Commentary

A caveman's life

YESTERDAY'S STORY ABOUT Charles Brown is a lesson in 'getting away from it all'.

For the past 36 months he has lived in a cave in Bull Bay, St. Thomas, with a battery operated radio his only concession to what is termed 'civilisation'.

It would seem, though, that Brown, 50, has found a level of civility outside of said 'civilisation', as he has no 'cass-cass' with anyone and has moved much closer to his God by reading the Bible.

He has also forsaken the temptations of sex, for out of sight seems to be out of mind.

It is interesting that there are those who would scoff at Brown, but still profess a longing for the 'simple life' and to 'get away from it all'. For many of us, the simple life means going to a rustic motel where there is hot and cold water and we 'get away from it all' only as far as the laptop battery life and the cell phone coverage will take us.

Mr. Brown may have taken it to what is considered the extreme, but he is doing what he set out to do and he is sticking to his guns.

For those of us who wake up to the clank of the neighbour's pots or the flush of the toilet 'over the fence', it is instructive that his nearest neighbour is miles away. It only goes to show that the saying 'Jamaica small but it big inna de miggle' is true. There's lot more room in this country than the crowded metropole and its outlying dormitory communities would suggest.

Brown has made use of the space and he is all the happier for it.