Gordon Robinson | When you talk you teach

In dominoes, as in every game, patience is your most important asset.

For example: one day this motley collection might be your hand in a critical game: six-five; double-five; four-ace; trey-deuce; trey-ace; double-ace; double-blank. Right hand opponent (RHO) poses double-six.

As soon as that card appears your hand immediately classifies as bad. Sitting above the poser, your first responsibility is to pass him (or her). You don’t have four pieces of anything; six-five (a compulsory first play if nothing better materializes) is weaker than the Iranian Rial; and you hold three doubles.

Ugh.

But prospects improve as partner plays six-ace. Now that’s like twenty lawyers at the bottom of the sea – a good start. Even if it’s cut off you only need one more ace to “drop” for your hand to improve significantly. It gets better. LHO plays six-trey.

Allrighty then! Now we’re cooking with Tropigas! Yes, we are. But stop. Think. Listen to the Pointer Sisters

I saw the look in your eyes, looking into mine,

seeing what you wanted to see.

Darlin’ don’t say a word ’cause I already heard

what your body’s sayin’ to mine.

I’m tired of fast moves.

I’ve got a slow groove

on my mind.

I want a man with a slow hand….

DON’T go two aces. LHO might not have aces but it’s unlikely RHO is similarly embarrassed. If you go two aces and RHO cuts one partner will cut the other because he’ll place LHO with double-ace. Then it goes downhill as your four-ace is solo four. You’ll be forced to play it and partner will happily kill your double-ace accompanied by Dessie’s war cry “dead like a dawg…”

Quietly, calmly, play double-ace. Watch RHO use likely his sole ace while leaving his partner’s trey alone. Then patiently plot to have ace face the poser as often as possible.

It’s the same in golf. So you bogeyed the first hole. So what? Seventeen holes to go. Don’t approach your second tee shot so anxious to get it back immediately that you end up needing a weed-whacker to extricate your ball from deep rough.

Patience is a most valuable virtue. When you talk you teach. When you listen you learn. It’s better to learn than teach. Never let them see you coming.

This patience thingy applies even more critically to the game of politics. For the longest while Damion Crawford has been shouting from the rooftops that he wants to be PM and is reported by Nationwide to have begun an internal campaign to replace Mark Golding. This loud strategy is bound to fail. For years everybody has seen (and heard) Damion coming and prepared for his inevitable challenge. He’s likely to find his path to glory blocked by students who’ve learned by listening to him blab incessantly about his ambitions.

To whom did he listen? From whom did he learn?

He should’ve learned from Edward Seaga’s rise to JLP leadership. From 1967 when Donald Sangster died suddenly, contenders for (Acting) JLP Leadership (Busta was leader for life) were Seaga and Bob Lightbourne. Votes were split among JLP MPs so the dilemma was carried to Bellencita where the Chief appointed Hugh Shearer as a compromise PM.

After the 1972 loss, the spectre of another contest between the two political heavyweights loomed. Seaga decided he wasn’t going chase the job. He took a leave of absence from the Party ostensibly to write a book. I believe he only wanted them to realize they needed him more than he needed them. Eventually he was implored to return. Shearer stepped down. Lightbourne waved the white flag. At the 1974 annual conference Seaga defeated a perfunctory challenge from Wilton Hill 2,052 to 97. Essentially, he was elected by acclamation.

P.J. Patterson took an eerily similar route although using more discreet tactics. But the golden thread was the same. Less talk. More listening. After his resignation from cabinet due to what has been popularly called “The Shell; Waiver Scandal” he mimicked Douglas MacArthur and announced “I shall, return”. Thereafter, he quietly did his work behind the scenes; listened to advice from a trusted source; and waited.

Soon enough Michael Manley resigned as PNP Leader (not PM) hoping his preference as successor, Portia, would win the delegates vote. Resignation as PM would’ve triggered a vote among MPs only which PJ was sure to win. But PJ had quietly, patiently done the work. PNP Delegates rejected Portia.

Lessons from Seaga’s and Patterson’s rise to party leadership are the same. Anything you chase (money, women, men, power) tends to run away from you. Don’t believe me? Ask Audley Shaw or Peter Bunting. Mark Golding never chased power. It came to him after the chaser lost his seat. If you stop chasing whatever you believe to be your due it might just decide to come to you instead.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com