Pain and Joy: The Two Extremes of the Emotional Scale
June 23, 2021: Yesterday, Tuesday June 22, 2021, was a day that I will always remember because of two contrasting events that can help put life into perspective for those of us that experience pain and those that experience joy, in other words, the two extremes on the emotional scale.
Yesterday morning I woke up to the sad news that a friend of mine and former member of our club, Michael Seebaran passed away after battling an illness he had for a long time. He was 51 years old. Although I expected the worse I had hoped that he would be with us a lot longer than this, but his suffering was unbearable to watch. I’ve known Mikes since returning to Trinidad over 30 years ago. We trained together, worked together (at the Ministry of Sport) and laughed together and I have to say that he was the funniest person I’ve ever known. He was a formidable judoka which he had the build for and a great referee, hands down! On a personal note, there have been only two times in my life when a death has had such a profound impact on me – Michael’s passing is one of those because he is a part of who I am today, and will always be. And although we might try (but ultimately fail) to mimic his unique sense of humour we might be able to do something else in his memory, which is to make people happy. All members of the QPJC past and present join me, his wife Lesann and his son Luke in mourning Michael’s passing.
Then just over six hours later that day I was elated to learn that another member of ours, Gabriella Wood qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Although we were quite confident that she would it was a huge relief to see the letter “Q” as in “Qualified” next to her name on the list from the International Judo Federation. This quest for Olympic qualification in judo was burning in Gabby for about 7 or so years ago with her taste of competition in the Caribbean and by watching our other Olympian Chris George in his qualification bid for 2016. I’ve known Gabby since she started judo in 2007 and have watched her journey up to this stage with pride; however that journey was made unnecessarily difficult at times, not just for her but for her parents, so also I watched this journey in awe. She is the first female from this country to qualify for Olympic judo and shares the honour as the first of two women from the Anglophone Caribbean to do so. Once again, all the QPJC members gone and still with us join in to celebrate Gabby’s historic achievement.
And there I was in grief one minute then glad the next. These two sets of news couldn’t be more dissimilar but the resulting bittersweet memories of June 22 make it clear that life goes on with all its peaks and troughs. We’re just along for the ride.
We should make the best of it.
Mark Littrean
Wednesday June 23, 2021
And there I was in grief one minute then glad the next. These two sets of news couldn’t be more dissimilar but the resulting bittersweet memories of June 22 make it clear that life goes on with all its peaks and troughs. We’re just along for the ride.
We should make the best of it.
Mark Littrean
Wednesday June 23, 2021