In some countries, when you say “go fly a kite”, they’re telling you to get out of their face – which you’d have to do if you’re gonna fly a kite!! Take a hike, Bro!! Then, there are those who’d be criticising you for “flying a kite” when you put forward new ideas just to see how folks react, rather than intending to put them into practice!! But in our dear, ole Mudland, if you hear the phrase, you know Easter is around the corner or actually here!! And today, Easter Monday, the sky’s gonna be crowded with kites hovering in the sky, buzzing and swirling – especially over parks and open spaces.
But your Eyewitness has a sneaking suspicion that it’s not gonna be as full as it used to be. Young people have so many other things to do – but unfortunately, they all involve sticking their smartphones into their faces. Kite flying was never a solitary affair – kids would be engineering their kites – by adjusting the length of the kites’ tails – so that they could swoop and attack their friends’ pride and joy. And in the days when fathers used to shave with “razor blades”, some would be purloined to be strung on the kite’s tail – which would become a lethal weapon to bring down other kites.
Are the Easter Baskets still being filled with our delectable snacks like egg balls, bara and phoulowrie – with “sour” – rather than the scones and clotted cheese we read about in books? Swank – or lime water, if you will – would be the drink of the day to cool down the sweaty faces of kids running up and down the sea wall!! Ahhh… what a wonderful thing is a Guyanese Easter for kids!! For the adults, your Eyewitness has noticed an unfortunate descent into the rum-drinking debauchery that has come to define “fun” in Guyana.
The kite flying your Eyewitness gets – probably invoking Jesus’ ascent into Heaven – which is in the sky, in case you forgot – after he rose from the dead. But the rum drinking?? Harking back to Jesus changing water into wine at his mother Mary’s request at a wedding in Galilee?? That, of course, had to be to lubricate the guests’ thirst and lower their inhibitions – as is our custom in Mudland!! Maybe it’s an unconscious, atavistic throwback to the original Easter celebrations which were to welcome the onset of spring – sponsored by Bacchus the god of wine!!
But seriously folks, we gotta ease up on the spiritous drinking and return to letting the kids have some good, old-fashioned fun. And not so incidentally remember that Easter’s about a fella sacrificing his life for our salvation.
…higher
As our PNC presidential hopefuls put up their hands to challenge their leader to battle the PPP in 2025, your Eyewitness remembers Joe Biden’s 2020 inauguration – even as he’s preparing to run again. He remembers that “skinny black girl” as Amanda Gorman described herself – reciting her poem – and promising one day to run for the presidency herself.
“And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us./ We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside./ We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another./ We seek harm to none and harmony for all./ Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true./ That even as we grieved, we grew./ That even as we hurt, we hoped./ That even as we tried, we tried./ That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.
Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.”
…not too high
But as we celebrate flying this Easter, your Eyewitness hopes our presidential aspirants remember that too much pride and arrogance caused Icarius to fall to his death – when he decided to fly and touch the sun.
