Today it\u2019s a great honor to share an article by Nate Montgomery, from <\/span>Precious Metal: the blog<\/a>. As Nate says in describing himself, \u201cI am just a guy trying to have some fun, help a few people and raise some awareness on issues I think ought to be raised.\u201d His article today on enlightenment and the power of just \u201cslowing down\u201d does a wonderful job of just that: raising awareness. His reflections on society should also bring some smiles and, if we\u2019re lucky, we too can share in some \u201cbits and pieces of enlightenment.\u201d Recently I was lucky enough for the opportunity to take my family on a vacation to the Bahamas. We spent three days and two nights at Atlantis, a phenomenal water-park on Paradise Island and then we traveled to a remote Bahamian island called Little Exuma. My mother-in-law owns a small Cape Cod style shanty within walking distance to a beach on the Tropic Of Cancer. We spent six amazing days on the island. I wasn\u2019t just soaking up the sun though, it was a lesson in history and life.<\/p>\n There is much to learn about Bahamian history, and I was given a brief overview by many of the locals. After years of British rule, like the Americas, slavery was abolished. Soon after, the islands started to make some progress besides being a place for pirates to frolic and corruption to run rampant. After abolishing slavery many of the landowners left the land to their slaves, arguments on deeds ensued but it all worked itself out. One of the largest of the owners was a man named Lord John Rolle. To this day, a large part of the locals share Lord John Rolle\u2019s surname, there is even a town called Rolle Town. It was customary back then for slaves to take the surname of the masters. The locals speak of their history not out of anger or shame, but as a source of pride, hence the reason they still retain the surnames. I met many of the Rolle family members.<\/p>\n Life on Little Exuma is a far cry from the bustling life I, and others consider a typical way of living. Many of the locals do not own cars, they walk. I\u2019m not just talking down to the corner store, there is no corner store. They have to walk over an hour, or more, to get to anything larger than a general store. The closest grocery market is about 45 minutes away, by vehicle! I can\u2019t even remember passing a clothing store, or any sort of department store, still I wonder where they get their basic clothing. If I were to guess they\u2019d probably have to hop a flight to Nassau. For those of us accustomed to the \u201cinstant gratification\u201d life of America this might bring about a great amount of anxiety, not knowing where or how we am going to get what \u201cwe need\u201d, quick. You get used to it though as thing\u2019s slow down a bit, quite a bit. Tourist\u2019s call that slowed down feeling \u201cisland time\u201d.<\/p>\n Back at home, my wife and I have yet to have anyone outside our family babysit my youngest son. There are news stories all the time about crazy babysitters, so it\u2019s hard to separate from our son and trust someone we don\u2019t know. Oddly enough, this was not the case on Exuma. My mother-in-law knows quite a few of the locals and one of them recommended this 17-year-old girl named Michelle. We were willing to meet her and see if we were ok with possibly leaving her for a bit with the kids. Not that it really would have been that hard, my oldest is 13 and is almost ready to start babysitting them on her own. But that\u2019s not the point I\u2019m trying to make here, the point is\u2013 yes we did leave the kids with her with a strong sense of trust in her abilities, yet we didn\u2019t know her from a hole in the wall.<\/p>\n See, the kids in Exuma are way different from most kids in America and I really don\u2019t mean to generalize but most kids I\u2019ve met from America don\u2019t have great manners or respect, none. We met a lot of Bahamian kids, even had one, Sasha, spend the night with my kids to hang out and have some fun at the beach the next day. At all times she was very appreciative and respectful, full of \u201cyes ma \u2018ams\u201d and \u201cyes sirs\u201d, plenty of \u201cpleases\u201d and \u201cthank you\u2019s\u201d. It was truly amazing to see these things,we\u2019ve tried to teach our own children this stuff and they don\u2019t get it, how come these kids do?<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t mean for this article to become a run down of my vacation and the comparisons of US and Bahamian culture, but I swear it all ties in to what I\u2019m getting at and that is\u2013 what is enlightenment? And how does one define it?<\/p>\n
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