The Tribune

Would morning be so beautiful if it did not emerge slowly from the darkness of night? Would recovery be so welcome if it did not follow illness? Would the sight of a loved one you had not seen in years be so sweet if you had seen them yesterday?

It is the contrasts that give our life meaning, something I mean to remind myself about nearly daily, though like most of us, I fail to do so. Like when the contrasts come down to choices -- when I feel there is little I can do to make a difference, to keep a child from going to bed hungry, do I stop and feed that child, knowing that my cupboard is full and there is a steak marinating for dinner tonight? What is the contrast between my life, my comfortable bed, and the existence of the old man who will sleep on the curved top of the wall on the edge of a parking lot on Shirley Street tonight?

It is not the contrast in lifestyles that matters so much as what I do or do not do about those contrasts that matters.

On August 24, yesterday, the same day McDonald’s and others partnered with the St Andrew’s Kirk to provide 400 backpacks to children in the Bain and Grant’s Town communities, along with lunches, song and words of encouragement as youngsters prepared to return to school, a young father left with a three-month old baby was sleeping in his car. He was unable to get to work on a regular basis because the baby’s mother left him with the child and someone has to care for the infant.

Contrasts – heartbreaking or beautiful, woeful and winsome, make up our world. Here are a few for you to consider as I leave this column, shorter in words than usual, to take up the cause of the father who needs a helping hand. He needs someone to know that people care.

A NATIONAL EYESORE

Can anyone explain why this structure remains a blight on the horizon on East West Highway 21 months after the blaze that destroyed most of the Liquidation Centre and the former Commonwealth Brewery recycling plant? Why has there been no public accounting for the incident or why it continues to erode the surrounding environment with massive melted steel and collapsed roof the physical backdrop to the contrasts of Royal Poinciana is bloom?