Thank you for the lovely birthday present you gave me last week. Mi glad fi hear from yu so til! Yu done know seh mi an yu come from two difran generation. So wi naa go see tings eye to eye. Inna anthropology wi call dat 'inter-generational cultural dissonance'. But still for all, mi glad yu no lef mi out, like dem odder one weh a gwaan like dem better dan mi.

An mi did go read Aunty Roach Seh an Selected Poems. Yu see, Professor Mervyn Morris! Mi have nuff respect fi di elder. Mi find out seh im did write one article from way back inna 1963 weh publish inna Jamaica Journal. Im call it 'On Reading Louise Bennett, Seriously'.

Yu see di difference one lickle comma mek! Mi sight up two tings Prof Morris a seh. First of all, im a pause fi mek di point seh yu write book. A no so-so chat yu a chat. An den im a seh wi fi tek yu serious. A no so-so joke yu a mek. Mi ha fi go aks im fi come pon mi new radio programme an show di people dem di fullness a di struggle yu struggle inna dis ya country fi talk yu talk.

Yu sell off!

Mi hear yu when yu seh mi no fi bawl out everyting. But inna dem ya time, if yu no bawl out, nobody naa hear yu. An yu tink mi never ketch di lickle double entendre bout mi an Miss Kitty a fight it out inna di afternoon? Tambourine! One question: wa mek double rudeness cleaner dan single slackness? Like di calypsonian an di DJ. Anyhow, mi a go tink bout weh yu seh. Zeen?

Regulators' focus

An when mi read Prof Morris introduction to Selected Poems, mi come fi overstand seh Gleaner never did waan publish yu poem dem! Mi sure plenty people doan know dat. Wat a way di editor, Michael deCordova, did run yu! Im never know yu value.

Mi find out seh, a one tapanaaris, Horace Myers, invite yu fi perform at im big dinner party. An di said same deCordova did deh deh. An a when im see how yu sell off, im beg yu come a Gleaner nex morning fi talk. An im start publish yu poem dem inna Sunday Gleaner pon May 23, 1943. Yu must member dat deh date.

Plenty people bex. Mek dem gwaan! Dem no know seh fi wi yard talk naa stop wi from flex inna English or any odder language. Mek mi switch pon dem.

When I read Lewd Songs, I noticed that you hadn't completed the quote from Aunty Roachy. I guess you didn't want me to feel bad on my birthday: "Aunty Roachy seh she know dat dere is certain tings eena human beins' life dat no human bein naw go call dung crowd fi look pon, nor bawl out pon top a dem mout an tell everybody bout, excep dat human bein is lewd an rude an obscene."

I realise that Aunty Roachy was commenting in Lewd Songs on a television programme about censuring lyrics on air. We keep on having the same debates over and over about what is acceptable for public broadcasting. Regulators often focus on particular words that are seen as 'obscene', 'lewd' or 'profane'.

Mama Lou, the history of these judgemental words is very revealing. Take, for instance, that word 'lewd'. I don't know if you remember the primary definition given in the Oxford English Dictionary: "Lay, not clerical." So the issue of lewdness is really about status: the high-ranking clergy on top and the (lewd) laity below.

Talking about 'lay', you know that many boys and girls literally end up under the clergy. But that's a whole other lewd story. The hidden behaviour of upstanding clergymen who molest juveniles is truly obscene and profane.

Arbiters of morality

That word 'profane' also speaks to the ranking of the clergy and the laity; the supposedly sacred and secular. The origin of the word 'profane' is Latin, as you know: 'pro' meaning 'before' or, more precisely, 'outside'; and 'fanus' meaning 'temple'.

So, literally, the profane is everything that stands outside the temple. Symbolically, the profane is all of those behaviours, including how we speak, that are seen by the guardians of the temple as lewd, indecent, obscene, etc.

But, Mama Lou, who gives these arbiters of morality the right to decide who belongs inside the temple and who must stay outside? I was very pleased to see that in Lewd Songs Aunty Roachy reported that the TV programme raised the issue of cultural relativism, a concept that has long been debated in anthropology:

"An one lady cite de case of words in Jamaica folk songs, an she seh dat 'Rookoombine' was a indeestant wud when she was a lickle pickney, an she woulda did get a bad beatin if she did ever dare sing 'Rookoombine' meck her parents hear, but now 'Rookoombine' is a very good folk-song dat everybody can sing anywhere widout any worries, so dat show dat Jamaica people like change de meanin a words."

Mama Lou, things and times do change. You lived to be garlanded with national honours: first, the Order of Jamaica and then the Order of Merit. And, from long time, you also got maximum respect from di people dem out a road. Yu big an yu broad! Uptown an downtown.

As for me, I will settle for the massive ratings of the 'No Order of Jamaica' laity. No fret fi mi, Mama Lou. Mi can tek di throw-word. Everyting soon sort out. And is just 'Shanti' mi a defend: peace. And love. Ragamuffin style.

Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a public intellectual specialising in cultural enterprise management. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com or karokupa@gmail.com.