Jimmy Cliff, Families and Storms of Life
August 19 2017 By Abiodun Giwa
One of Jimmy Cliff's album, showing some titles of his songs
One reason that explains Jimmy Cliff's successes as a singer are how lines of his songs, address human life and struggles for survival. Just like many oral and written stories, on how to surmount difficult times, are popular.
People who have been on this earth for sometime, know very well, that the earth as a place is where each individual knows about times, that may have been sweet or terrible to them.
It is out of this reality that the words, "Not everything that is shinning is gold" comes into being. It does not matter that because a person is living manifestly in opulence, that such a person does not have his or her own area of life that is hurting.
Before we proceed from here, let's consider these lines from Cliff's "Sitting in Limbo".
"I don't know where life will lead me
But I know where I've been
I can't say what life will show me
But I know what I've seen".
Every parents want the best for their children. But some parents are more endowed than other. Before becoming parents, there is the dream, the dream to provide the best for the children. Some parents start off well, before the storm of life sets. Some parents find themselves in the storm before the parenting journey, and hoping things will get better. Some are fortunate not to know what is called the storms of life.
Yes, things do get better for some who have known bad days and get worse for others who have known good days. No parents want their children deprived of essential things of life. But the storms of life have no respect for human wishes. As humans, we don't know about tomorrow. There have been cases of people rising from poverty into wealth and cases of people sinking from wealth into poverty.
There are cases of children smarting out of their parents unfortunate storms and lead a way out for their parents into better life, or stem the tide of storms in their lives. It is about the family. When the going is good, they are together and when the going becomes rough, they still bundle together, caring for one another. One of the reasons some people set out to have friends, because friends are believed help each, when the cloud suddenly turns awry. And it is why it is said that there can be no friends like members of the same family - father, mother and their children.
Parents will prefer not to eat than seeing their children in hunger. They strive to provide food, clothing and roof, for the comfort of their children. Education comes into play, where there is enough money to invest. The inequality in the society results in some households swimming in storms of deprivation, while others live in affluence. The same is responsible for some children not in school. Imagine the fate of children out of school, because their parents lack the money to pay, and these children see their mates going to school!
From time immemorial, parents and children are known to swim the tide together, no matter the situation, until the children are old enough to lend helping hands. It is rare to see children going out singing that their parents are not able to provide so and so comfort of life, and that when they become adults will ensure such does not happen to their own kids or that they will ensure their kids have the best.
All children starting out have such dreams, which some call fantasy, the opposite of reality. But the world of reality is always there to teach children -growing into adults - that their parents or anyone for that matter have no control over the vicissitudes of life, and no sooner that we begin life as adults, we begin to realize and understand the uncertainties that our parents have struggled through to ensure our survival.
When the child asks his father in "Time Will Tell" about what the future holds, the father tells the child that when he grows up to be a man, the facts of life will teach him that nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.
People who have been on this earth for sometime, know very well, that the earth as a place is where each individual knows about times, that may have been sweet or terrible to them.
It is out of this reality that the words, "Not everything that is shinning is gold" comes into being. It does not matter that because a person is living manifestly in opulence, that such a person does not have his or her own area of life that is hurting.
Before we proceed from here, let's consider these lines from Cliff's "Sitting in Limbo".
"I don't know where life will lead me
But I know where I've been
I can't say what life will show me
But I know what I've seen".
Every parents want the best for their children. But some parents are more endowed than other. Before becoming parents, there is the dream, the dream to provide the best for the children. Some parents start off well, before the storm of life sets. Some parents find themselves in the storm before the parenting journey, and hoping things will get better. Some are fortunate not to know what is called the storms of life.
Yes, things do get better for some who have known bad days and get worse for others who have known good days. No parents want their children deprived of essential things of life. But the storms of life have no respect for human wishes. As humans, we don't know about tomorrow. There have been cases of people rising from poverty into wealth and cases of people sinking from wealth into poverty.
There are cases of children smarting out of their parents unfortunate storms and lead a way out for their parents into better life, or stem the tide of storms in their lives. It is about the family. When the going is good, they are together and when the going becomes rough, they still bundle together, caring for one another. One of the reasons some people set out to have friends, because friends are believed help each, when the cloud suddenly turns awry. And it is why it is said that there can be no friends like members of the same family - father, mother and their children.
Parents will prefer not to eat than seeing their children in hunger. They strive to provide food, clothing and roof, for the comfort of their children. Education comes into play, where there is enough money to invest. The inequality in the society results in some households swimming in storms of deprivation, while others live in affluence. The same is responsible for some children not in school. Imagine the fate of children out of school, because their parents lack the money to pay, and these children see their mates going to school!
From time immemorial, parents and children are known to swim the tide together, no matter the situation, until the children are old enough to lend helping hands. It is rare to see children going out singing that their parents are not able to provide so and so comfort of life, and that when they become adults will ensure such does not happen to their own kids or that they will ensure their kids have the best.
All children starting out have such dreams, which some call fantasy, the opposite of reality. But the world of reality is always there to teach children -growing into adults - that their parents or anyone for that matter have no control over the vicissitudes of life, and no sooner that we begin life as adults, we begin to realize and understand the uncertainties that our parents have struggled through to ensure our survival.
When the child asks his father in "Time Will Tell" about what the future holds, the father tells the child that when he grows up to be a man, the facts of life will teach him that nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.
