I'm happy to be back with you after the two-week break for this paper's annual Phenomenal Women publication. Congratulations to the trailblazers we remember yearly and a big 'wow' to the women we met for the first time. We particularly big up the sisters in African countries who are flying the flag high.

I notice that while I was away the annual Calabash Literary Festival died and rose again. Way to go. I wonder who will need a government bailout next?

Anger management

I also notice that we continue to seriously be in need of anger-management lessons from soldier-slapping to harbouring of gunmen; what will we do to ourselves next? We have to get back to the days of some good old-fashioned tracing matches, some telling off with 'hot wud' and some tongue lashing to let off steam.

What a great thing it would be if we hurled words instead of blows and stones? Wouldn't it be wonderful to stab with vocabulary rather than with knives and machetes? How about shooting off the mouth, rather than from the hip with bullets?

Then, the only thing we would need to do is to learn how to use soft answers to reverse wrath and our hospitals would become accustomed to curing natural rather than man-made maladies.

With this in mind, I congratulate The Gleaner for the trend in positive front page news. Once, I lived in a Caribbean island not far from here and if you were not there to know about the details, you would think it paradise on earth. They just did not print any of the violent stuff. Oh, by the way, they get in excess of 10 cruise ships per day!

Looking for positives

If we were using words rather than weapons, we wouldn't have to be looking for positive news to report; we would already have only positive happenings all around us. And, parents would not be afraid to allow their children to watch prime time news. And, resort hotels would buy the daily newspapers because they would have no fear of driving tourists away with violent stories. Best of all, citizens of this beautiful island would have no need for burglar bars and security alarm systems. So, let us all rally behind the new governor general and take Jamaica back from the clutches of those who seek to mash it up!

lifestyle@gleanerjm.com