RECENTLY MY CHILDREN HAVE been asking about their grandfather, and so I have written The Boy From Nine Miles: The Early Life of Bob Marley and now 56 Thoughts From 56 Hope Road. This book of meditations is really like having a conversation with my dad. These are his thoughts. They are not songs—what comes out here is raw and real. And it’s a personal side very few people get to see.
Music is what it is … people attach themselves to it in a certain way. The spoken word is a different kind of reality. Like when he said, “Me live in the world but I’m not of the world.” From that, you could say, what is going on in the world is not really for you. Because, really, you create your own world, your own safety and sanctity. And when my dad said, “I did not come to bow, I came to conquer,” I think of how I am raising my own children right now. I refuse to lie. I refuse to tell my kids to believe in tooth fairies, Halloween, Columbus Day. I tell my children, Chris Columbus didn’t discover Jamaica. He was the Tourist Board. So, by telling the truth about things, you are not bowing; you are conquering.
My father is such a strong presence. But we are all extensions of someone we’re related to, and not related to, and that is the strong presence in us. When I do things for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, I become my father. And whether I am building an empire, physical or spiritual, I am doing it for my father. When he said, “How could you deny me my simplicity?” I think he was aware that even with all that he had accomplished, he had the right to make that statement. In truth, he didn’t call himself anything. He was just who he was. Often he worked only for others. So they would have food to eat. And when he said to us, “You have no friends,” what he really meant was that we had many brothers and sisters. Daddy was one man but he left an army. I think the most important thing he taught me was that nobody is beyond redemption. Nobody. He said, too, that envy is the number one killer of man. Well, my father had so much to say. Hopefully, these 56 thoughts will help you to stay upful and right.
—Cedella Marley