The Nation/A World/A Place to be Human: Earl Lovelace and the Task of “Rescuing the Future”

[searingedrock]

The Nation/A World/A Place to be Human:
Earl Lovelace and the Task of “Rescuing the Future”

by Jennifer Rahim

"That Carnival, I see Earl. He is wearing a pair of white and blue track shoes. I am too far away to make out the brand, maybe Nike or Adidas. In his right hand he carries, warrior-like, the typical cane associated with the sailor mas’. He images the cultural translation that consolidates what being New World and modern means. Earl is not really jumping or chipping. Like an athlete whose aim is to participate and finish the race rather than to win, he is jogging ahead of the small band of sailors. All kinds of people, Trinidadians, other Caribbeans, foreigners—maybe the world is jumping up behind him. A group assembles before the judges and begins what is obviously a rehearsed choreography of traditional sailor dances. There is a group of white women dancing in the self-conscious way of the newly initiated. The smiles on their faces say that they feel proud that they can do the moves. The locals dance from a deeper knowing, comfortable in their space.

I am on the sidewalk, more or less a spectator, watching all this—Earl is jogging by and the band is behind. Somewhere in that moment, I try to wave. He does not see me. I feel he does not really see anyone at that moment, for his eyes are fixed on some place ahead of him, the rest of the band behind him, the nations of the world all around him—masqueraders, band-crashers, spectators—all there with him. And he with them, sharing their space, looking forward. On that day Carnival Tuesday, I encounter greatness. It is the stubborn surrender to the gift, and question of a place echoed in Eva’s potent existential question: “What to do?” in The Wine of Astonishment. A nation, a world, torn by the fear of chaos and violence of every sort is in dire need of the truly contemplative stasis that is an agreement to stay in dialogue with the Other."

Excerpt from here.