Sitting here in the early hours of a new day light years away from home or so it seems, longing to feel the cool nightly breeze of Paramin against my face. Sitting here listening to some old time calypso and the thought crosses my mind as it always does from time to time just how much I love this music, carnival, and the rich culture that surrounds it, this culture that has so shaped and informed my own self identity. Then this song comes on, and I was almost brought to tears.
Lord when are we as a people going to finally do the right thing, and build a monument to the great ones; who have carried our culture on their backs and in their hearts like the lover it must be to them? When will we recognize the great sacrifice they have been forced to make on our behalf? How are we ever to repay the blood, sweat, and tears it must have surly taken?
Day by day the light that was The Might Sparrow grows dimmer, and I fear that we will not even in my own lifetime create the museum that will house the work of this giant whose career now spans six decades, Jean and Dinah was born in the fifties. We are as yet to begin to lay the cornerstone for any building that would house or even display the memories, art, and talent of those for whom he sings of in this calypso.
Comments