The Tribune

I DREAMT that I learned how to play chess last night. As I said, I dreamt. My chances of thinking about what move to make six moves from now and getting it right are about the same as my chances of winning the lottery, or maybe even less likely since there have been cases of people winning the lottery.

So why did I dream about chess? In desperation for something to do on a rainy night. The Bahamas is not made for rainy Friday nights. It’s a country that commands our presence out of doors so when it rains and you don’t’ feel like reading at the end of a long work week and you are not a Netflix addict, and also you’ve gotten over being grateful for the rain on behalf of the plants and that tomato vine you hope will actually produce a tomato one day, you’re flummoxed.

So much for a rainy night in Georgia inspiring an unforgettable Brook Benton ballad about a man who lost his love. This is not Georgia, this is Nassau, there’s no loss involved, and I am just looking for a lighter moment on a rainy night.

So my attention turned to what can I do that is different and does not involve screen time, though secretly I wanted to go online and study personality types, a subject that has captured my attention of late, prompted by the fact that I want to change a toilet in our house, being the spontaneous type, but my husband says so long as it works on the second or third flush, no need, because he is the creature of habit type and is more resistant to change. He may also be more practical since there is a cost involved that could include having to re-tile the bathroom. I remind him that the house is going on 40 years old, and this is the original toilet. They don’t make them in dusty rose anymore. Exactly, he says, so a new one won’t match the dusty rose tub. I’m thinking we could change that, too, while we are it and install a walk-in shower. But you pick your fights, and the second bedroom’s bathroom is not worth waging war over. At least until the toilet stops working altogether and he decides to call the plumber and I get to choose the new one along with the white and light gray or tan beveled glass tile for the shower, and while we are at it, the cabinet, and, wait, let me not get ahead of myself.

So back either to that leather chess set that a neighbour gave us even before we moved into this house (so you know how old that is) or I break down and go online, read TED Talks and get on with the subject of studying personality types, spontaneous vs creature of habit to start. (There are actually 16 defined personality types, I did sneak a peek.)

Back to the subject at hand. The temporarily, slightly troubling lack of something to do on a rainy night that excludes TV or other screen time, ruling out googling a subject of interest, makes me wonder what our parents did. Of course, they probably did not live outdoors like we do (as an aside, our living room is a large deck under a waterproof awning, but while the awning keeps out the heavy rain, the deafening sound makes watching TV a challenge.) And besides, we just wanted something else to do.

Our parents probably listened to music or played a board game. I remember those – Scrabble, Monopoly, Parchesi, Chinese Checkers. They were fun. We laughed. Was that a real word? we asked, and before deciding to award or not award the points depending on absolutely nothing but our mood in the midst of a hot Scrabble game. Are you really going to buy the Boardwalk we asked incredulously at the investment wisdom of an opponent in Monopoly?

It was simple, unsophisticated, but we were in a room together. Now our attention span is so short and even when we are together, we are not. Entire families go out to eat and never speak, each one glued to a device of choice, fingers racing without realizing the time of being together is being spent apart.

We demand more and interact less. We crave info-edu-entertainment nonstop, coming at us so fast we can hardly absorb it and yet we think we are learning something new every hour. We are so hooked on what screams at us that it takes a book like “How to Break Up with Your Phone” by TED Talk author Catherine Price to remind us there is still a way to bring out the playfulness in all of us.

Let it rain. Chess, anyone? I’ll just dash inside for a minute and go on YouTube to learn how to play.

CONGRATULATIONS TO PEANUTS TAYLOR

DRUM roll, please… One of the greatest Bahamian talents ever to take The Bahamas to the world through his music, John Berkeley “Peanuts” Taylor, is being accorded the honour he deserves. In a ceremony scheduled for tonight, October 21 at Margaritaville, the National Cultural Commission will celebrate the 87-year-old musical genius whose drumbeat has been heard round the globe.

Many know the story of the four-year-old who happened by a nightclub one day and had the nerve to tell the famed club owner and performer John Meeres that he could sing and dance “better than you.” Meeres invited the little squirt he nicknamed Peanut to show him what he could do and the name stuck ever since.

Even before he was old enough for school, Peanut (later with an s) guessed what it took many in The Bahamas years to realize – that his was a once-in-a-generation talent. He beats the drums as if he were pulling everything out of the skins and instruments that they could possibly give, making them sing and shout and cry and explode. A photo by Roland Rose shows Peanuts Taylor drumming in slow motion and even in slow-mo it is fast.

If you glance at Peanuts’ life and you don’t know him, you’d think he had all the recognition he needed. He’s opened shows or performed for Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan. He’s played to an audience of 30,000 in London, performed around the globe from Iran to China to Canada and more. He’s been featured in a dozen or more international publications from Harper’s Bazaar to Newsweek.

Bahamian prime ministers at foreign conferences have confessed they are asked less about themselves and more often whether they ever met really famous Bahamians like (the late) Myles Munroe or Peanuts Taylor and when they say yes, they can see world leaders’ opinions of them jump a notch.

Life has not always been easy for Peanuts Taylor but he has always made it easy for everyone around him to feel at ease, never boasting about his fame but asking about them. I had the privilege of being one of those photographed for the original Bahamian Project in 2012 along with people who really mattered like Peanuts Taylor. No one remembers that I was in that group and that is absolutely fine with me. What’s important is that no one will ever forget that Peanuts Taylor was and tonight, as a new honour is bestowed upon him, the country has reason to be proud of the little squirt who made it big by being the best at what he did and enriching our lives with the joy of music like only he can bring.