Yesterday, Louise Bennett-Coverley was laid to rest. She was a happy person; everyone around her in pictures always seemed so content. so, while the country mourns her passing, a smile with a hearty laugh is appropriate.
P and I discussed at length our annoyance with the decision to unearth her husband from his Canadian resting place and fly him back to Jamaica for a half-baked re-interment days before the pomp and pageantry being afforded to his wife.
Rest in 'piece'
Are there no human rights for the dead and buried people of this world? Doesn't anyone bother to take the good ol' R.I.P. vibe seriously anymore? You can't exactly be resting in peace if someone is going to dig up your remains, cart them through security checks in customs and then put you on a plane with piped music and movies. Yeah I know Miss Lou wanted to be buried beside her beloved Eric but I don't know that she had given any thought to the idea of digging up his body!
P and I question whether or not our cultural hero even had a burning desire to be buried here after all, she was not living here for many a year now.
But the deed has been done. We secretly hope that if the duppy shows are anything to go by, Mas Eric should be applying a couple of slaps to the faces of all those who generated and executed the great idea of digging up his body and don't think it is any less gross a plot if you use the word 'exhume'.
That little concern aside we both note how incredibly important and powerful Miss Lou is to the cultural fabric of Jamaican life. In so many ways she was ahead of her time and is an irreplaceable gem of the history of this isle.
I remember Miss Lou from her programme Ring Ding. It would seem that everyone in Jamaica watched that programme when it was being aired and it is painful to think that all of the records of that first Jamaican reality TV flick have been destroyed forever. Many of the younger ones among us never saw the programme and even get the name wrong calling it things like 'Ding Dong' and 'Wrong Ding' [Lord forgive them.]
Sad but not unique
It is sad that the tradition was not followed and that today we are not able to celebrate 30 or 50 years of Ring Ding with a string of former hosts paying tribute to the matriarch of the concept. Just imagine.
The destruction of the records of the Ring Ding heritage and our failure to build on the idea in a very tangible way is sad, but not unique. Look around and you can see so many examples of successes not followed and built upon.
If there is one lesson that we take away from the passing of Miss Lou, it should be the need to recognise our potential at all times; look for the opportunities and build on them.
She was indeed a woman of great impact. Do you think Miss Lou should be made a National Hero?
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