Above & Beyond

Mum’s the Word

This weeks Above and Beyond medal goes to my Mum. After spending several days with her back in the UK, it is easy to see why everyone in our family has had successes in life.

We listened to her many family anecdotes and some old wives’ tales and one anecdote in particular stuck in my mind. It goes something like this: -

A man feeling completely despondent and ready to just give up on life decides that the only way out is to end it all. His last act of pleasure is to eat a delicious banana and proceeds to take it up a tree with him, intending to eat the banana and then hang himself from the same tree.

After devouring the fruit he tosses the skin nonchalantly towards the ground, satisfied that with his last wish granted, he can die in peace. As he begins to form the crude hangman’s noose he glances down and sees a man run up to the skin, pick it up and ravenously start eating.

He stops in his tracks and looks down at the man in disbelief. After a few minutes he comes to the conclusion that there is at least one person worse off than himself. He climbs down from the tree believing that there is always hope.

My Mum never gave up and at eighty-two next birthday she is still a feisty old bird.

2010 Aspirations

We have all fallen victims to the New Year’s Resolution trap! They rarely work and from the majority of anecdotes I have read, they merely pay lip service true dedication and commitment.

In spite of or despite the failure of my own annual self-promises in the past, I have decided to post a little list of things I would like to see accomplished in 2010: -

Solutions that work
All too often I will come up with a great idea that just isn’t practical. It seems as if I’m not the only one with this problem. Just take a look at any government.

Maintaining Strength
As we get a little bit older, we get weaker. My personal desire is to get stronger mentally as well as physically, in addition to maintaining the great personal characteristics I’ve already cultivated

Openness
Fear makes us weak. It also makes us narrow-minded and leads us down a blinkered path of monotony. Being more open and receptive to different cultures and places is a good thing.

Dedication
It’s easy to do something you love but much harder to stay dedicated when it feels as if no one is paying the least bit of attention.

Will I even come close to achieving these goals? I think I can. At the very least I believe that in trying one will become more defined and aware of our surroundings.
Let me hear all of your targets for 2010. Do you think that you can be successful or are you as convinced, as I am that these types of plans always go slightly awry?

The Man and the Five-Dollar Bill

It seems that in life we rarely see honesty in business practice. The word capitalism is at the core the majority of companies or individuals out to make money. This isn’t a bad thing, it just keeps one aware of the fact that when you step foot into someone else’s establishment you are going to be sold. Indeed in most cases you want to be sold!

So yesterday my nephew arrived from the U.K. for a two-day extravaganza in NYC. It was bitterly cold but dry and busier than usual with gridlock traffic alert firmly in place.
About half way through the sightseeing and wotnot, we decided to stop at a side street vendor for a little pick me up snack.

The vendor was pleasant and joked around with us in his broken English. He tried to sell us all cold drinks even thought the temperature was in the low 30’s F. We paid and left, aware that we had probably overpaid for the hotdogs and pretzels as this was NYC and you are paying for the “experience” as tourists and not the just the food.

About a hundred feet down the road we heard a cry from behind the stand. This little man came running after us waving a five-dollar bill in his hand. He explained that we had overpaid and he owed us an additional five dollars in change. I was gobsmacked. We all were so much so that we just accepted the money and smiled, almost in shock. A few minutes later we thought that we should have just let him keep it as an additional tip but then agreed that it was too late to go back…

So we decided to give it to a Salvation Army collector later on that day and felt better for doing that. In the end the man and the five-dollar bill actually restored a little of my faith in humans and especially in the people of NYC. Manhattanites are sometimes chagrined as being too mouthy, too loud and too obnoxious. This trip proved that, as a tourist for one day in NYC, human kindness was to be found in the most unusual of places.

A Note to a Past President

Being a Brit and slightly green behind the ears when it comes to American presidential history, I was pleasantly surprised after reading an article a few months back concerning Lyndon B. Johnson.

It has been my belief that John F. Kennedy received all the credit in relation to getting the vote for African-Americans and other Civil Rights’ Legislation. However, it came to my knowledge that whilst, JFK got the ball rolling. Lyndon Johnson executed many of the actual bills and even went so far as to initiate new ones.

I’m not going to pretend to be an historian and this isn’t meant to be a history lesson. So I am not going to reiterate dates and laws here in specific detail because you can find that sort of information anywhere on the Internet or in reference books.

What I would like to point out is the little appreciated fact that President Johnson was a prominent and determined advocate for the same rights for all American citizens. Coming from the South and being able to convince many Southern Democrats to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and a year later the Voting Rights Act Bill was an almost insurmountable feat that he overcame.

It just goes to show that in spite of the fact that LBJ grew up in a segregated society that didn’t believe in it’s heart that all men were equal, he dismissed that ideal. It was his determination to give all Americans the right to fair employment, fair housing and equal education; that is a testament to the greatness of his person. Therefore his body of work is well deserving of this category and his character goes above and beyond any dutiful call.

Patrick Swayze

Amidst all the nonsense surrounding Kanye West and the MTV Video Music Awards, was the death of famed actor Patrick Swayze. It’s true that people die every day and so why should his death hold any greater significance. In some ways there is absolutely no difference. After all he was just a human being like the rest of us.

Patrick’s battle started when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in January 2008. He noticed changes in his health in late 2007 and on New Year’s Eve that year, the pain in his stomach became unbearable. This strong, healthy man disintegrated into a weak, feeble shadow of his former self.

He showed immense courage and fortitude by continuing to work on his latest project, “The Beast”, despite having to endure excruciating pain. The human spirit is strong and we can tolerate far more than seems possible or logical.

His words in one of his last interview are inspiring to all those who are in his situation and cause those of us more fortunate to realize how lucky we truly are.

“I don’t know what’s on the other side,” he said. “It tests everything I believe in and that here is something unique in all of us that does not, does not die.”

“What winning is to me is not giving up, is no matter what’s thrown at me. I can take it, and keep going.”

Great words to live by.

Honor Thy Father

We all enjoy feel good stories, challenges that ordinary people have overcome and events so earth shattering our lives have or will never be the same again.

In this week’s “Above and Beyond”, I have opted to post a very personal event as something out of the ordinary that changed many people’s lives.

In 1957 my father, born and raised in Jamaica, West Indies decided that he wanted a better existence for his family. He ventured to the U.S.A. to find work and search for a place he could make home. Unfortunately or fortunately he decided that Florida was not the place for him and he returned home. The following year he voyaged to the U.K. and for some reason, believed that this was the place he could put down roots.

Several decades later four generations of “Burtons” now exist, living quite happily in England. My father had to endure many years of hard labor and weather he wasn’t used to, so that his descendants could have an upbringing and life he was not initially privy to. He is a very proud man and living in a society where he was a pioneer of sorts, could not have been easy to say the least.

Accomplishments come in all shapes and forms, big and small. In my mind, his achievement may not have contributed to the salvation of mankind but it is just as vital to society. It is these small and generally over-looked events in history that make our world better and create a stronger and more diverse community for us all to share in.