20010306.GIF)
Henriques By Avis Henriques,
Contributor
THIS QUESTION has been at the centre of man's quest for self-knowledge from the earliest recorded era and doubtless before that time. In Psalm 8, King David gave a clear definition of his belief: God, the divine Creator of the universe and all that it encompasses has set Man below the level of the angels and, given him power to have dominion over all other creatures.
I make no claim to be an anthropologist or a theologian. I perceive myself as a Christian who has questioned and accepted and who has been profoundly influenced by many strands of thought beyond the confines of dogma, who is motivated by the words of a scientist, Mme Marie Curie, the discoverer of radium: "There is nothing in this life to be feared, only to be understood.
Having now passed the allotted life-span of three score years and ten, I invite you to join me in retracing the many paths along which I have meandered, or rushed, in search of that elusive understanding. There have been thoughts, emotions and incidents, which have been trivial, amusing, frivolous even and which have kept alive the flame of joy in living; at other times, there have been periods of strong emotion, "thoughts that do seem too deep for tears" as the poet William Wordsworth understood. It is my hope that in relieving my own understanding of many of these thoughts and incidents at the time of their occurrence I shall appreciate better their contribution to the web and woof, the human fabric of my own life. It may be that, before moving on, I shall be able to put them all together in my mind and blend them into a flow of inter-related personal experiences within the context of social and political changes which have taken place.
Recollections
Indeed, my earliest recollections date back to stories told to me by my mother even before I became aware that she was consciously shaping my character, transferring to me many of the values and attitudes cherished by her. We remained close friends up to the time of her death in 1977, three years after she had reluctantly yielded to the strong advice of her doctor and much persuasion from my brother and me that she should sell her house in Mona and come to love with me. She was a wonderful woman of strong moral character, proud and with a firm sense of justice and unwavering loyalty to her family and her friends.
This strong reaction against injustice manifested itself when she was sixteen years old. Her father reached for a leather strap to punish her, in spite of her denial, for something she had not done. Her reaction to the injustice was swift - she grabbed up the nearest weapon at hand, a piece of wood, and declared: "Papa, if you hit me with that strap, I'll hit you back!" My grandmother intervened: "Joe, don't touch that girl! She's dangerous!" Like a wise man, he took his wife's advice, not only at that moment but ever thereafter.
In my grand-parents' home at Standfast, just outside of Brown's Town, St. Ann, there were family prayers both morning and evening. On another occasion when my mother resented being wrongfully accused, she suppressed her indignation until it was her turn to repeat a verse of scripture memorised for the occasion. Looking straight at her father, she quoted the shorted verse in the New Testament: "Jesus Wept!" Many other anecdotes of my mother and her upbringing will surface as I attempt to trace the strongest influences which shaped my own character. I trust you will find in them interesting illustrations of the "way things were" in the 20th century.
Owing to my grand-father's frequent and severe attacks of asthma, the doctors recommended that he should move from Dry Harbour (now known as Discovery Bay), where he kept a general merchandise store, to Brown's Town. He sold his business and removed to Brown's Town. There was no congregational Church there so each Sunday morning he led the 'crocodile' possession of their eleven surviving children to the Baptist Church while my grand-mother brought up the rear.
The family occupied two pews. In her late teens my mother, her elder sister and two elder brothers accepted an invitation to a party at a friend's home and they all danced. On the following Sunday morning, all four were "read out" in chapel for this fearful indulgence in a sinful activity and were suspended from membership until they had confessed their fault and begged to be re-admitted to grace. Only the eldest son sought forgiveness for this awful dereliction. In any case, my mother maintained that she had committed no sin and refused to seek re-admission to the Baptist Church. Certainly, she married into a "dyed in the wood" Anglican family accepted the teachings of the church faithfully and practised them in her daily life.
How could she have reconciled the high principles by which she lived with the raw sexuality and lewd vulgarity of dance hall shows on TV mere years after her death?
