“I see procrastination and research as part of my artistic process.” ~ Lynn Nottage.

When I was growing up, church on Sunday was an absolute.  No exceptions.  I used to joke that (especially as one of the children of the Parson), you would have to have diarrhea and a fever to get out of it.  One of those would not suffice.  Church was entertaining enough when you sat next to your friends.  Someone would have a ‘sweetie’ (candy), an ‘icymint’ or a ‘ginger log’, and this would be cracked into small pieces and shared into three or four as necessary.  In case you’re wondering how a small candy can be broken into four, you bite it while it is still in its wrapper, and hope for the best!

And there was always something to hide and giggle at, earning those looks from the choir ladies on the first row.  Two Sundays a month my father would travel to one of his other churches, so we would have a guest preacher, either one of the deacons or a visitor.  Poor Teacher (the local Primary school Principal), when he preached, he amused us with his special lisp, a tendency for his th’s to sound like the letter z.  One of his famous themes (and this is all I remember of his sermon) was based on three words: ‘Danger by zeway!’.  Of course that had us stifling our snickers, and earned us even more dark looks.

I thought about that joke recently, as one of my new pet peeves has been to read essays either written by or massively assisted by Chat GPT or some other such device.  I have run across several where there has been a tease in the first paragraph (and there is always a tease, and repetition, an introduction which you read again in the middle and at the end, very annoying, and at some point you will be told to ‘sit with that for a moment’, but I digress), and the tease will say something like ‘and it was three words that changed everything’.  Try as you will (and I have), no matter how many times you read and reread the story, you will not be able to figure out which three words it was.  There may have been a sentence with four words, or five, but nowhere can you find those three little words.  So annoying!

One of the posts that I follow seems to use this device in their writing.  But the content is valuable, and readworthy, even as I cringe at the device that makes my hair stand on end.  I long to advise the ‘writer’ to trim the essay down, delete the repetition and reiteration.  Be yourself! Write it yourself! But I suspect that, much as we no longer go look things up in our encyclopedia (and we are usually missing the volume with the letter you need!), we will soon find ourselves using some form of AI in our daily life.  A friend says that in her office, they have been mandated to use AI to craft responses to clients – that way no one inadvertently says something which offends, or confounds, or brings liability on the company.  And I get that.  Having had to write emails (in the past) to students who had complaints, or made allegations, I know how carefully you have to draft your response. 

This week I finally completed, uploaded, and published my second volume of my Friday Morning Messages.  These represent some of the messages written in my earlier years, and the process took much longer than it ought to have.  In self-publishing there are many programs that assist with almost every part of the process, and I had accomplished perhaps 75% of the journey mostly on my own.  And there the job had languished.  Aside from my top-tier ability to pro-crastinate (professional level of course!), I could not work out how to create the cover.  I consulted family members and friends, but somehow we never got the job done.  And then a friend sent out news of his volume of self-published poetry, and I contacted his editor, and less than a month later, Voila! Done!

One of those other (not really) three-word commands is the title of today’s message: ‘Don’t follow decrowd!’ I can’t remember who would have said that to us as we were growing up.  It may have been another of those church Deacons, but it was certainly an admonition we heard frequently.  And it wasn’t meant to tell us to be leaders or trendsetters, it was really warning us away from ‘bad company’, another phrase we often heard.  And yet I recognized this week that a lot of my best moves have come from following someone else. I came to Florida following my boyfriend.  Several times in my career I moved from one job to another because a friend called and suggested that I move there too.  They had tested the waters, so to speak, and found it a good environment.  Both times that I have published my books, I have ‘followed’ a friend, using their contacts, their support system.  Perhaps it is not so bad to rely on others.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to watch one of the most exciting games of football (yes, soccer) I have ever watched.  And since it was in the company of several of my schoolmates (some of whom would have listened to the same preachers as I did, in fact, one of whom would have shared the icymint with me!), it was a noisy, joy-filled room! I was reminded of the most human of needs, for community, for others with which to share the highs and lows of life.  Many Jamaican migrants ended up in South Florida by following others, and the restaurants and foodstores that supplied tastes of home created an inviting and supportive environment.  This tendency to look for familiar sights and sounds is replicated across the US, in Chinatowns, in Puerto Rican enclaves, in cultures within cultures.  It is part of the richness of the US mosaic, the ability to maintain vestiges of home, while adopting some of the ways of the New World.  It is something to be savored and relished.  There are amusing stories of the World Cup fans being fascinated by some of the things we take for granted in the US: giant food portions; Ranch dressing (who knew?); Waffle House and more.  But more than that, it was the welcome they received, the friendliness of strangers, the sense of community.

This Friday morning, as I reflect on my own journey, I am happy to find myself right where I belong.  I hope that we all can find our ‘crowd’, our community that supports and inspires us.  And remember to watch out for ‘danger by the way’!!

Have a wonderful weekend, Family!

One Love.

Namaste.

For those who wish to support my latest venture, here is the link to the Amazon site: https://tinyurl.com/FMMVol2