My how we’ve grown

In a do-or-die World Cup soccer clincher, Jamaica played Honduras last night at the National Stadium in Kingston. Buoyed by our somewhat unexpected win over Mexico last Saturday, it seemed like every Jamaican (yes, all 2.6 million of us) was headed to this match. Kick-off time was scheduled for 7.00 p.m. so my sister Carole and I departed her house at 5.20 p.m. sure that we would arrive in good time, even with having to pick up her son at his school. This would normally be a 30 minute journey – last night it took 2 hours!

The traffic was horrendous! We have a saying in Jamaica that “Everywhere you tun, macca juk you” which means that you are stuck whichever way you go. So it was with the traffic. Every thoroughfare was blocked; every side road led to more gridlocked traffic; vehicles were bumper to bumper, literal inches, or centimetres separating each vehicle to make sure that no-one could possibly bore before your car. Then the madness started – one lane became two as impatient drivers tore down the opposite side of the road to try to get ahead; they mounted sidewalks, cut in on the left, on the right – wherever they could find even an inkling of a space. Carole and I sat and marvelled at how brazen these drivers were – no crawling and tentative movement here – bold, aggressive tearing down the wrong side of the road, accelerator to the floorboard in 1 second or less. This was no place for the timid! At one point, one car chockfull of rowdy supporters tried to overtake me on the left, the inhabitants signalling that I should get out of the way by banging with their fists on my car. I stopped and allowed them to pass.

At 7.30 p.m., some 25 minutes into the match, Carole and I arrived. In the two hour journey we had chatted, laughed, listened to the radio, marvelled at the traffic and the behaviour of the drivers, made telephone calls – and we marvelled as we walked fairly leisurely from the parking lot to the Stadium: “My how we have grown”. For, we noted, in previous years we would not have taken this situation calmly. We would have arrived rushed, flustered and in a very bad mood, upset at being late. Our attitude last night was – we are here in the right and perfect time. No worry. So it is. In other words, we were present to the experience and went with the flow. Indeed, after many futile attempts to beat the traffic by diverting to the side roads, we decided that we would just take the shortest possible route, and stick to it. Guess what? The traffic then flowed. Lesson? Be present, be focused and things will flow!

We had a lovely evening. Jamaica won the match. We missed seeing the goal which was scored just as we were parking. And that was quite fine. We celebrated anyway. As we walked in, a number of people along the way were nice enough to tell us the score, so we celebrated with them as well. What did we miss? Nothing. Everything was as it should be. Including Carole and I reflecting on how wonderful this journey of life is – once you are present to it.