calling…nay…my duty to impart some of the knowledge which I have gained through living life on others so that others might learn from my extensive knowledge and experiences.
Often when I try to explain this to Tracy and Eleanor who work with me they give me a very sceptical look and say: yeah right Jonathan!...or… Whatever Jonathan!
I get this more from Tracy lately as she is a very feisty girl (a very good quality to have which drives men’s hormones mad!), and also I helped out Eleanor a lot with sorting out some confusion that she was having so she appreciates my wisdom (I hope).
Anyway this is not what my post is centered on today.
I am an avid reader, and in between loosing myself in my extensive collection of the works of David Gemmell I enjoy reading biographical books and historical books.
My latest project is: No Woman No Cry…My life with Bob Marley. Which was written by Marley's wife Rita Marley and Hettie Jones.
In between the awesome insight into life in impoverished Jamaica in the decades spanning the 1960s 70s and 80s, the reader gets an inside look into the Rastafarian movement and the life of one of the most iconic musicians to have ever graced the world stage.
One thing that strikes you the most is that the private life of Bob was nothing like the persona that he portrayed on stage. This is normal as usually people wear different masks in different situations.
Although Bob married Rita at 19 and they had five kids together, Bob was a major womaniser and had another four kids with other relationships outside that of his relationship with Rita. And he never even tried to hide these relationships from Rita. When Bob was having a fling with his last girlfriend before his death Rita asked him what he saw in the girl and Bobs reply was: No man can hav nuf woman!
I am also an avid movie fan. Here, I do not limit myself to genre’s, I am a very easy person to please as I will watch basically anything.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Walk the Line. Before watching this movie I had a very vague idea of who Johnny Cash was, but I had very limited knowledge of his life story or his music.
What I thought of Johnny Cash before watching the movie was that he was a clean cut guy who was one of the most iconic singers in Country Western music. And like Marley, I thought he was a man beyond reproach. But how he survived the drugs that he took no one knows.
When he was young his brother tragically died in a workshop accident. Cash was severely affected by this and grew up to have a bit of a dark side to him. When going to the studio to record his first album he dressed in a black pants, black shirt, and black jacket. Walking out the door his wife at the time suggested that he changed because it looked like he was going to a funeral. His reply to her was: Maybe I am!
Like I said when I was compiling my bucket list, I do not condone doing drugs or playing the field. But touring can put significant stains on relationships and families, and when you don’t have that strong support base close to you, you loose your way.
It was not until Rita Marley started touring with Bob that he stopped his womanising, and it wasn’t until June Carter agreed to marry Cash that he stopped taking his hallucinogenic’s.
The point of this post is that not everything is as it seems. Society puts these people up on pedestals because much is expected from them, but the truth behind the masks that these people wear in public is often shocking.
There is a saying in life that behind every strong man there is a strong woman. And nothing could be truer then with Marley and Cash.
In her book, Rita said that Bob was always a giving person and always looked after his kids generously. “The other babies mothers never had to physically ask Bob for money. He always made sure he provided, and when Bob provides he provides generously,” writes Marley.
Eventually, at Rita’s request, all of Bobs children from his extramarital affairs were moved into the same house as Bob’s kids with Rita. And Rita was a mom to all of them forming strong bonds with all of Bob’s kids.
How many other women do you know, or can point out, will do this? Like most other women, she could resent these kids and refuse to associate with them. But, for the sake of her love for Bob, she loved the other kids as her own.
In Walk the Line, when Cash was heavy on the pills, his first wife deserted him and it was June Carter who nursed him back to health. Standing by him, making sure he was clean.
Again, many women would have left him for dead saying that it is his wife’s job to get him clean. But for the sake of their friendship, they were not romantically involved at the time, Carter stood by him and helped a friend.
