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Today Is Trinity Sunday
Posted: Sunday, June 11, 2006

By Linda E. Edwards

Ah yes, the first Sunday after Pentecost is called Trinity Sunday by Christians.

Today, the people of Trinidad and Tobago, the trinity of faiths and people that call this place home are united as one in celebrating the success of our Soca Warriors. Watching the handful that was assembled in Dortmund, Germany wearing red white and black 'war paint', no one could tell who was of one faith or the other, racial distinctions were smudged in that sea of color, and the world was rejoicing with us, a trinity of peoples, united as one.

Today, people must be looking up their maps to find this place that I often jokingly refer to as two rocks with a goat and palm trees.(This to calm those who say whiningly, "You always bragging about Trinidad as if it is so special") Well, damnit, I am wearing my read white and black tomorrow, my trinity colours; the colours of success, of faith in oneself, of 'can do' in the face of obstacles, which is the success story of every Trini living abroad, and working primarily among "others", (non-Trinis).

What's the use of bragging about Naipaul when even a writer from the New York Times who is well respected, assigns him to India, and he does not correct the error? What's the use of bragging to Americans about Brian Lara when few of them understand cricket? By the time you are finished explaining it, you too have lost interest. These are people of instant results and short memory, but they love the underdog, a leftover perhaps, from the time when they had to go to all the educated folk of Europe to explain why they needed to break away from the oppression of George III, "…a decent respect for the opinions of mankind…" and so on.; to ensure that the other crowned heads stayed neutral in the upcoming conflict of 1776.

Now football, which they call 'soccer', they could understand. Ninety minutes of punishing work, non-stop, on a field. No time outs to change players except for two. No tea breaks, play with the sun in your eyes or the shadow of the stadium making the ball a white blur. Play your heart out as if your little nation, named after the Trinity depended on it, for it did; indeed it did. Play against the eleven on the side, and the linesmen and the referee, play against the prejudices of the world, who dismiss you, first because you are small, and then for all the more obvious reasons… Afroheads, dreadlocks and so on. That Americans can understand this Trinity Sunday, this Sunday after we put ourselves definitely on the map of the sporting world.

I will no longer have to say, "Look for where Venezuela points its finger towards Africa, we are the pieces that broke off long ago." I will no longer have to explain a mixture of all races. The Guardian of London did a good job of explaining that, and the drug problems, and crime. (Thanks to a Trini friend in TnT who sent me the link.) We know now that at least one of our papers is read throughout the English speaking world, and that a lot of people who do not use English as their first language wish us well.( We know that we Trinis are ecstatic, wherever we are, this Sunday morning, Trinity Sunday, 2006.)

Now, I know there are people who do not believe that all things come together for the common good, but as I looked at the numerous references to God in the posted comments of the Express (was there ever, in this short "Comment" time, another article with more posted remarks?) I tell myself that we are a people of faith in higher powers, three versions of which must have been working at the same time, powerfully, towards one end.

I tell myself that this Trinity business may be more mysterious than we think. May we profess the common love that binds and makes us one. (The word in the original national song, "God Bless Our Nation" was 'possess'.) That is my prayer of thanksgiving, this Trinity Sunday, the day after the Soca Warriors playing ten to eleven for half the time put us firmly on the map as a nation of good sportsmen who work hard for what they achieve. I could hear my brother Felix, who left us two years ago, saying, "Praise God, praise God." I know he was watching out for #11 in particular.



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