Republican Reflections

IT’S BEEN YEARS I’ve been doing this. Started sometime around when my daughter, Aeryn, was born in 06. Fifteen years ago. Possibly longer. A more hopeful time by any current estimate, though we were about to become mired in the Great Recession (2007-2009). I would have been seeking to inspire my students, then as now.

Every year, around the month of October or November, I share “Desiderata” with my BFA research methods/research paper class at Barbados Community College.  You know the document: that declaration-expression of a philosophy of life by the poet Max Ehrmann.

It begins “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste.” Ends “Be cheerful [or careful in certain versions]. Strive to be happy.” It reminds us to “Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.” Ehmann wrote the prose poem in the 1920s when he was in his mid-fifties. A Grammy-winning song was made out of it by pioneering radio and TV personality Les Crane, or more like music and backing vocals were put to the spoken words. There are countless other riffs and spinoffs.

Anyway, I ask my students to read it. Then I ask them, in about a hundred and fifty words (about half of “Desiderata,” because they always overwrite), to give me their own philosophy of life. So Far. Apart from the mature outlier, they average twenty to twenty-five years in age.

And they never disappoint me. 

During fairer times or grim. Whether younger than the mean or much older.

*

This last edition, I especially wanted to see how hopeful they remained during a pandemic. We are, these days, laying out best wishes on their altars. It is to this next generation we’ll be entrusting our new republic, and the ongoing quest for freedom and independence.

They are the ones we hope won’t already be too cynical or jaded to vote in our upcoming general election January 19.  Not just because voting is an enormous right and responsibility our people can never take for granted, but because their brighter dreams of this country do matter.

They are the ones who will really decide what it means to be a hero of an age, whether national or of the everyday variety. They will determine this as much by their own resilience, self-sacrifice, determination, and ability to inspire as by anybody else’s.  It won't matter if they're privileged or stuck in the middle, blessed (?!?!) with billions or barely have two silver dollars to jingle in a holey pocket.

Does that make sense? Will resilience win out, as I imagine, or will the thought of the battles yet to be fought without a clear end in view defeat them?

I can’t say; only they can. Based on their response to "Desiderata," they seem at least as hopeful and able as their predecessors.

Below are a few thoughts from each of my students' brief essays; which means you don’t just have my word to go on. That’s a consideration. Our particular class, inevitably, is all about checking your sources and relying on, or placing your faith in, the finest of them—to uncover, Marvin Gaye-like, what’s really going on. The Truth, I’d call it. Or, as they might put it, your own reality. 

*

“Live your truth and love yourself for it. For there is no one who is greater than or lesser than who you are. Cause there’s no one who has been or will ever be as unique as you are.” Herchelle Pellew

“Offer yourself to your fears; so that you may grow the confidence to fear nothing. Nothing is better than helping others; this will inspire them to create the life of their own design.” Kaylee Lowe

“It’s OK to not be OK. But it is not OK to take it out on someone else. Apologize and make amends to those you’ve wronged. Forgive yourself, forgive others. It is a necessary step toward your healing.” Shamelia Forde

“This journey will have potholes, detours, many flat tires and inevitably a dead end. We must try to prepare as best as we can. Celebrate every victory, no matter how small it may seem. No rules exist on the measures of success.” Amber Newton

“Opportunities lie in the bed of novelty. Always be curious…. You are capable of more than you think. Even if everyone else believes in you, it won’t matter unless you believe in yourself and in your abilities.” Khamal Boyce

“I feel like my philosophy has grown along with me and has taken a on different shapes at different points of my life.” Alex Smith

“We live in an age when everyone wants to improve the world before improving oneself. Surround yourself with positive thoughts and positive people, because what you receive reflects what you express.” Wayne Downes

“Be open to new experiences & dedicate yourself to learning even the small things you believe you already know…. Complete what you started, commitment is important for success. However, knowing when to quit is important, not everything is meant to be done by you." Shaquille Agard

“In this beautiful and wonderful world we live in, I focus my life around the positive things in life. My aim is to do and be better than my old self every day.” Renella Hamlet

“The modern world is loud and fast. Do not fret over the fear of missing out, for there is no shame in simple ignorance…. Be aware of one’s company, and learn to wear the masks that best encapsulate the public, private, and social ‘you.’” Kenji Forde

“Peace is, and always will be, my main goal…. Patience and longevity sometimes allow you to gain more information once you wait, observe and listen. Not always easy, but being hasty may sometimes ruin the better finish.” Jelisa Browne

“Life is full of ups and downs, twists and turns. What’s important is learning to deal with the circumstances that life throws at you. We must go with the flow, not fight against it, but learn to adapt … knowing that life is a pendulum, it can’t only swing in one direction.” Sean Fields