AMERICANWAY

My son, Taliesin Scien-Brae, aka Tally, has always possessed an unsuppressed joie de vivre so aptly described by Andrea Lewis, the proprietor of Beat-N-Track Roots Tours in Kingston, Jamaica. Andrea had become Tally's de facto parent during his four-month Kingston residency, the fi nal segment of a postgraduate Watson Fellowship. She was touring us around Trench Town at the time, home of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and other musicians who made reggae music an inter- national phenomenon. Tally had, characteristically, slipped away from us while we waited for our chicken, rice and peas, a disappearing act I'd wrestled with from Lake Tahoe ski slopes to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. W hen Tally felt the urge to move, he did, leaving distressed parents, distraught teachers and dismayed friends in his wake. This impulse to take off resulted in fewer school fi eld trips, but it produced many ad- ventures for him as an adult. Having just touched down in Jamaica, I was about to experience exactly what this "urge to move" felt like in real time. Tally would lead our days in a land where slipping away into the omnipresent sound system ser ves as modus operandi for a collective culture. From Port Royal's fish fry to cliff jumping in Boston Beach, this island shu es its feet, swaying back and forth to the non- chalant backbeat of the breeze. Grabbing on to the experience is simply a matter of letting go. Easier said than done. "DAT BOY OF YOURS POSSESSES SUCH LIFE SPIRIT, MON, WHICH IS WHY JAMAICA SPEAKS TO HIM SO." A BONDING JUMP: The son may have a little more enthusiasm, but the father also takes the plunge at Reach Falls on the Driver's River. 76 N OV E M B E R 2 01 4 A A .CO M/A M E R I C A NWAY

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