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Reading Time 5 mins
Lt. David G. Brizan at Court Martial at Chaguaramas Convention Center, June 1970
What a mind, David’s capacity to overcome obstacles and keep his focus. I sense that he has been doing that since early childhood. For sure, this was very present in his accomplishments at Sandhurst. In that racist institution, he was awarded the stick for being the top Overseas Cadet of his intake. You can read Overseas to mean black, brown, and yellow skin color officer cadets. On his return to Trinidad, there was no acknowledgment of his achievements from the status quo of the military hierarchy. I guess they felt confronted by his accomplishments, and there was no willingness or capacity to recognize the skill set that he was bringing to the Army.
During my time in the Trinidad & Tobago Regiment, David always inspired me with his military approach. Those odd short moments when we were on military exercise in Trinidad. They were always too short. I remember sharing my focus with him on having the soldiers use their cloaks as a hammock and getting that in a smooth flow. Where it becomes second nature to them, he shared that his focus was discovering the automatic responses of his soldiers when they were out in the bush. In that way, he would have clarity on orienting them in combat. In a way, David was always one step ahead of me as regards his military choices. His approach impressed me because you could not forecast how he would operate with his soldiers. He carried that feature of surprise and unpredictability. In a way, he had let go of his Sandhurst training and was coming from innovation within the Trinidad context.
Time and again over the decades in our communications. David will have a specific position on some topics. I respond very directly, which can be agreeing with his viewpoint or sometimes challenging it. David had already moved on, and I was engaging with someone who had already picked up his bundle and was in another location. This was endless in our dialogues; we got to know each other better and had profound interactions.
A few years ago, more like ten years. I met David in London. He was visiting, and we limed and just hung out and blew some people’s minds in shops with our direct questions about clothes, all with a smile and David’s provocativeness. I told him, “There are no mistakes; they are just experiences.” His eyes brightened when he heard those words and excitedly rolled over David’s face. I said I needed to show you a link about this on YouTube. He pulled his computer from his briefcase. I showed him the link to Herbie Hancock playing with Miles when Herbie made a mistake when Miles was soloing.
When David heard this link, he told me, “Rex, we have to do a program next year at a big hotel in Port of Spain on April 21 of that year where we open the program with this link about Miles and no mistakes, just opportunities.” My jaw dropped; the fire was still there in David’s belly to instinctively have an action plan for this. I was not thinking of doing anything with it, just sharing how to look at specific experiences we go through in life. The true impact of David’s imprisonment for writing his letter to me supporting the mutiny was that it gave him a new freedom. It encompassed a vast reservoir of courage and instinctive wisdom approaches to transform society. This has been his theme since leaving prison. It never left him.
Yet society never got to engage with what he had to offer and could offer. Part of it was that David’s tolerance of BS was very close to zero. In many conversations, he was in the presence of the dumb and dotish. David just closed the book and moved on. A few corporate organizations engaged him over the decades. They never really experienced David in full flight. His mastery of the English language and his “dingolay” with it to bring leverage to a dialogue is phenomenal. Hence, Coach Brizan is present. He can show the individual or the group where they could get their weight through language to bring about a different outcome than how it appeared.
David informed me in early July that two youths mugged him, and his phone and money were stolen in mid-June. I was saddened and shocked to hear this. Then, in early August, David emailed me that he fell and broke his hip at the beginning of June, and the injury was more severe than he thought. This is typical of David and his stoicism, not to say much, all part of his ruggedness.
This shock created a significant need for me to write about the David I know and how society has had no genuine interest in connecting with what he has to offer. The vast horizon of his humanity that he embodies. David, I am sorry I am not there to provide my skillset with these healing challenges you are presently facing.
The reality is we carry a deep Spiritual Bond. David was born the same day as my mother, obviously in a different year. My mother censored mail in the Second World War for British Military Intelligence. Yes, David’s letter to me after the April 21st mutiny at Teteron was intercepted after he posted it from Canada, where he was on a military course. They did not want David to be around in 1970…he was sent on some ridiculous system irrelevant to the Trinidad military context. David is the only person in the Caribbean who has ever been imprisoned for writing a letter.
Here is a poem I wrote about David a few years ago.
RIPENING CORPORATE WARRIOR
He speaks the language with a different rhythm
He sees the problem
But offers only questions
He listens and listens
And seeks the congruence
They are confused and baffled
Figures & analyses they are seeking
That endless growing profit line.
Why tell me about health & being
Go elsewhere with your Ripening Warrior program
Do not seek to nourish workers
We want profits from them
Oh, that old Plantation Management, my cells abhor
The Ripening Corporate Warrior remains undaunted.
As his Ripening Warrior bliss keeps shining.
They see mistakes, he sees possibilities
Those tragic failures are golden opportunities
As within that, he can hear a new creation.
Alone
Undaunted as the petty, vindictive emotions swirl around him
Out bellows his outrageous, blissful laughter.
He is a Ripening Corporate Warrior bathed in his infinite bliss.
Embraced with a mind of possibilities
As the plantation managers fixate on a bottom line.
To Introduction
Rex Lassalle now lives in Finland, where his work and writings focus on discovering and honoring his Indigenous origins. In doing so, he creates virtuous actions that generate extraordinary moments in people’s lives. He is the author of Rex Lassalle & The Alchemy of TIME and the soon-to-be-published “Lifestyle Solutions For Lifestyle Diseases: A Guide to Gentle Movement, Self-Massage and Home Remedies.”
