Not since we regained independence in 1979 have Saint Lucians been so united within the ethos of a single second, a single milestone.
Sure, there have been different firsts, anniversaries, even Nobel Prizes by which we nonetheless rejoice. However that is totally different, really world, real-time, and consequently, our best shared second ever. This shining isn’t just sport. That is about id.
As Walcott opened doorways for Saint Lucian poets, Julien Alfred has shattered ceilings, for athletes, youth, and all Saint Lucians aspiring to be their absolute best… after which some.
We all know we paid her inadequate thoughts until she made us all really feel good. So, let’s not do the simple factor as common, appropriating Julien’s glory unto ourselves. Even in our pleasure, allow us to be sobered by her lengthy and infrequently lonely journey to the highest.
We owe it now to Julien to make sure that her singular achievement adjustments one thing elementary for different aspiring athletes, artists, innovators brimming with inspiration, dreaming of greatness, looking for assist, hoping to seek out one pleasant door to knock on.
Reality is, there are nonetheless too few doorways, and much too few folks prepared to open them. Simply think about what we might obtain with out the petty prejudice, the tyranny of politics and people insufficient gatekeepers, about as helpful as boulders within the highway.
Julien’s meteoric arc recounts the various histories which land us right here: beliefs of freedom, struggles for rights, battles for justice, for alternative and autonomy in our ongoing seek for braveness to actually assist our champions, honor our ladies, and love one another as ourselves.
We might have so many gold medalists amongst us, if we’d solely perceive that dreamers don’t conform. Visionaries don’t pander. Heroes shouldn’t be made to kneel and beg. It breaks their spirit, the very genius they should disrupt, disturb and defy the lackluster status-quo.
With just a bit management, we might leverage this courageous new psyche of success. We might consciously select development over complacency. We might remodel right into a nation that embraces new concepts and energies, as an alternative of irritating those that have spunk sufficient to suppose past the boundary and nerve sufficient to survive the small circumferences of islands.
Sufficient meaningless diversion. What our nation wants now could be critical introspection. Vital thought. Sustained motion. Basic change targeted on long-term objectives. And to do this, we require greater than the fleeting jubilation of a one-off vacation.
This wonderful second calls us all to make that deeply private determination to prepared ourselves, mentally and bodily, for the marathon forward, unafraid of the self-discipline and sacrifice it takes for our nation to attain much more than this primary Olympic gold. When Julien Alfred returns for her hero’s welcome, will she discover us prepared, for that …?
