Positive Vibes

Treasure Beach Forum: TB Runnin's: Positive Vibes
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By TB.Net on Friday, March 06, 2009 - 07:31 am: Edit Post

We received the following message from Zed a few days ago and with his permission would like to share it with you.

I was trying to retrieve from your Archives one of the most inspiring testimonials from a respectful "Mom & Pop" visitor from the US, but I could not locate it within the Message Board.

Written several years ago after a hurricane, it was touching in a kind of serene intimacy and comfort that washes over us as we, on returning here, nestle in the folds between the Santa Cruz hills and the Sea.

What should bring mist to the eyes of anyone whose soul is increased by the "sense of wonder" in decency & depth of our *fellow travelers* is this excerpt from the posting:

*...I believe I return to Jamica, and especially Treasure Beach, to become better educated in the art of being Human. In my visits to Treasure Beach I have learned more about being a decent, compassionate independent and resourceful person than I ever could in any university course on sociology or anthropology or ethics or even engineering. The residents of Treasure Beach teach me what is truly important in life. They have a keen sense of what is necessary and what is not. They are friendly, welcoming, proud, inventive, and, ultimately, very understanding of me. ...For me, Treasure Beach is one of the finest classrooms on earth and I cannot wait to take my next lesson.*... Kim & Peyton Beals (Wrentham, Massachusetts, USA)

In these times of economic uncertainty and diminished expectations from tourist or homecoming visits to the community and all the pain that means in loss of income, salaries & opportunities, don't those remarks buck us up, with the *heart* that Kim & Peyton express...and the prospect that with "right way" marketing & sharing of knowledge & ideas about lifting up this "special place" that echos of these thoughts will fall on receptive ears of dem that *quest for hard-scrabble beauty & the peaceable.*


My personal ritual, upon return, is a mini-baptism of renewal by submerging someting, (toe, foot, elbow, nose) in Starve Gut Bay out on the back road at Ft Charles.

I downloaded Kim & Peyton's remarks years ago as an Appendix to a *Business Plan* for a TB Project. I have referred to it to strengthen my spine to what I already know about the TB community.

I have shown it to the *doubters*, who chatter on about Jamaica crime, harassment, the "negative" of long driving distance to TB from MoBay airport, the unease over behind -the-scenes slum conditions/poverty...none of which, as a whole can be taken lightly. Slow economic development & wealth building still aches.
Did the Gleaner mention that crime is down, for now, through the country?

Even with raw chaw song lyrics ( daggerin in di Rampin Shop) spouting from the lips of school children to sass parents & compete in fast-paced cleverness with their contemporaries, do we not sense a rising wave of education reform, with Obama himself, abroad, as a prime example to educators & students of how to study hard & grind your way to the top?

Big Ups to the *TB Foundation* for promoting excellence through its scholarship program, and the overhaul of the national educational standards that are taking place in this country. One can only hope & press government for dollar resources shifting for higher teacher pay, and first class educational materials for little school houses in all these hills & plains everywhere.

Here is the link to the original posting.

http://webtonic.info/discus/messages/1584/8742.html