Cricket, Local News

Letters of Gold in Pictures of Silver

By Neals J. Chitan

I guess with my eyes trained at analyzing and evaluating people’s demeanor, personality and attitude on a daily basis, it seems as if I have been quietly and subconsciously observing Kirani’s for the past years, but more importantly for the past weeks, and my findings indicate that “The Jaguar” was born with a heart of gold.

The wisest man to live, of course, the great black King Solomon says in the good book, “Out of the Heart flows all the issues of life,” and that is definitely true of this golden-hearted boy.

As is frequently seen in the world of professional sports and athleticism, there seems to be a pride, arrogance and conceit that accompany success, giving a false sense of security, immunity and earned permissiveness to these athletes, until of course, the hammer of the law comes down and severe and sometimes lifelong penalties are administered.

Kirani James has over the past weeks quietly painted pictures on the canvass of our minds leaving us to silently observe and conclude as to the quality of his upbringing and the chances of him becoming a statistic in the ring of disgraced and penalized athletes. I am happy to announce my conclusion that based on the pictures of humility, meekness, gentleness and empathy I have seen,” The Jaguar” is well on his way to side step these traps and mature into a fine professional gentleman.

However, let me just mention two pictures of Kirani I have seen and commented on. First is the picture of his empathetic deed of exchanging identification bibs with double amputee Oscar Pistorius of South Africa. This picture, on which I have commented on before, has touched the hearts of millions around the world and may go down as one of the greatest highlights of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Here is the second picture.

Taken on Thursday August 31, 2012 at the return celebration of our Gold Medal Olympian at the Maurice Bishop International Airport, this shot showcases in the front line from the left; Ms Annie James-Kirani’s mother, Sir Carlyle Glean-Governor General of Grenada, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas and Kirani James-the chief Gold Medal celebrant.

As I try to interpret the picture, I see a son intentionally making a proud smiling eye contact with his mom as if to say,

“Mom this is your day. I know I made my country proud, but mom, I wanted to make you proud more than anything else and here it is!” and she reciprocates with a proud smile of “Way to go boy, I knew you could do it”

What more can we ask for? A son making his parents proud! A son making his country proud! A son inspiring his fellow Grenadian brothers and sisters to excel! So really, what more can we ask for?

Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words, especially when these quiet words come from such a fine fella and written in letters of GOLD in pictures of Silver.

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