The “Great Imperative” Meme
So, Geoffrey recently wrote an interesting blogpost. He began it by saying, “About a week ago, I was reading an interview with the former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley, and I came upon the quote, “The only imperative of my life has been egalitarianism.” And I thought: What has been the great imperative of my life?
And then, I thought, this would make a great meme.”.
He is right, it can make a great meme, as can be seen by the comments to that blog post and by the posts at a number of other blogs listed in this “Update” post over by Geoffrey’s. In fact, I am going to link to one of them here because I thought it was so interesting!
I was tagged to do this meme, but I haven’t so far. You see, I have given it some thought but I haven’t really been able to come up with anything that I would say was my great imperative. After all, what really is a great imperative? I checked out Dictionary dot com for a definition of imperative and they had about five definitions. I distilled all those into the idea that if something was imperative, then it was something that you would focus a lot of attention on and work actively towards achieving. There is definitely an element of “doing something about it” involved in imperatives.
The only things I am actively focussing upon right now are my family and I. I work. I send my kid to school. I pay my bills and so forth. But these are normal things. I am not sure that they translate into a great imperative!
The realisation that I don’t have a great imperative left me feeling a bit down. After all, here were all these other people with great imperatives, why the hell don’t I have one then! I guess it is sort of like that story by Dr. Seuss about the sneetches with stars on their bellies and the sneetches without stars, only I don’t want an imperative enough to pay someone to give me one. 
I therefore console myself with the following rationalisations:
Maybe not everyone has to have a great imperative…
Maybe if I weren’t so caught up in making ends meet and just getting through everyday life, maybe then I would sit back, look around me and see something that interested me enough for me to take it unto myself and make that my great imperative.
Or maybe I have many imperatives, none of which takes precedence over all the others, and I care equally (or something approaching that) about all these things, I don’t know.
I tell you what, since I haven’t given you any great imperative, I will tell you what my imperatives are. They are the same that most people have, I guess…. try to raise your child well so that he can become a well rounded, valuable person who contributes to society, try to stay out of the poorhouse, and try not to burden your child with too much when you get old, so that maybe he can get a little higher up the ladder than you did. At the same time, I want to have a little fun myself. If I succeed at all of those, I think I will die happy.
Personally, this great imperative thing may well be the prerogative of men who are more well off than I. Once you have all your financial bases covered, then you can really get involved in issues like “egalitarianism”, as Michael Manley spoke about, or fighting against the scourge of HIV/AIDS, or of world hunger, or even that really big one, involving the environment and saving the planet, like V.P. Al Gore. Plus, consider this: If I was really was in a position to take one of those issues on, how could I do that properly and still find time to blog? 
You can give me your thoughts on this issue in the comments, and if you are moved to do this meme, let me know. Of course you should also leave a comment over by Geoffrey’s so that other people who have done this meme will get a chance to read all about your “Great Imperative!”. I hope some of you are so moved, as I look forward to reading about all about your great imperatives.
Talk to you later…
UPDATED: You know what? I will tag a few people for this meme: Trouble, Gela, Revolution Island, Claude Mills, Cayman Firefly, and the Waiter. Hope you all do it. L8r.
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I dare say survival is your great imperative as it is with most folks. Now I’m going to think about mine. Might take me a few days. Will be back.
Dear Mad Bull,
Greetings!
I think you’ve set your standards too high. One of your greatest achievements has been to raise your son in a healthy environment. Check around the Caribbean blogosphere about Caribbean men and the relationship with their sons and fathers, and now think about what you have done.
Man, you built a web page for your son. Admitted, it’s a geeky thing to do( LOL), but how many fathers take the time to DO something like that?
Hats off to you, Mad Bull!
One Love,
Geoffrey
memes, memes, memes
Nuh worry, I feel your pain. I think the closest I will come to any imerative is raising the kid. But like yu seh, that is normal and expected of you. Then again there is the photography ting, but dat start and stop so many times!
I am not yet ready to post on my “great imperative”, because it somewhat escapes me. But you, Mad Bull, remind me of a quote from Sir Issac Newton:
“I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.†— Isaac Newton
For those that might not understand my reference, I have cut and pasted the following:
“Isaac Newton was arguably the most influential physicist that ever lived. His contributions to physics were both wide-ranging and revolutionary. The Mechanics he developed is still the foundation of many fields of Physics and his three Laws are even more important today than they were when they were first written down.”
A man who maintains three blogs, almost daily? Whilst also doing his job, supporting a family, socially interacting, playing sports…… Cho man, your “great ocean of truth” is staring you in the face!
First off, Fireflyky, as MB’s sister I can only tell you that if you watched him grow up, work and put himself through school, excell, develop, be an amazing son to his parents and an incredible brother, you would understand why your comment makes me tear up…
Secondly, Geoffrey, I just checked out your blog for the first time and this post in particular was excellent. Your comments, Empress Lou’s, Malachi’s were so moving!!! Also saw the link to the tribute to Miss Lou coming up next week - I am really going to try to make it to that, because I have always LOVED Miss Lou! Jamaica Labrish was one of my favorite books and I even won a speech competition in High School for my reading of her “Cuss Cuss”.
As for my great imperative - I have ALWAYS felt that my family is my greatest treasure in life - the people in my life are FAR more important than material wealth or any other thing - even health to an extent - because in poor health, you still have the love and care of your family…
So this got me to reflecting on how much I’ve really been LIVING that imperative - do you know what I mean?
I think as you get older and have more responsibilities, you can get sidetracked from what is really important… I mean, you move to the US, and its really primarily about making money - making money to live, making money to support your family, then its making money to have that new car, that new house, achieving success in your career - you lose track of what really matters.
Just last night I had a chance to really see that I’ve gone way off track - I called my sister, who had a terrible car accident years ago and is disabled as a result. Her speech was affected and its extremely difficult for me to understand her over the phone - but my Mother had been saying that we (her brothers and sisters) have been ‘leaving her out’ as it were, so I called her..
My heart broke when she said to me, “Thanks so much for calling me, Nicki - my phone hardly rings anymore”…
And I thought, So what if I have to really try to listen to her in order to understand what she’s saying… So what if at times she says the wrong thing and slightly annoys me - don’t we all do that with each other from time to time?
At the end of the day, how can a girl who has five brothers and sisters feel SO LONELY??????????? What am I doing here?
I always say to people of my family “I’m the youngest, but I’m the boss of all of them” - and they usually roll their eyes
But in truth, I’m not LIVING my life according to my great imperative - and this helped me to see that… So Thank you for this - it has really helped me refocus on what’s really important to me - because they really are the greatest gift God has ever given to me - and I need to prize that above all else!!!
Sorry to take up so much space Bro…
7, my love to you and your family.
Peace,
Geoffrey
7, I second that!
I absolutely agree with geoffrey. I think that anyone who can raise well-adjusted, respectful kids in this day and age has their great imperative.
Sometimes the things we search for are right underneath our noses.
Sent you an e-mail re spam comments a my site, let me know if you got it my yute.
7 sounds like she needs to take trip home, but I agree with her, fambily and bredrin a de lick!
I have none! I am, like you said, too busy trying to make ends meat.
i’m sure you have one, its just difficult to think of
Star - It is not advisiable to make assumptions about anyone from their blog - but even you last post told me your great imperative.
And “great” is an understatement. Anyone who seeks to hold their family down in this ere society and have the modicum of success that you clearly have doing it - do not need a Prime Ministerial imperative. You have mother earth lock.
Peace out! Good vibes out to youv and the family.