears his name and created the Union Jack), through the execution of Charles I, and the rule of Oliver Cromwell (conqueror of Jamaica). The founding fathers drew inspiration from the British experience and created a system that was far more successful at replacing the monarchy than their allies in the struggle for independence, the French, who after a disastrous flirtation with a republic and democracy were soon ruled by an emperor.
“And I stopped beside a Sunday school and listened to the song they were singin’.” The adaptability of the monarchy and its anchoring influence during times of change is most apparent during the reign of the current and longest reigning monarch, Elizabeth II, who in her time has seen the end of the empire, the second world war, the cold war, and the war in Ukraine, and when she dies the cry will ring out, “The Queen is dead, long live the King.” Indicating a stability and continuity of a way of life that puts people first. It was not always like that, but it has become that over a thousand years of struggle, inequity, injustice, destruction, enslavement, starvation, and prejudice.
“Then I headed back for home and somewhere far away a lonesome bell was ringin’.” When we put down the monarchy, make sure we are not putting down the meaning of the monarchy. The thousand years of struggle towards a better way of living, embodied currently in the Queen. She does not look like us, but only in the most superficial way. In a deeper way, she bears the weight of the struggle and suffering of all the people caught up in the story of the British Empire, and how we resolve to learn from and ultimately live together with our shared past, shared heritage, and shared understanding, and to take as our own (because it is) the fruit of those thousand years of struggle, which has resulted in all men being equal before the law, no taxation without representation, and a man’s home being his castle. If we can keep these things, that is. We owe this to the children.
“And it echoed through the canyons like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.” These are not widely held views, but are they unpopular? Well, if people never hear them, then there is no chance for them to consider this perspective. Were I a betting man, my money would be on Jamaica becoming a republic sooner rather than later, and if we are to look at the examples of those who have gone before us, the best we can hope for is to be no worse off. Time for that beer.
On the Sunday morning sidewalk
Wishing Lord, that I was stoned,
‘Cause there’s something in a Sunday
Makes a body feel alone
There is nothin’ short of dyin’
Half as lonesome as the sound
On the sleepin’ city sidewalks,
Sunday mornin’ comin’ down
Fernando Pessoa was the greatest writer in the Portugese language (he also published in English and French). He wrote under at least 75 names (including three female names) that he called heteronyms, because each character held views independent of him. He wrote on a wide variety of topics from travel to philosophy, and was an accomplished poet. Alberto Caeiro was known as “master of the heteronyms''. While he was not the first, what distinguishes him to me is his commitment to reality. That brings me to the title of this blog, which I hope to return to from time to time to delve into the reality of things.
Comments