About Me — Wayne Westphal Barrow
I am Wayne Westphal Barrow, the middle name of which was given to my parents for consideration by a Moravian man of the cloth. Whether it was issued out of jest or mere prognostication, he felt that I would be an influential person, a fact that is yet to manifest itself economically or socially. As a husband, father, and brother my role in life has been carved out. My wife is Indo-Guyanese, my first son (Mr. Eidetic Memory) was born in Guyana, the second one (Mr. Cheeky) was born in Barbados where I was born and the last one (Mr. Melodramatic) was born in Trinidad and Tobago. They were all born on odd dates which seem to bear no connection to their individual character or goal.
Professionally, I started out in accounting and found my niche in designing management information systems and managing projects of all types before settling on facilitating business courses to bring vulnerable people from poverty to prosperity through the teaching of self-reliance principles. My joy came from the success of underachievers who made the effort to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. All they needed was some guidance and a few stale jokes by yours truly. I gained a Masters' in Project Management from the University of Barcelona late in life and am committed to continuous learning.
As a teenager, I enjoyed and participated in athletics, cricket, and soccer. Not much will be said about table tennis or lawn tennis which takes good hand-eye coordination. My very biased recollection is that I was the Usain Bolt of the day, a Chris Gayle-styled batsman, and a follower of Pele of Brazil and Gordon Banks of the UK. Rumors have it that I would quote Shakespeare and William Wordsworth on the cricket and soccer fields when my team was being thrashed. I suspect that inviting female cheerleaders would have been a better option, not that it would have done any better than to serve as a major distraction given the team members’ wistful nature at an all-boys school when females enter their environment.
My mother compelled my sisters and me, at an early age, to join the St. John Public Library; a four-mile trek to and from our home. I love reading and as a youngster slept with novels on my bed; the idea being that when I awoke during the wee hours of the morning, the characters contained in the novels would be companionship. There are some books that have lived in my memory rent-free and I had to revisit a few of them a few years ago just to be sure that my mind wasn’t playing tricks at that impressionable age. Irving Wallace’s The Man, Arthur Hailey’s Wheels, V.S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men, and Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist filled my memories with possibilities. As far as non-fiction goes, the fewer the better but Robert Kennedy and His Times by Arthurs M. Schlesinger, Jr, Boyd K. Packer by Lucile Tate, and the Book of Mormon have influenced my life in a way that can only be described as positive and proper. Of course, I could not mention literature without alluding to the short stories of the French author Guy de Maupassant and the Barbadian writer Richard Hoad where virtual worlds were created that were funny, filled with emotions, and sources of great mystery.
I choose movies not by genre but by the names of my favorite actresses or actors. The method is unorthodox but it has its merits. My favorite actresses are Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Viola Davis, and Taraji Henson. They can do no wrong in my eyes and their acting is impeccable. My favorite actors are Humphrey Bogart, Denzel Washington, Richard Gere, and Samuel L. Jackson; collectively, the best and the most natural acting abilities in the world. Attitude, strength, and their specific types of movies have led me to believe that they are choice entertainers. My music is as varied as the weather and just as erratic. A sprinkle of Mozart, a tad of Bob Marley, a gob of Trinidadian Calypso followed up with a drizzle of Charlie Pride and Gregorian chant and my world is made.
My wife Zailoon is my Muse and champion. Don’t know what I would do without her. I had the opportunity to baptize her 20 years ago within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the most impactful decisions that I have made in my life was becoming a member of the church, having been born into the Moravian faith. My work with the church included coordinating large humanitarian projects such as the 2005 floods in Guyana and the Covid-19 Relief efforts. These projects have provided me with a keen sense of community and a purpose. Thousands of citizens benefitted. Those were some of the most joyous occasions in my life bar my marriage and the birth of my three sons.
When I am not working on projects or writing, I am creating pieces of art or promoting the underappreciated creative sector. For the last 20 years, I have coordinated exhibitions for artists and sculptors whose creative pieces can only be described as inspired by God himself. I enjoy working with wood, stone, resin, and cement. Whatever mankind’s mind can conceive; the creative mind can make. My creative pieces are sustainable. The environment is our friend and as such should be treated well.
Writing has been an integral part of my life since I was a teenager. In my twenties, I was writing short stories and getting my articles published in newspapers. Writing is cathartic and reading books has always been my escape from the, sometimes, cruel world. Restarting the writing process in 2020 was a sheer inspiration when I witnessed the election manipulation in Guyana. I had no choice but to put pen to paper. Since my friends are reluctant to believe the tales of the scandalous life that I have lived in the past, I have embellished them, created some characters, and published a book of short stories. What else could I do? Life’s too short and then we die. Anyhow, Carry on Smartly and read one or all of my books on Amazon. Cheers!
