Tag: #CulturalWisdom
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Mout Cut Crossway Fi Say Anyting
On Living with Integrity in a World Where Everybody Has Something to Say Spend enough time anywhere in Jamaica and you’ll hear it. A vendor in Coronation Market calling customers. Taxi men debating politics while they wait to pick up riders by the bus depot. Two women standing by a gate catching up on everything…
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Nuh Trouble Trouble ‘Til Trouble Trouble Yuh
Imagine a crocodile sleeping beside a quiet river. It has not moved in a long time. Its eyes are closed, the water is still, and nothing is in danger. You notice it from a safe distance. You could keep walking. Instead, you pick up a stick and poke it. Whatever happens next is a problem…
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Goat laugh, everybody find out sey ’im nuh got no teeth.
Why the Loudest Performance Often Reveals the Deepest Vulnerability The goat wanted everyone to notice it. It certainly succeeded. Every person and every animal in the yard now knows one important fact: the goat has no teeth. The goat was trying to show confidence, energy, and personality. Instead, it revealed something it probably would have…
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Di olda di bull, di stiffer di horn
In Praise of the Backbone That Only Experience Builds There is a softness that comes with youth, a necessary openness, a willingness to take things in without yet having the framework to evaluate every claim or challenge every assumption. The young bull is impressive. Its strength is visible. Its energy commands attention. It carries the…
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Small axe cut down big tree
What Consistency Can Do That Power Cannot Bob Marley knew what he was doing when he put this image in a song. Small Axe was a message to the three large record labels who dominated Jamaican music at the time, a clean and confident declaration that size is not the only thing that matters when…
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Stone Deh a River Bottom Long Time, But It Still Cyaan Turn Sponge
On waiting for change that only intention can bring, There is a stone sitting at the bottom of a river. Water has flowed over it for years, perhaps even generations. The current has smoothed its rough edges and changed its appearance. Yet if you reach into the river and pick it up, it is still…
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When yuh house deh pon fiyah, yuh nuh chase rat
On Priorities, Crises, and the Art of Knowing What Actually Matters Somewhere, right now, someone is in a meeting about the font on the newsletter while the company is losing its best people. Somewhere, a couple is arguing about the dishes while the real conversation, the one about what they are both feeling, does not…
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Nuh mek di same rope wah tie goat tie yuh
Learning From What Has Already Constrained Others You have seen the rope before. Maybe you have watched a coworker step into the same problems that pushed the last person out of the role. Maybe you have watched a friend keep choosing the same kind of relationship, with the same exciting beginning and the same painful…
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Chicken merry, hawk deh near
Why Your Best Moments Deserve Your Sharpest Attention There is a particular kind of joy that Jamaicans know how to inhabit fully. You may have seen it at a lyme or session when the bass from the sound system is deep enough to feel in your chest. You may have sensed it as curried goat,…
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Every Day Bucket Go a Well, One Day Di Bottom Drop Out
Change Is Coming even When It Feels Like It Isn’t A colleague of mine likes to boast that he has a healthy play ethic. For some, that means the privilege of taking long trips abroad, engaging in expensive hobbies or taking time out to savor life. For many years, I treated play and rest as…