Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, Tra-la-la-la-la-la-la-la, all who born in April skip around!
Hey unnu! memba when pickney used to play dem games deh? I use to love it. Jumping in the ring with everybody who born in my month used to create a reassuring sense of belonging. Yeah man, those games helped to establish identity.
Talking 'bout identity, my comedian friend Jean Paul tells a funny story. He was once in an all-white town sitting alone in a club. He looked across and saw another black man sitting alone. Since they had similar physical identities, he 'identified' with this man. He impulsively waved, and the man waved too. Well, he decided to go over and hail the brethren, and saw that the brethren got up and was coming to meet him too. 'Maybe he's somebody I know," JP thought. They soon got close enough for the comedian to realise though, that the walls in the club were made of mirrors; and he was actually communicating with his own reflection. Is an identity thing!
Sameness
Wikepedia says "identity (also called sameness) is whatever makes an entity definable and recognisable and distinguishes it from entities of a different type. Or, in layman's terms, identity is whatever makes something the same or different." Identity is very important - to the extent that thief will run off with yuh personal identity if yuh not careful. And we develop all kinds of affections, alliances and affinities based on group identity.
If I'm in Saskatchewan or Gottingen and see a black man in a car with a Jamaican flag, I instinctively wave, smile and nod at him, whether I know him or not. I don't care whether he's up-town or down-town, JLP or PNP, or whether him listen to Mutty or Raga. I don't care about his religious identity; I'm in a place where everybody else is white and foreign, and he's Jamaican, so I'm happy to celebrate our common national Identity. Is so identity work.
But, back to the 'all who born in which month' game. when I used to play it, if a child I had a fight with or one that I didn't like started jumping around when my month call, I usually started to feel less hostile towards that child. Fi real! We now had a common identity; and it's easier to like people when you and them have something in common.
Wonderful human beings
Well, April is my month. And I love all April people. Never met one I did not like. Is some really wonderful human beings them. I'm thinking especially of people like the effervescent and elegant Elise Kelly and the astute and affable Ali McNab. Ali, Elise and I share the exact birth date - same month and day, but different years of course. Yesterday was our day, and today is Rosamond Brown's. Big up!
Happy birthday all a unnu. To actor/comedian Christopher 'Johnny' Daley and former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson, both had birthdays last week; and to my brother Aston and my father Leslie who have birthdays next week. And Minister Dwight Nelson, we not only born same month, we also have same middle name. Heh, heh, heh! Big up my former classmates and all other April people too numerous to mention.
As fi me, I still have people to provoke and scenes to disrupt; but that thing called old age is catching me up. Yeah, a dog of my age is certainly no pup! I wish I could get enough people together right now though, and form a big ring. And start play and sing. Unnu ready? All who born in January skip around...
box-mi-back@hotmail.com
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