Gogouyave.com's Forum



Gouyave Talk
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Ordinary people

I have never subscribed to the notion that one person is superior to another on the basis of Formal-Education, Nationality, Race, color or Profession by which he or she make a living. I find this attitude small of mind.
True superiority comes from righteousness and one's good conduct towards one’s fellow men. That is the only standard recognized and rewarded on merit by The Creator of this Universe.
When the word ordinary is use to describe someone, the implication take on different connotation depending on whom it is coming from. For example: a) when it comes from the so-called educated; arrogant ones, it tends to indicate that he or she is speaking of the less educated of the society whom they perceived to be lower than themselves. There is an inherent trait in human nature that always seek to put someone below them in order to feel better about themselves. b) When it is coming from the less formally educated who might be much smarter then the pretentious ones, it tends to mean, people who are down to earth; unpretentious and live a harmonious existence with the rest of society.
Having said that, I will now attempt to put forward a different view on the Grandma’s question, which I expect everyone to disagree with, if Mr. DeCoteau’s statement is correct.
Quote: “Sure enough there a lots of things on which you and I, and I won't be surprised many others too, fundamentally disagree, but that does not mean you should cease from saying whatever you want to say.”
I find it deliciously interesting why he thought he needed the support of other talk-shop contributors. But as the saying goes there is strength in numbers.
So here goes: I got the impression that when the Grandma enquires of her granddaughter, if she had any ordinary friends. I think the way she posed the question was wise as a Grandma should be. Therefore she chose to use diplomacy rather than come outright and say: Do you have any down-to-earth friends, who are not pretentious, who are not suffering from superiority complex, who are not always trying to make impression.
I can almost feel the trauma this down to earth poor old lady must have felt sitting between the so call sophisticated doctors, nurse-practitioners etc. so traumatize that she was force to ask what she asked. Just another obvious angle to this saga, nothing more.
In Antigua this kind of people are called Poor-boast.
As I am here I might as well give my two cents on the hotly contested quote: “being a doctor is what I do not who I am.” This has been around for quite a while, but I got the impression Tony was praising his daughter, thinking she was the author; the original, “surgery is what I do, not who I Am.” However many people have without thinking, used it wrongly over time. One do not do doctor. You are a doctor and what you do is practice medicine as Mya allude to.
I am yet to understand what desires drives a person to put their family under the microscope of people’s opinion.

Re: Ordinary people

Zafar, I meant every word I wrote when I said, while you and I, and I supposed many others too, may have fundamental differences, that should be no reason to desist from saying whatever you want to say.
Someone once said, I may not agree with your point of view, but I'll defend to the very end, your right to say it. That makes perfect sense to me and I try my best to follow that dictum.
I recognize my human imperfections so I'm always allowing myself room to reappraise my views in light of what I might have been missing in my argument that would have led me to a different conclusion.

>>I find this attitude small of mind.
True superiority comes from righteousness and one's good conduct towards one’s fellow men. That is the only standard recognized and rewarded on merit by The Creator of this Universe.<<

>>I got the impression that when the Grandma enquires of her granddaughter, if she had any ordinary friends. I think the way she posed the question was wise as a Grandma should be. Therefore she chose to use diplomacy rather than come outright and say: Do you have any down-to-earth friends, who are not pretentious, who are not suffering from superiority complex, who are not always trying to make impression.
I can almost feel the trauma this down to earth poor old lady must have felt sitting between the so call sophisticated doctors, nurse-practitioners etc. so traumatize that she was force to ask what she asked. Just another obvious angle to this saga, nothing more.<<

I deliberately re-posted your above quotes because nothing about them is factual. They are clearly your interpretation of them that are so different from what I thought I was saying. Unlike Mya's post, not a thing in any one of your post or previous, has given me any reason to reappraise what I originally thought. That's just my opinion!

And there you go again:
>>“being a doctor is what I do not who I am.” This has been around for quite a while, but I got the impression Tony was praising his daughter, thinking she was the author; the original, “surgery is what I do, not who I Am.”<<

Zafar, where did I say or indicate that I was "thinking (my daughter) was the author" of that statement? In case I need to make myself even clearer, I merely wrote what she said in her explanation to her friend. If you assume that is praising my daughter, well again, it's your opinion. I won't even attempt to change your mind.

>>I am yet to understand what desires drives a person to put their family under the microscope of people’s opinion.<<

If you were to read A PLACE CALLED GOUYAVE, you will notice that I have often-times used my self or family members, and even friends whose permission I sought, that were essential to illustrate situations that were personal. It's my belief that there is much more credibility in using real identifiable persons, rather than using the run-of-the-mill anonymous ghost characters as so many do, in telling a story to make a point.

It may not be your thing to do, but it's just my way, my style. Many may say that it is not the best thing to do, but then again, who is to determine that as well as so many other things in life?

Finally, >>I find it deliciously interesting why he thought he needed the support of other talk-shop contributors. But as the saying goes there is strength in numbers.<<
In case you need a reminder, I've included "other talk-shop contributors" because it is a FACT that you've butted heads with others on this Talk-shop too. This time it is not my opinion.

Hey Zafar, as I've said before, so long as you or I or anyone else avoid straying outside the guidelines that the Webmaster has requested for his Talk-Shop, we should have no problem writing whatever it is we want to write about. Many have and will continue to state their disagreements with those views, but then again, that's intrinsic in the concept of talk-shops like goGouyave.

Take care.

Re: Ordinary people

>>>>>So nothing pleased me more as an adult than to see my friends and other contemporaries not caring a hoot about how it looked while they care freely dingolay to soca, reggae and other indigenous Caribbean music. Yes, they are all professionals, from doctors, educators, lawyers, scientists to teachers and distinguished writers, but first and foremost, they are ordinary people!!<<<<<<

Your post is spinning different ways and I am having a ball with reading the arguments. lol Without saying too much, however, I would say that the people referred to above are from Grenada or even Gouyave, are as down to earth as ever, and that being thought of as Dr. This and Mr. That does not mean much to them. Some may even shy away from accolades even though well deserved. They still remain grounded in where and how they started. Am I correct?

What I have been wondering is, has anyone really questioned Grandma at length to find out EXACTLY WHAT she meant by her comment/question about your daughters' professional but "not ordinary" friends and WHY she asked? I would think that she asked the question after sitting quietly, while listening with the infinite wisdom and insight of the aged to the conversations of all the young "extraordinary" youngsters flowing around her. I would also think she may have asked the question well after after the guests had all left. I may be wrong!

Re: Ordinary people

Thank you, AM, for not going way off on a tangent beyond what I wanted to say in my post. Perhaps the confusion should be blamed on my winded verbosity (copying Vernon, lol).

It does appear that the point I tried to make escaped many of the posters. So I am trying once again in as simple and direct a way as I possibly can.

My point was only to compare the way professionals acted and behaved when I was a teenager, and how they act and behave today.

Hence my reason for recalling how normal "ordinary" behavior like dancing to Caribbean music, or even singing a calypso was something you'd rarely see yesteryear's professionals doing, if at all. As much as I loved and respected my elementary school-teachers, it was impossible for me to imagine, much less see, Teacher Daisy or Mr. Eli Peters or Mr. A E Williams dancing to, or singing calypsoes.
That's just who they were, or how they believed they should act/behave!

That's why I knew I was going to have a hard time emulating them should I one day become a professional like them.
That's why it gives me so much pleasure seeing my professional friends acting and behaving so completely opposite and different today.

That's why I recalled that while "ole-talking," some of us GBSS students would say that we couldn't imagine some of our "masters" actually participating in the act of procreation, even though many of them were fathers. It was impossible in our minds that they would or even could use a "bad word." Oh, how we loved Mr. Otto "Bozo" George! He was the lone exception who had no embarrassment expressing himself in "ordinary" terms for his students to understand what he meant by the swinging pendulum. He had us laughing like mad, although his stern stare would make us shut up immediately realizing that we were in a Physics classroom.
Other than Mr. George, those "masters" used to act so stiff and upright that they seemed to lose all semblance of normalcy, "or ordinariness" if you will.

That is why I wrote that post. Because Mama's question took me back to those days, and prompted me to compare them to how I see professionals behaving today.

Most of my daughter's friends that Mama was meeting had been known by her from way back in secondary especially, and college who went on to become those professionals.
Remembering how long-ago professionals used to behave, Mama told us that she couldn't bring herself to believe that her grand-daughter's friends could behave as ordinary people normally do, like having a good time while dancing to reggae, soca and soul music. To paraphrase her, she was glad to see that they didn't lose who they were in the process.

AM, I thought that point would have been very easy to recognize and couldn't believe Zafar ascribing so way out a meaning to Mama question of:-
>>Do you have any down-to-earth friends, who are not pretentious, who are not suffering from superiority complex, who are not always trying to make impression.
I can almost feel the trauma this down to earth poor old lady must have felt sitting between the so call sophisticated doctors, nurse-practitioners etc. so traumatize that she was force to ask what she asked.<<

More and more I can see why we are always warned about the word assume. Consider the letters that make up its composition and you'll see how true the warnning is.