jamaica

There is a rondo in Warsaw, where an artificial palm tree is planted upon a little grassy mound. A palm could not survive the middle of a city. It serves as an unusual decoration in the busy city to be admired on your way through the rondo.

Yesterday or so, my two friends (called Pawel and Agata) called me with greetings from Jamaica. Of course, they couldn't be on Jamaica. I played along anyway, somewhat mystified by them having found a Jamaica somewhere...

Today, however, I was with them at the swimming pool and they invited me to their own little Jamaica - the tiny grass mound with the palm on it. An isle of calm in the sea of asphalt, between the busy streets of Warsaw.

I was quickly sold on the idea.

It seemed to me mostly like some kind of "zany" and "crazy" "hijinx" typical of all teenagers at first, but when I arrived, I found out part of the true nature of this "Jamaica".

People driving through the rondo, closest to us, with windows opened... reacted in various ways. Some of them kept hiding behind cold walls of indifference. Some merely glanced.
But some were amused. We would give them a greeting, a wave, a nod, "greetings from Jamaica!". We would joke about the drought, about us being too poor for real vacation. If they were receptive, they smiled in response, waved, even talked briefly before driving on.

It was the most positive thing I have done recently.

For the people who shared a greeting and a brief chat with us, our Jamaica may have been a highlight of their day, something to improve your mood, something worth mentioning or remembering in the end of the day as an interesting experience. It should be interesting to see young people with vivid imaginations trying to send out some positiveness into the sea of gray.

We obviously intend to return to our Jamaica. We might print out and hand out jamaican flyers with "Have a nice day!" on them. We'll bring more Blacks to Jamaica, maybe bring instruments and spice up the place with a bit of music. We'll come there again to transmit some good vibes.

This idea is probably something that occured completely naturally to my friends, but there was a similar action somewhere else in the world, which was just as positive and constructive as our little idea, only on a much larger scale - the High Five Escalator.