>>These and those you have highlighted are indeed the world of the immigrant; the new malady resulting from wanting a better life.<<
>>It sometimes feel as though we are being punished by "the Patriotic Gods" for immigrating.<<
I wish those two lines were written by me.
For those of us who regard this as a dilemma, it becomes incumbent upon us to find ways to keep the memories of back home and those of our adopted lands alive and together. In short how do we appreciate what we have in our new homes without forgetting the original joys of our old homes. That's the dilemma immigration has left us with.
While that was not foremost when I wrote the book, A PLACE CALLED GOUYAVE appears to be one small step towards resolving that problem. Well, that's what an old friend told me some time ago. She said she bought several copies and shipped them to some of her relatives in England.
Yesterday another friend called to offer her condolences on my sister's passing, and surprisingly thanked me for helping her through the book, to explain back home life to her American grand-kids.
About 2 or 3 Sundays ago, Wendell "Tatoes" DeRiggs staged a free show focusing on folklores and sayings that we remembered in Grenada. At first, the big hall seemed way too empty, but as the afternoon rolled on, the place became packed with people from Grenada, T&T, Jamaica, Belize, Barbados, Guyana and St. Lucia all sharing the experiences of their homeland. What a wonderful afternoon it turned out to be!
Based on those two events, perhaps all is not lost after all, and as Jesse Jackson once put it, "let's keep hope alive."
My dear KOP, I do agree that a book on the legacy of migration would make very, very, interesting reading. Maybe Downstreet is getting one ready for publication, but as far as I know there isn't one as yet.
Nonetheless the idea is intriguing.
