Miss me with that …
You ain't really wild, you a tourist
I be blackin' out with the purist
I made a hundred thou' then I freaked it
I made 500 thou' then I freaked it
So my event went down this past weekend and, according to a majority of the attendees, it was a success. There were two things that caught my attention, though: one during the process, and the other on the night off the event. The first is the classical conditioning of Caribbean People Time (CPT) and the second is the fact of something only being an issue because of our mindset – not because it’s actually an issue.
Just like there is Eastern, Atlantic and Pacific Time, there is also Caribbean People Time. CPT has nothing to do with a geographical zone or daylight saving; it simply means that if it’s organized by someone of Caribbean decent and the flyer says 8:00pm, then it actually starts at 9:30pm. I’ve even seen this proven to be true while living in New York. That American passport means absolutely nothing; if your family is off Caribbean decent, you operate on CPT.
Now classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired; a response that is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone. For example, if you ring a bell (first stimuli) and present a dog with a treat (second stimuli), the dogs mouth will begin to salivate by the sight of the treat and eventually, the dog’s mouth will begin to salivate just by the sound of the bell, because it will associate the ringing bell to the treat.
Can you imagine how far back this classical conditioning has to go for it to affect Caribbean people across the board (lol)? Its 1856: “Meet up by the stone wall when the sun is overhead, bring your own drinks.” No one shows up until sunset. Its 1947: “Meet up by the Salt Pond when the Catholic Church bell rings four times; bring your own chair.” Seven rings, and the third person shows up. When are we going to stop this, though? Doors opened at 8:00pm on Saturday for my event, by the way (lol).
The second thing I noticed concerns a “complaint” about seating at the event. Now there is typically no seating at exhibitions; and even at concerts, seating is limited if any. We wanted a lounge feel and atmosphere, so we used chairs and ottomans to create booths. Some people came in and went straight for the seats (lol). I don’t know why I thought that was funny. After a while, when persons came in and all the available seats were occupied, the brain automatically said, “Some people have a seat; we should have a seat to.” This created a small buzz of there not having enough seating.
Now this isn’t an issue. Also, I’m not calling out anyone or making a problem of it. It’s just interesting to me how the mind works. If we come into a room where there is no seating, then we’re prepared to stand the entire night, but if we walk into that exact same room and there are only a few seats available, standing all night becomes “an issue.”
That scenario spoke volumes to me, because it can be used metaphorically to explain so many other things in life that we go through and deal with on a regular basis. It shows how important conditioning our mind is, whether classically or by any other means.
Oh! Happy Easter!
*Cues Bob Marley - Redemption Song*
