Jamaican Till I Die!

I hope y’all had the good fortune to enjoy the beautiful starry sky last night. Today finds me in a reflective mood. Yesterday morning my grandfather died. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005 and spent the past 7 years living the kind of life that comes with that diagnosis; an operation, numerous doctors’ visits, prescription medications by the bucketful, tests upon tests, pain, and discomfort. Through it all he maintained lucidity, humour and an inner strength that was representative of his character. I hold him up as one of the most influential male figures in my life, my role model for kindness, compassion, integrity, masculinity and responsibility. The memory of his fine example will play on in my mind’s eye for the rest of my life. He will be missed. Now my view on death may seem a little different or it may not. However, my spiritual understanding sees death as another beginning, a birth, if you will, in another reality. Without getting too deeply into this, I...

As we laugh, party, dance, build new relationships, watch television, enjoy the Olympics, live on Facebook and twitter, send our kids to school, worry about GSAT, CXC, SATs, GMAT, MCATs, etc, strive to move up the corporate and social ladder, go to job interviews and so as we human beings on this planet participate in these and our myriad other rituals I wonder... As a curious observer of life on this planet today I wonder how many others notice... Notice that the institutions of politics, finance, energy, education, health care, and most importantly the ecosystem are headed toward near-certain collapse. Notice the amount of trees that are destroyed daily, notice the amount of topsoil erosion, habitat destruction, irreversible loss of biodiversity, disappearing rainforests, the dead rivers, lakes and seas, the imminent water crisis, Notice our almost, total dependence on fossil fuels and the corruption that drives the industry. Who notices the political trend toward fa...