Melville Cooke May all acquaintance be forgat
An' neva come to min'
May all acquaintance be fargat
In days ah all lang sign
Auld Lang Syne, Jamaican style
AT TIME of writing we are readying our suits, fluffing our hair, flushing our stomachs and generally preparing to ring out the old and ring in the new.
In other words, we are getting ready to make a whole heap of noise.
Even those who go to Watch Night services will be singing low and solemnly before the midnight hour, but when that time comes when 2003 becomes 2004 they will burst into glorious song. In other words, the faithful will be making whole heap of noise as well.
Of course, in addition to the parties and the praise there will be those on the streets who will be bursting firecrackers as if there is no tomorrow. And, this being Jamaica, there will be quite a few gunshots as well. The decibel level over Kingston must be astounding.
Then, by the time of publication, there will be the dead silence of the hangover and the dead tired and the dead. Cause just as life continues after the noise of the night, death keeps rolling on as well.
And there will be many who wonder, as I wonder now before the event, what the hell was all that noise about?
It is rather silly, if you think about it. All this dressing up, all this preening, all this expense, just to go make a bag of noise. It would seem to me that the beginning of a new year would be cause for a quiet moment or two, to reflect on not only what the year that is past has brought, but the possibilities that the one just beginning hold.
Instead, we generally seem intent on creating enough cacophony to impose our will on a rather impassive movement of the cosmos, if even for only a very fleeting moment.
Or is it that noise makes us forget, if even for a moment, that we are here for less time than it takes for an inch to form on a stalactite? Are the fireworks displays there to make us create stars close enough for us to almost touch and at least outlive, to make us outlast the campfires in the sky if only fleetingly?
Of course, I would expect that the young would be caught up in the excitement of sen-sing that something very significant is happening, but the number of big tough-back adults who seem determined to deafen themselves to the passage of time is astounding.
And a new year is a very significant event. Most of us will not see more than 50 or 60 and, of those, we would have been way too young to know about some and too old to care much about the others.
It is a very solemn moment, when you think about it. So solemn that you could just think about finding a hillside far away from the firecrackers and the whistles, look at the stars and just think how wonderful it is to be here.
The term 'new year' is a bit of a misnomer, though. Cause, quite frankly, 12 midnight at the beginning of any year is not a magic moment that somehow sweeps away all that is past and creates a clean slate to write wonderful things on. It is a moment in time, not a time warp.
To create a new year with a new attitude, one does not have to wait on the time slated for the parties and the merrymaking. One can simply decide to change one's life any time, any place. You can make your own New Year and new different life, resolutions and all, at any time. Quietly.
Oh yeah! Before I forget, Happy New Year and all the best for the next 12 months of endless possibilities and beyond.
New year, new style, new dance a lick
- Bogle, Buju Banton
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
