tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69335012024-03-16T13:41:39.229+08:00The Ignatian Perspective<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/velezneri/536352288/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/536352288_b35bf9102b.jpg" width="1050" height="200" alt="IgnatianSFTrip0009tracy Summer Bloom"></a>
...to make a difference let your life's footprints mark the way for others to follow. However, be prepared to be made a fool for Christ.
RESPICE AD FINEM.Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.comBlogger650125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-58782005446085242152024-01-19T11:09:00.000+08:002024-01-19T11:09:25.303+08:00 KEEPING THE MALLS OF CAGAYAN DE ORO DRY<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Re our own insular issue of how to keep the LKKS area and environs dry, we simply need to heed nature, and keep away from the paths it has chosen.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Growing up in the 50’s we had more respect for nature and its ways then. The old Lapasan road from its intersection with Corrales Avenue all the way to the Camp Alagar intersection had always been elevated in relation to the land on both sides. The trade school campus, now MUST, was traversed by Bitan-ag Creek, and a little bridge allowed the creek to pass through the highway. And the lazy creek meandered all the way to Camama-an I believe.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And we had expected or took for granted that even without rain when the tide was high, water would fill the areas around the trade school and into the other side of the road which was largely and definitely low-lying and marshy. Some coconut trees co-existed with other plant life like tangkong and kumpay. Owners pretty much left the areas alone treating them like estuaries on occasions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And humans co-existed with the lay of the land that nature gave, adapted their living and nary a word of complaint was muttered from their lips.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And with the patience of Job, everybody waited for either the tide to recede or the rain to abate. And like clockwork, the waters squatting on land simply returned from whence they came. And everybody was contented. People harvested the tangkong and fed their horses with the kumpay which flourished.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But after many years, and after the topography and landscape have been inexorably changed by humans, now we encounter a multiple of problems. And public officials, businessmen, and young folks cannot understand why or worse, cannot even begin to resolve the issues. Of course, many stop-gap measures are cranked out from the government mill. To no avail.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Unless we want to do battle with formidable nature, I believe the solution is simple. Keep away from its path. Thus, decongest the areas affected. And that most likely include also the smallish poblacion area the city has, which now feels too big for its britches.</span></p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-9408003957892152052024-01-11T08:57:00.001+08:002024-01-11T08:57:38.937+08:00<p style="text-align: center;"> Somber Thoughts On A New Year</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">Lingering hope gives impetus to continue with life.</p><p style="text-align: center;">It proffers clarity of vision to see through hazy veil</p><p style="text-align: center;">that shrouds our real purposes here on this earth.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">That lowly man is here only as itinerant traveler,</p><p style="text-align: center;">preordained to begin his real life in the spirit</p><p style="text-align: center;">devoid of the constrictive trappings of the flesh.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">Still, while the mind and spirit share a clear </p><p style="text-align: center;">and unstinting grasp of our real goals in life,</p><p style="text-align: center;">keeping this frame of mind is mostly difficult.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">And calamitous lapses in judgment are typical,</p><p style="text-align: center;">making it necessary to be always reminded </p><p style="text-align: center;">of guiding principles that should rule daily living</p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-9516006849381673322023-12-16T05:38:00.002+08:002023-12-16T05:38:26.145+08:00 CONVERSATIONS WITH SELF<p><b style="font-size: large;">Understandably these twilight years bring diminished capabilities and mobility, resulting in almost bunker-like existence. Shrinking one's world and ken even more as days are piled under, with attention laser-focused on eternity in general, but day-to-day living in particular. </b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Thus, we are not even in the midst of family life. We are simply alone, an old man with his wife by his side eking out solitary existence. The rest of the family now on their own with their own families and concerns. </b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Moments like these when one begins to converse with one self rather than with other people. They are our Says-I-To-Me moments, with your consciousness on one side and your still-thriving mind on the other.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">In these instances you quickly learn introspection and reflection if you have not already. One begins to ask profound questions about oneself. In the shortened drive to eternity, what are your purposes in life? However late-term they may be, what are they and how may they be pursued and accomplished?</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Though short and straightforward the question may be, no easy answers can be deduced. Best then to just go through all the things one does and see where they lead if they make sense at all. Brainstorming is always a good start.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">In the rush to eternity, what have I been doing and for what reasons?</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">In no particular order then, here are the things and chores that had occupied my time as we speak.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">With great preparation and financial effort, I have been able to publish a book of almost 500 pages. So much so that a second volume is in the works. Is my purpose as an author then? Anyway, I am now a registered author and my book now has a unique ISBN number assigned to it.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">During my grade school I had always had a predilection for doing sketches, starting early with imitating caricatures in comic books, newspapers, and magazines. I can recall the first time I did it and felt proud of my sketchy work. I had imitated the caricature of then Phil. President Elpidio Quirino whose default caricature was that of a big-nosed and heavy-set man sitting on a padded seat with one heavily bandaged foot raised on an ottoman. The guy suffered from a bad case of gout. I imitated that sketch and even got an admiring nod from my taciturn mother who in turn relayed such joyful discovery to relatives. And to this day in some kind of compulsion, I continue to do sketches, this time specializing in busts of famous and notable personalities. I probably have accumulated a collection of about 400 pieces. Am I an illustrator then, slavishly pursuing that path till the end? In this regard, I also am both a numismatist and philately collector, accumulating about 2000 pieces of coins from various countries. Being an avid Elvis Presley fan, I can also boast of a modest collection of memorabilia comprising mostly of books and MP3 files.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">I was an employee for about 37 years, and earned my essential living being one. Was able to raise family and provide for our retirement years. In hindsight, I do put value on what I did as such and am grateful for what it afforded us as a family. Clearly it was pursued with earnest as a necessity, and not because I liked doing it. As a matter fact, I can confess that I was only too eager and happy when employment stopped. Now it is regarded simply as a past phase of my life. Nothing less, nothing more.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Indeed, right after employment I wasted no time looking for the path to self-employment or entrepreneurship. Commenced earlier even before retirement by getting license as a real estate agent. And engaging formally in the business for at least 3 years, the initial validity period of my license as i recall. And after that, secured another state license as personal financial analyst which served me well personally. Then in a very serious way, the IT bug got me, and I could not help myself learning as much as I could digest about it. So did a lot of serious self-study to secure license as a network and sysadmin technician. Our eventual return to the old homeland cut short any attempt of securing that license, though with regard to subject knowledge I had gone through the wringer of learning and researching. And I considered myself as ready as I could get.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">It was back to the old homeland when the entrepreneurship bug caught me. Started with planting high-value crops on rented agricultural land. And eventually buying some plots with agriculture in mind. Also went into real estate investments, with residential apartments and commercial spaces for rent. Established 2 bakery sites, and a water-refilling station. And even tried a piggery fattening business. </b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">And now in a tad grandiose way, established a resort/retreat patterned as a farmhouse model with lodgings available and spaces and structures available also for functions and events. And in the works will be an inn for more accommodations. And by the way, we also had much earlier started a coffee orchard with about 2000 trees, which are now fruit-bearing. At least two harvest seasons have been had. We also have little fishpond, seeded with tilapia and catfish. We also plant flowers for show and for sale, too. So is entrepreneurship the purpose for this existence? Definitely, we are in the thick of it with construction projects still ongoing. So indeed we are into entrepreneurship.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">On another front, this time using social media as tool, I have engaged in what I call my truth-telling advocacy, especially because nowadays fake news and deliberate misinformation are so prevalent in the institutions we have long regarded as trustworthy and reliable. But have now gone to the dark side. So I spend considerable time, disseminating and dispensing truth where I find it, and assist to make known the emerging personalities who are also committed to the same task. And for this, I consider myself a citizen journalist, tasked with a very noble and admirable purpose worthy of effort and maybe, worth dying for.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">With all these confusing choices, what reasonable deduction can one draw in reply to the initial question?</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">I can't say. So maybe best to just let things slide. Let the chips fall where they may.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">But then even holy books warn that one cannot run away from oneself. So always best to confront and resolve.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">So if that be the case then let me pursue all of the above for all men. And continue on with what are being done.</b></p><p><b style="font-size: large;">Amen.</b></p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-70374994267486640382023-12-11T09:00:00.002+08:002023-12-11T09:48:32.953+08:00 In The Nature of Man <p><span style="font-size: medium;">The deep-longing desires for permanency, perpetuity, and preservation are I do believe innate in man, encoded deeply enough as to be part of his DNA.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is in the very nature of Man to create, pro-create, build and preserve. Not to destroy and lay waste, both his creation and himself. Thus, we find generally no logic or justication in suicide-bombing, or even just suicide. Or for that matter any act the default result of which is one's own demise without a decidedly greater cause. Thus, we can justify greater love than this when a man gives his life for his friend.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I myself shudder at the thought of any destruction, whether real or make-believe. I hate watching movies where things are blasted away like buildings or cars, or even the most petty of things. But I beam in pride and glory at the sight of things being built and becoming reality.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">We are hardwired toward creation and self-preservation. Though at times this gets short-circuited along the way, and thus in our insanity temporarily set aside.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In a nuclear war nobody wins because everything is destroyed. All potential combatants know and understand this. Everybody is resigned and committed to this eventuality in the event of any nuclear exchange between two opposing nuclear powers. There are no two ways about it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Ergo, the country or people who are most committed to create and preserve are the least likely to start a nuclear war. And vice-versa.</span></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-91805230290405032852023-12-10T20:21:00.001+08:002023-12-11T07:28:10.944+08:00 Some Unforgotten Childhood Chore<p> </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiItJDm8lgPlri9Cm6reOXg4Ok-jfc7y92EeBgED7REUmJ94s-DzufrUWJ0_K84QLwgXrR68p0MfzNhRMVt9ZsD8TJiizpUYm6OL7tS4zf3KTYsu-_9LX86LoAiRThV_cgVlWT-NbyAAFD_E7ohjxq7M48OdrX35T49Wvxx06zt-l8fptq6GiOZgg/s320/Old%20Del%20Mar%20House.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="320" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiItJDm8lgPlri9Cm6reOXg4Ok-jfc7y92EeBgED7REUmJ94s-DzufrUWJ0_K84QLwgXrR68p0MfzNhRMVt9ZsD8TJiizpUYm6OL7tS4zf3KTYsu-_9LX86LoAiRThV_cgVlWT-NbyAAFD_E7ohjxq7M48OdrX35T49Wvxx06zt-l8fptq6GiOZgg/w400-h259/Old%20Del%20Mar%20House.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Living with a large family allows an accumulation of memories that tarry on and refuse to go way.</p><p>This is one such hardy memory that had kept me anxious during my last afternoon nap.</p><p>Living and growing up with my large family in that old house along Del Mar and Victoria Sts, I had chores like any other siblings, though in hindsight I wonder why I felt undue brunt on many of them, being only the 5th child in a brood of nine.</p><p>On the ground floor of that very cramped house, tucked between my parents' bedroom and the bathroom facility was a small enclosure called the <i>kuwartito</i>. It was intended as the help's quarters, right next door to their tiny and dark bathroom facility. The room was also limited in space by the fact that it was partly under the stairwell leading to the 2nd floor. That throwaway space was used to store odd stuff - like tires, clothing and rags, cardboard, etc. As if that these were not enough, there was built another compartment made of wood and <i>amakan</i> and situated flushed to the outside wall. It was at least 5 feet high and maybe 2 square meters, with a small opening on the top.. It was used as storage of palay.</p><p>The story of the source of the palay merits another separate account. For now, let us proceed to the chore. In effect, the palay was our household inventory and supply for the rice that we needed each day for our meals. Every time our supply of rice would run low, the family dipped into that supply.</p><p>My chore was to load palay to two big jute sacks, using the kerosene "taro" to scoop palay from the enclosure into the 2 sacks. This was one "prickly" chore since exposure to the palay made one very itchy all over, aggravated by the intolerable heat in that very cramped space. But it had to be done.</p><p>The sacks were then loaded to a <i>tartanilla</i> and delivered for milling to Buhayco rice mill somewhere along Real St. near its intersection with either Gomez or Luzon Sts. One retrieved one sack of milled rice for the two sacks brought. Then back to the house. And this chore was repeated as the need arose.</p><p>Initially none of us young kids in the house raised any question about the source of the palay. .As I got older, certain things began to add up, and not because we started asking questions. But simply because one added to another.</p><p>One very vivid recollection I have as a kid is of a trip we made to a place in Opol, riding in a relative's shiny Ford sedan. Our uncle and aunt who were our next door neighbors, brought some of us siblings together with their only son for the trip. It was to be a day long trip, where food was brought and handled by a helper who came along for the ride.</p><p>The trip was among other things memorable because of the number of times we had to disembark during the entire trip. Not that the car was not reliable, but because it was determined that the precaution was critical for our protection.</p><p>First, from the house in Victoria driving to Carmen, we had to disembark as the car negotiated the steep downgrade leading to the makeshift ferry docked near the City Hall. The old bridge bombed during the last year was not restored yet. And then on the disembarking procedure was repeated for every bridge all the way to Opol. Can't remember how many. But understandably it had to be done since all the bridges then were made from coconut trunks that were not considered reliable. So each time we disembarked, we walked behind the car as it negotiated the bridge, then back inside on the other side. This was the routine.</p><p>We reached Opol and were thrilled to see irrigation canals running parallel and vertical to the highway, with clear and cool waters flowing noisily. We were told that they were fit to soak in, which we did without a moment's delay.</p><p>Later, we learned that our uncle and aunt were visiting their <i>basakan</i> in Opol and that our parents also had theirs in the same location.</p><p>Back to the house, on occasion we would get visits from a soft-spoken and kindly old man named Iyo Unque. And we would overhear conversations about palay production and how much we could expect. Pretty soon sacks of palay would arrive and they would be unloaded into our little stash..</p><p>Th equation therefore as best as I could figure out was that Iyo Inque took care of planting and harvesting palay from <i>basakan</i> owned by my parents, and the production was shared between the two parties.</p><p>So ends a clear enough exposition of one particular arrangement consenting people had during those times. Arrangements that ostensibly benefited all parties concerned.</p><p>One last lingering thought on the whole thing. I can only imagine the rat problem we were initiating because of that palay storage right on the ground floor where it is very accessible. And so to this day the scourge of that little neighborhood is, you guessed right, the rat problem.</p><p><br /></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-85465470016175735792023-09-01T11:35:00.002+08:002023-09-01T11:35:36.146+08:00You and Your Descendants<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">You
and Your Descendants<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Strong
contravening forces of both nature and nurture will conspire<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">to
almost guarantee next generations will be different from prior.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Mothers
and fathers markedly different and estranged from progenitors;<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">while
children and grandchildren in many ways alien to their ancestors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">Though
still obvious reality when certain individuals surprise many<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">when
they appear looking and acting like their previous progeny.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">The
similarities and differences treading beyond just physical beatitude,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">but
all the way down to values and priorities, and yes, even pulchritude.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">We
affirm that God’s stupendous and inscrutable handiwork assures<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">the
utter uniqueness of each human person in His cache of treasures.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">We
hope the moral absolutes learned through our long history<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">filter
down to the last generation of the anointed human family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">After
all, we also believe these are encoded in our very nature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Historic"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;">To
be searched for and discovered in true fashion and nurture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-3481932458801553412023-05-18T15:10:00.002+08:002023-05-18T15:10:38.081+08:00In The Threshold of Life, Where Do You Stand?<p> <b>As I age even more I find the chasm between the spiritual life (or at least the perception of it) and that of the realities of our living getting wider and wider, rather than closer as the end of our temporal lives comes closer.</b></p><p><b>As Christians, our avowals to the strict precepts of our Leader, Jesus Christ, get more and more intense, yet we find the daily living of our lives instead veering away more and more from those “hard sayings”.</b></p><p><b>In no mean terms, Christ has repeatedly intoned that to be like him we must deny ourselves, follow him, and take up our daily crosses. That life is one battle after another, from one cross to another which at times weigh heavier, till our last dying breath. That there is no respite for us in these temporal settings.</b></p><p><b> The only consolation afforded us mortals has been His words that doing all these, He will send us grace, as a “foretaste” of the eternal kingdom He promised us afterwards. To illustrate this, consider being under extreme thirst from denial of water for many days, and we get a drop of water in our tongues, just enough to experience the thought of relief that water can bring. That is to me what foretaste is.</b></p><p><b>And yet how far have we strayed from these stringent strictures? We still even in our mellow ages, crave for temporal pleasures brought on by our daily pursuits. The pleasurable trips that we take or planned to take.</b></p><p><b>The fine rich food we pine for and/or savor. The idle tasks and camaraderie we thirst for among our friends and relations, and loved ones.</b></p><p><b>In other words, our pursuits still are essentially those that provide us with the fleeting pleasures of earth, rather than the lasting treasures that are supposed to be laid for eternity.</b></p><p><b> And which can come only with our daily taking of our crosses.</b></p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-80661891976835930672023-04-09T14:07:00.000+08:002023-04-09T14:07:59.979+08:00Quest for Childlike Innocence<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Quest for Childlike
Innocence<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">When the cares of the
world threaten to overwhelm, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">how nice it would be to
be lost in a children's playground <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">nestled comfortably in
the midst of any nowhere.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">What could compare with
the playful innocence of a child?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>let loose with the swings and see-saws of yore?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Untethered from the
constricting cares of adulthood.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Swinging to and fro with
the carefree ease of the wind. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Or climbing hither and
thither, the worldly cares too distant.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Exchanging somber
silence with innocent lively giggles.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Oh, to be a child again,
lost in the embrace of youth.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Innocent and wild as the
fairy nymphs in books.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="Normal" style="text-align: center;">Yet loved and treasured
by all hither and yonder.<o:p></o:p></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-52808610229694759422023-03-01T09:26:00.003+08:002023-03-04T07:57:16.469+08:00Short Disparate Thoughts Collated
<b>Risking War </b><div>
At this point of the game, or war in this instance, the elemental question to ask is: How does the world deal with a troubled man drunk with grand designs, without fully satisfying his blood lust?
As a kid, I recall that when a mad-dog roams, we simply scamper for safety anywhere and wait for somebody to end the dog's miseries.
At this point nobody is daring enough, or maybe, reckless enough to risk a nuclear holocaust. God help us.
Can we say that it is common in wars that the more deadly damages are not done by military superiors on the ground?
That they are made by politicians and pundits in the background, who make clueless, reckless, and what have you decisions/opinions in utter abandon? Unable or unwilling to realize the dire consequences of their inane actions?
And why not? They are very rarely killed in battle. There is very little attrition in their numbers. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Lost Hope at the Height of the Pandemic</b>
In every real and virtual way, the Corona Virus has taken over the world. It has become all too powerful and omnipotent. It is there wherever we turn, in every which way our ken is directed. It has preoccupied our waking hours and beyond. Even our reveries may already be dealing with its deadly results.
It has become the “crown of thorns” of the world. And what is more, it is indiscriminate. It destroys not only the good things humanity has made possible, but even the evils men do are not spared from it.
Like Noah’s time, everything in the world is being levelled. It might as well be the end of creation.
Hard to imagine that this nemesis so small and insignificant could possess such unimaginable destructive powers. But we recall God did create the entire universe out of nothing.
To dust and nothing is our conceivable end. Best to accept and welcome it. On this our salvation hinges and is to be found.</div><div><br /></div><div>Should we be alarmed? Other than the fear of contracting the virus.</div><div><br /></div><div>Climate change extremists ought to be celebrating because the result of coronavirus is pushing the world toward their version of nirvana.</div><div><br /></div><div>Global travel or movement of population and goods has already been greatly curtailed. Economic activities in many countries have been greatly reduced, and thus their deleterious effects on the environment have been immediately curtailed.</div><div><br /></div><div>As reported, emissions in China greatly dissipated because of shutdowns. Countless peoples are just staying home idle and not productively engaged.</div><div> </div><div>In other words, worldwide production has been deflated to levels to slowly becoming comparable to earlier and cruder times. Aggravated no less by the utter dependence of the rest of the world with China, who is now responsible and accountable for many manufacturing output, ranging from the most basic to those highly technological. And this will continue as the virus spreads and infects more.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let us see, how long the world can continue to exist the way it has been existing if this trend prolongs.</div><div><br /></div><div>In faraway Cagayan de Oro, there are several well-patronized discount stores selling mostly Chinese goods. Well patronized because of very affordable prices, and with products ranging from light bulbs to all sort of tools for carpentry, automotive repairs, gardening, etc.</div><div><br /></div><div>My favorite is one named Novo, which is very accessible right in the heart of the poblacion. Plus, I hold a discount card purchased with initial discounts made on purchases.</div><div> </div><div>At the cashier’s counter yesterday Sunday, I mindlessly remarked about the spreading virus not thinking that all their products came from China. The cashier nonchalantly intoned that yes they too were mindful and careful. And that their store has already stopped import shipments.</div><div><br /></div><div>So pretty soon, can we expect their shelves to be empty?</div><div><br /></div><div>And more. In distant Alae, the wife purchased pears in one fruit stand by the highway. This definitely is no local fruit. Where do you think it came from?</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Trump Derangement Syndrome One More Time<b></b></b>
Excerpted from the Nation, an avidly liberal newsmagazine: </div><div><br /></div><div> ‘Do you consider Donald Trump to be an aspiring authoritarian?
There are certainly demagogic aspects of his behavior: disregard for institutional limits of his own authority, disregard for democratic norms and human rights, bullying and threatening political opponents, scapegoating of the vulnerable, mischaracterizing opposition to his plans as treachery, and a seeming indifference to understanding the US Constitution. But it’s also important to recognize the broader authoritarian currents in the American polity that put him in power.’ </div><div><br /></div><div> Funny, but I thought the author above was describing largely the administration of Barack Obama, rather than the fledging administration of Trump which has barely warmed its seat.
I believe this just goes to show that it is easy to make a case against anybody, by simply throwing around statements and claims that appear to bolster a given hypothesis or premise.
All this to support the current reality of protests.
When in fact the reason for the protests can simply be attributed to this. </div><div><br /></div><div> During the time of Obama, the opposition accepted its defeat readily, and planned and waited for its turn during the succeeding election cycles.
This time around, the losers simply cannot accept its utter defeat, and thus will do everything even before the inauguration to delegitimize or destabilize the new administration.
Shades of things happening locally, too. </div><div><br /></div><div> These organized protests have nothing much to do with what the current administration is doing. As a matter of fact, Trump is simply trying to fulfill his campaign promises. So why no protests during the campaigns when all his plans had already been made public? Why no claims of him being authoritarian then? </div><div><br /></div><div> <b>Aquinas to the Rescue</b>
In these dreadful times around the globe in both free and not so free countries, we are reminded of simple truths about the FREEDOM of our Creator and his creatures, particularly man.
Here to remind us are words from the preeminent voice of Christian philosophy, Thomas Aquinas. Thomist philosophy pervades the teachings of the Catholic Church.</div><div><br /></div><div>
<i>“There is an inherent absurdity in the notion that omnipotence by sharing its goodness through creation lost something of its power and all of its freedom. We have managed to swallow this indigestible morsel on the human level in our own times. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i> It has been seriously argued that the State which is man’s creation for political life automatically supersedes its creator. The radically revolutionary argue that the state devours a man; THE MERELY LIBERAL, THAT IT ABSORBS HIM. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i> In either case, he is small change compared to the state. To accept this same humiliation on a cosmic scale is to replace the fact of creation and divinity’s perfection with a Frankenstein myth of total universality. God’s creation towers over His creation and ultimately destroys Him. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>The enlarged proportion of the tale do not diminish its childishness. Common sense would put aside this pettishness and look squarely at the obvious question: what can God do in the world?</i></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-68333596801030030062023-01-13T12:18:00.005+08:002023-03-14T08:46:17.439+08:00Another brother crossed the bar <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0YMSG8QKKec2RfbGYYyWUUAwGLkdmG0fLpiNb0DUfyOmqbXgGC07e658u69OV38HSw1-zyDW-5kpSWgBCMxDvMlIeJnEeDrsogu0KJKlXM42f8Ic4Uiyx5cvLFNjjK8tYog7OmV_f3NW7g0M3AjhM-btStkmO0Hj0KjBV_f5-iRGi-Sw7y8/s2737/Final%20Dodong.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2737" data-original-width="2218" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX0YMSG8QKKec2RfbGYYyWUUAwGLkdmG0fLpiNb0DUfyOmqbXgGC07e658u69OV38HSw1-zyDW-5kpSWgBCMxDvMlIeJnEeDrsogu0KJKlXM42f8Ic4Uiyx5cvLFNjjK8tYog7OmV_f3NW7g0M3AjhM-btStkmO0Hj0KjBV_f5-iRGi-Sw7y8/s320/Final%20Dodong.jpg" width="259" /></a></p><p> <b> JOSE V. NERI</b></p><p><b> Born June 19, 1938</b></p><p><b> Died January 10, 2023</b></p><p> </p><p><b>For man crossing the bar is one imperative nobody in this world escapes from. Still, every time, we give pause to ponder on such passing. The uniqueness and significance of any one such event reminding us of the ultimate care the Creator showers on each person, down to the pettiness of knowing and keeping in existence each strand of hair he possesses.</b></p><p><b>In keeping then with such tradition, I mark and set aside time to delve on the life of my brother who just crossed the bar.</b></p><p><b>In the stillness and quietude of my brother's life, we can discern many instances when he showed and understood the nobility of life and the filial care we each should have of every other of our kind.</b></p><p><b>Without noise of words, he showed in his own unobtrusive ways and loud actions that he truly believed these very basic premises, though at times because of our flawed nature, he may have fallen short in his interpretation and in his guidance.</b></p><p><b>Early in his life he had discovered and nurtured the idea of service to humanity. In school, he showed not only serious demeanor in his study but also in extra-curricular activities such as serving Mass and teaching catechism to youths in the city.</b></p><p><b>As no surprise then, right after graduation from high school, Dodong joined the Society of Jesus with a group of his classmates, starting the pursuit of their vocation at the novitiate in Novaliches, Manila. He stayed there for about 2 years.</b></p><p><b>As far as we could gather his leaving was a cooperative decision between himself and the society. It was the common decision that since he did not possess enough of the vocation to pursue it to its end that rather he would be more fulfilled and suited for some other career in life.</b></p><p><b>And this he did, and decided instead to pursue the study of medicine, which even then revealed his deep conviction in service to humanity.</b></p><p><b>From pursuing a vocation tasked with the saving of souls, he would instead choose a profession that would pursue preserving and saving the human body.</b></p><p><b>The study of medicine was a long and arduous one even for a very passionate and dedicated person like Dodong. Many challenges stood in his way. First and foremost was financial, thus most times he had to be a part time medical student taking on employment on the side.</b></p><p><b>But his sacrifices paid off, finally finishing all studies by 1972. It was the onset of Martial Law in deeply-troubled Philippines, so Dodong decided to travel to the US. And there he would stay till his retirement, again running through a gauntlet of countless challenges presented not only under the new environment, but even with the very practice of the profession that he had sacrificed for in his old homeland. But persevering, he overcame them all, practicing pediatrics in the State of Michigan for many years. Then retiring after age caught up with him. But in all those intervening years enjoying the manifold blessings of his adopted country, he ever missed any opportunity to help and assist family members who were left behind.</b></p><p><b>He came back to his homeland almost 5 years ago before his death, registering a life lived to the full measure and more.</b></p><p><br /></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-58836877683861632002022-12-18T07:41:00.003+08:002022-12-19T07:29:15.341+08:00 Life’s A-wastin’<p style="text-align: center;"><b> Life’s A-wastin’</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Your earthly life is so very short. So do not waste any of it.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>This conscious stream of thought strings along my morning jog.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Keeping company as I negotiate the twists and turns of my rote.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>And invariably of the ups and downs of daily living, too.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>A casual admonition constantly hammered in our minds.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Most expectedly for those of us in the twilight of our years.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Rivulets of counsel feed the besieging river on the subject.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Perchance we may be off-footed what this beatitude is.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Why seekest thou rest (and pleasure), since thou art born to labor?</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>We hear a’ Kempis chime in with such serious tone and sense.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>So, we ask ourselves this itchy question.</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>How is life then wasted or not wasted?</b></p><span><b><a name='more'></a></b></span><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>A life filled with the heady pursuit of ease and pleasure?</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Or of eternal quest of pious thoughts and acts to purify the soul?</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">ooooooooooo</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>A note to accompany this little poem:</p><p>Many do find themselves gladdened that this pandemic has allowed them the opportunity, or for others, may have “forced” them, to spend time and effort on those pious thoughts and acts critical to our own salvation.</p><p>On the other hand, I am saddened that we humans have to be reminded in such harsh and brutal ways for us to turn our gaze back to our nobler purposes.</p><p>Why cannot we with the innate goodness of our intended nature be able to turn ourselves on our own to such admirable endeavors?</p><p>Many are brought to worship and adoration only when calamities or tribulation visit.</p><p>Our Creator warns us about the “eye of our intention”. Always keep it singular!</p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-42729455202513817342022-11-30T12:22:00.002+08:002022-12-20T11:15:04.547+08:00A Bottled-Up Life<p style="text-align: center;"> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">A Bottled-Up Life</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Time was from the constricting walls of adolescence,</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">when I felt that life was one heavy onus dropped on me.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">In which society's demands on life reigned supreme.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">That life was one of purpose, and of destiny.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">That life stayed within certain acceptable boundaries, </span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Bottled up and neatly labeled for good measure.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Acquire actionable knowledge and passable skills,</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Sufficient enough to raise and support a healthy family,</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">to dutifully enlist in civilization's inexorable forward march.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> All artfully designed to fulfill destiny and sustain humanity.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">So it came to be for me, to fit snugly as a compliant cog,</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">in an efficient and ever-whirring machine of grand design.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">But routines started to leak out and break apart.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">I ceased working for a living and commenced living for life.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">It was then I felt a crying need from a gaping hole within.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The urge to lend to words to life events and inspiring ideas,</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> racing through my suddenly awakened mind,</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> all loudly vying for time and space.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Taking reins were pesky things that wanted to rule my life.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Of some deterministic obsession about what I ought to do.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Driven to extremes by compulsion hard to shunt aside.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">All this I found awaited me like a siren call.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">With reluctant gusto, I did what had to be done.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Committed to the written word dimly-lit memories in mind.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Egged on by some formidable duress within,</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">coupled with urgency of life about to be extinguished.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">And now having gone out the wringer, I feel completed.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">A published book it shall be for posterity and heritage. </span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">One designed to transcend the limits of temporal life.</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">And hopefully, worthy enough for those near and dear.</span></b></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-82313155980005845642022-09-04T02:17:00.001+08:002022-09-21T05:25:42.506+08:00A Perspective: How The Person of Jesus Christ Actually Looked.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_K7B4NJS0ncvjkbtYKZUSJr52U-WY0yz6ds5dWW1qtcvvArIWHc0rH0VocDZ2ikaoDUax6sKcRuN53G_i2CVkyM_WOSaBNwMxojNBUt8Ii0NMfCpn0UUB9_1EUiWxKK67uUY6Ii2E-BjBsxSZykjx7L2pVAqxEC2nTOPMQPCBZNWCqhebDM/s727/Final%20Jesus%20Christ2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="727" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_K7B4NJS0ncvjkbtYKZUSJr52U-WY0yz6ds5dWW1qtcvvArIWHc0rH0VocDZ2ikaoDUax6sKcRuN53G_i2CVkyM_WOSaBNwMxojNBUt8Ii0NMfCpn0UUB9_1EUiWxKK67uUY6Ii2E-BjBsxSZykjx7L2pVAqxEC2nTOPMQPCBZNWCqhebDM/w400-h279/Final%20Jesus%20Christ2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To commence to conjure images of the person of Christ after he had ascended, we first allowed our own individual fertile imagination to roam free, to festoon and emblazon the resulting images every which way until they became accepted. This we have done over the centuries, creating differing images to the point of confusion, and even to the point of contention among those who would not accept any other but their own. Jesus of a hundred faces! That is what the world of Christianity has created.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">This is when stodgy science crept in an attempt to settle the score and to extricate the bones of contention. So using scientific methods tested and honed through years of studies, it has come out with its own most likely image of Christ, taking into account written data and fossilized figures derived from the same milieu as Christ.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The resultant scientific image of Christ makes Him look just like any <i>Tom, Dick, and Harry</i>, of his own milieu. Looking very ordinary, insignificant, and maybe mediocre in facial features. Somebody one can lose easily in any crowd.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Can we accept this as our reverential representation of the Son of the Almighty God, whose very name the ancient Jews could not even assign and/or name, or worse, write down for fear of displeasing and desecrating Him?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It is ironic but for most significant personages of the ancient world, man has been able to collate enough data, fossil, or representations, to enable him to create passably accurate images of them. Persons like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, even further down the historical holes, like the Neanderthals or the Cro-Magnons. etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But for Jesus Christ who lived only over 2000 years ago, we have not been able to till now. One wonders what is behind this unsaid inhibition or reluctance to define the one "official" image of Christ.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Personally, I take ownership of this novel perspective that I will lay out below, just strictly my own.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Before proceeding I consider this caveat.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Over the years, we have read, though mostly heard, that in his sojourn on earth Christ was seen as visiting other faraway places like those in Asia. Scanty though the accounts may be still many stand by their own truths about such events. Though Christ was said to have lived amongst such foreign people one has yet to hear about any physical description of Christ coming from those sources. Somehow, these people must have sensed Christ as nobody any different from them, allowing him to sit amongst them and expound his doctrines.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many would counter that such incidents are physically improbable given all the circumstances. But the staid practice of Parapsychology, a field of study now generally accepted by pertinent authorities, has given us some insights. It has defined and proved to us the unique concept of <b>bilocation</b> or <b>multilocation</b>, which is power an individual has to be present in more than one location at the same time. In a real way suspending the constraints of time and physics as we humans have learned to believe.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Any Being possessing or predisposed of having such powers must definitely also have other more subtle powers beyond the purview of natural phenomenon.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Thus, Christ in his earthly life when he appeared not only to crowds but to each individual person must have projected himself in ways that the viewer would find as the incarnate manifestation of someone originating from such mystical sphere. Christ after all was not only more than human but he was perceived as the Redeemer of the entire human race that had been seeking deliverance from its earthly vicissitudes. Thus to those who beheld him, he/she saw the human perfection of the Being as materialized in each and every unique individual lens that we possess. Christ as seen not only in the differing grades of vision we each individually are gifted with, but including and not even limited to the prism that we individually perceive our Redeemer to be.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The anonymity of Jesus to his companions who had known him prior, on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection, in a way prods us to think that Jesus dictated how people would view His Person when they saw him. Or to not recognize him at all which the companions on the road to Emmaus did declare.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Thus, a black person sees Christ as the manifestation of perfection in his blackness. A Chinese or Japanese for their parts would be to manifest Christ in their unique visions of perfection. Same with the Middle Eastern. And we could truly say and declare that those are the correct images of Christ, as the latter allowed himself to be seen by them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">To the white person then, Christ is how he is typically depicted in books, magazines, calendars, etc., which we now currently witness around us. And that would be accurate, though as an Asian person with an Asian set of perspectives my representation of Christ is obviously different. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the final analysis we can only prognosticate about these things, because Christ still is the Final Arbiter. And as the limited representation of paper, we cannot fully understand the existence of the pencil.</span></p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-90573560585198002872022-08-16T02:30:00.005+08:002022-08-16T07:52:39.059+08:00The Crucifix<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMf8K7BDqq1hkEQRjwEoQ1dY8E8-B2tS47oEqzTH07PGW9L7ITvXbU_u3DykCezw_gkA0ax-yGBEOiMvV8jw595QpRhy1zCaF6nEK-PKnW2Si9ToqmBARg4NLmAbWvTvxIw1_Pvjywziq4R0_6bwiRISCf4qrQCekwzYxLNKH2g_7po8gwMeg/s500/Crucifix12.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMf8K7BDqq1hkEQRjwEoQ1dY8E8-B2tS47oEqzTH07PGW9L7ITvXbU_u3DykCezw_gkA0ax-yGBEOiMvV8jw595QpRhy1zCaF6nEK-PKnW2Si9ToqmBARg4NLmAbWvTvxIw1_Pvjywziq4R0_6bwiRISCf4qrQCekwzYxLNKH2g_7po8gwMeg/s320/Crucifix12.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>No iconic pendant for a necklace is as universal and popular as the crucifix, which symbol definitely transcends beyond religious beliefs or revered dogmas of wearers. We know that because many non-Christians are seen to wear them on their necks or persons as well.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>For devout Christians they know and swear to the crucifix as righteous symbol of their Master's supreme act of altruism, unjustly executed in the then prevalent punishment edict of crucifixion under the Roman Empire. A punishment reserved for the most vile of criminals though limited to males, who were brutally nailed to the cross to die a slow excruciating death.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>We witness the ubiquitous presence of the crucifix in most places and as worn in persons, from the most profoundly appropriate to the utterly sacrilegious ones. From pious members of the clergy of most Christian denominations and their equally religious devotees, to the least holy like members of nefarious organizations, or those considered engaged in unethical activities like adult stars. What about crooked politicians? Regardless, many display them with obvious pride and aplomb.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>We could actually hazard the guess that a prevalent reason for the crucifix' s popularity stems from the cluelessness, or ignorance, or even utter disregard on the part of the wearers in their understanding the symbolic significance of the crucifix. Many wear them simply as accepted accessory, rather than for their mystical ramifications as religious symbol. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Nowadays such pious regard could be farthest from the consciousness of the wearer. Beyond the fact that it is usually made of precious metal, some embedded with precious stones. In this rare instance, the extrinsic value is the metal it is made of, with the intrinsic value being its mystical representation, plus the inferred promise of personal salvation from a man hanging on a man-made cross.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>History gives us a good peek at this atrocious but well applied savage practice for torts committed by men. And one doubts that what delineates the civil torts from the criminal deeds during those times was quite cloudy as to assume the facility of classifying one from the other, as dictated by exigencies or expediencies of the times. In other words, regardless what one's crime was or how one pleaded, the kind of punishment meted out depended largely on the magistrate imposing it.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>We learn that it was the glory-imbued Persians who first used crucifixion as punishment for criminals. And 300 years later the Romans thought it proper to enshrine it in their unholy empire as proper punishment for grave crimes, perfecting the process for maximum pain and duration. To mark the trending ascent to the peak of inhumanity which over the ages man has shown to possess as one distinctive trait in his march to history.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Romans did so much perfecting it, that modern medicine has detailed in writing in scholarly but antiseptic fashion all the racking effects of the process on the human body. To include those little tweaks the executioners applied for maximum duration of suffering. Like when the crucified is about to expire due to suffocation, the guards would insert a small stool under the nailed feet so he could painfully raise his agonized body to allow for some breathing.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The medical prognosis go into painful details about which parts of the anatomy were affected by the process. The joints on shoulders and elbows became disjointed or dislocated as the dead weight of the body mercilessly imposed. Muscles were stretched but starved with oxygen because of the ensuing difficulties in breathing from the lungs. The ribcage did its best to maintain normal functions but was not able to. The various chemical and fluid reactions as pain and suffering continued to harass the tiring body. And many more.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The short medical prognosis of the process of crucifixion and the subsequent death on all the affected parts of the human body is so gross and abominable, it is difficult to read to the end of the short treatise. More unconscionable is the highlighted part on pain and suffering inflicted on the human body as it struggles to stay alive. So savage and brutal we are told that a learned sage from that era had written that at times the tongues of those fo crucified were cut so as to prevent them from making those weird and indescribable shouts produced almost unconsciously Shouts that onlookers found so unbearable and objectionable. His name is known to many, it is Cicero.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Ironic to note that the adjective, <i>excruciating</i>, is derived from the otherworldly cries emanating from one in harrowing pain during crucifixion.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>At the very least, crucifix wearers ought to be educated about this, if only to generate sorrow and remorse for what the world is leading humanity into. And more importantly, as resolve to right humanity's path away from its collective disregard for the rest.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>BTW as disclaimer, as I kid I did have a small crucifix pendant with gold chain that our mother had us wear. Over time, it started to be well-worn until finally the chain broke. The pendant was kept somewhere and passed on to our kids </i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Unlike these days when gold pieces are made in 14k, during that time most came in 18k, and thus may account for quicker wearing away of the softer metal. Now, I wear a gold pendant with Chinese characters and has weathered through many years of usage.</i></span></p><p><br /></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-71157577043497116292022-07-29T23:11:00.000+08:002022-07-29T23:11:10.131+08:00Recalling the 2020 Tokyo Olympics<p><br /></p><p>One earlier FB post looked into the typical reaction to receiving the gold medal. The recipient immediately bites into it, ostensibly to seek affirmation that the medal is indeed made of the precious metal.</p><p>No such luck, and but we cannot say that it has been so over all those years. Though we can surmise that the medals are most probably made of the same stuff as they were years ago. Just realized there may be written standards set even on the metal composition and weight of Olympic medals.</p><p>Anyway as it stands, this is what we can expect from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics medals that are being handed out to exultant winners. From some rough estimates made by me.</p><p>The three medals, gold, silver, and bronze weigh from 450grams to maybe 556grams, or about half a kilo on average, with gold weighing the most. The gold medal is essentially made of silver with maybe 6 grams of gold, good enough to be used for plating. The silver medal true to its name is made up of pure silver. And bronze of brass and zinc, so not much intrinsic value. Based on this and the prevailing prices of precious metals, a gold medal might command a price of about 800 dollars, selling the gold and silver content in it, and silver maybe about a little above 400 dollars. Never mind the bronze medal.</p><p>Getting any idea where this is going?</p><p>The revered and time-seasoned Olympic Games idolized by the world have always been about excellence in sport and symbolism. Rank the best performers with their shown performances in competition and give them medals for their accomplishments, the ranking and composition of the medals clearly symbolism for us to revere and behold. Nothing denoting the awarding of financial awards to winners.</p><p>How things have changed though the Games have steadfastly remained the same. Immediately upon winning financial windfalls are factored in like these too could compete in another contest, this time in value and size. Winning athletes are expected to start following the money trails, in hot pursuit of their "just rewards". The world would appear disappointed if the winners lose out in this other contest.</p><p>And we fear that the world is more concerned and interested in this other contest.</p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-47401450926550517342022-07-07T23:36:00.002+08:002022-07-07T23:36:43.871+08:00Morning Musings<p> <b>Thoughts on Waking Up</b></p><p>The concept on the living of life has been revolutionized since the time of Christ.</p><p>Yet we humans still cling to our hedonistic and temporal pursuits in life. We pray for an easy and comfortable life. </p><p>We continue to race after fleeting and illusory experiences that appeal mostly to our senses. </p><p>We try to blind ourselves into thinking that what we aim is for the greater glory of God, yet we cater only to the pleasurable sensations connected with our experiences.</p><p>Christ had a simple and clear message. If you want to follow me, take up your cross.</p><p><br /></p><p>000000000000000000000000000000000000</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Never Let Up On Life</b></p><p>Most folks one meets along the way will keep saying to you to keep doing it because the more one does it, the easier it becomes.</p><p>For me nothing could be more false when it comes to physical exercises after a certain age. It does not get any easier.</p><p>Somehow this too holds true like life actually is. Life never gets easier, regardless how hard and successful we try at making something out of it.</p><p>Each day and time is a constant challenge to be hurdled and overcome.</p><p>It never gets easy until your last breath.</p><p>And thus like the way I live life, I continue to plod along with the physical exercises I am convinced I need to proceed with what remains of life or in pursuit of the continuing expectations I have of it.</p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-3711468136468576652022-07-01T00:22:00.005+08:002022-07-01T00:22:58.554+08:00About Depression and Gay Marriage<p> <i><span style="font-size: medium;">Depression</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">In the last 2 months, many of us have read about the medical condition called depression, because at least two very noted personalities we read are said to be suffering from it. One is a very young world-renowned lady athlete and the other a former president of the Philippines in his 60's. The latter died a week or so ago.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Over the years we have heard so much about this condition which used to not get much attention. But now we are told it is a very serious condition and must be given much importance. It is not only a very real, consumptive, and debilitating ailment but could also be career-ending and even life-threatening. And for many necessitating the engagement of professionals specialized in such conditions.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Growing up we typically and nonchalantly associated depression with loneliness, sadness, or even melancholy. So we did not really give it the gravity that medical professionals now have invested in the condition. After all, most if not all of us went through such forlorn periods of feeling very low, to a point that at times we did not even want to get out of our beds to face the world.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">I remember my own episodes when I was still single and unemployed. But somehow we out-grew it. Not that the condition has deserted us for life, but somehow we have been able to lessen not only its gravity but its frequency. And somehow also we learned to tackle with it, each in our own ways. For many, maybe the resolution is when we turned to a higher power and lodged the providence of our health and safety in that kind of faith.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Still as mere mortals with very limited knowledge and understanding of such an insidious and almost invisible enemy, we have to surrender our ignorance and rely trust on others who are better equipped. </span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Still, we should resolve to continue our own searches for truths about it. And thus they ought not be stifled, neglected, or even dismissed by others. We can only be better persons if we are curious about its ramifications.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Gay Marriage</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">This issue is so loaded with heavy paradoxes, one wonders how it continues to float.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Many supporters of the ruling are beaming with almost unexplained bliss and pride, like heaven has been opened to them. </span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">No problem there. Man is known to welcome temporal bounty like there Is no tomorrow, or like it is the be-all and end-all of existence.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Yet the cause of happiness can be explained in such a manner as to show the resultant over-celebration as undeserved because the decision was far from convincing, though still historic. Far from being unanimous, a 9-man court of the US all appointed for life by the US president, religiously divided into 6 Catholics and 3 Jews, voted 5-4 to grant equal status to gay marriages with traditional marriages the latter strongly espoused and supported by all religions, like Catholicism and Judaism. And if I may add, equal only with regard to enjoyment of benefits dispensed by the Federal bureaucracy. They could not have ruled about its cultural and religious ramifications, because after all that would be obviously beyond the purview of this court.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Anyway, the hairline decision came because 2 Catholic court members decided to break away from traditional teaching of their religion. Kennedy many say was simply being true to form, taking sides away from traditional or classical truths espoused by the citizenry. The other, Sotomayor, most likely because she is most liberal having been appointed by the current administration, to represent two minorities, women and Hispanic.</span></i></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">The more impactful thing here is that because of the role of the US in the world, this will open the floodgates for the rest of the world with regard to this issue. A paradox indeed, germinated by an unconvincing decision riddled with dissension not only from the court’s own members, but also the citizenry. Mind you, amid the recent trends as reflected by survey polls which show people favoring gay marriages in the majority, not only in the US but in the rest of the world.</span></i></p><p><i style="font-size: large;">As a species we continue to be an enigma.</i></p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-22894746935182937882022-06-30T03:00:00.006+08:002023-10-04T12:03:34.357+08:00 Man As Demigod?<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><i> Man As Demigod?</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The now hazy days of forgotten youth intrude uninvited</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>as we grudgingly recall the many astounding mysteries</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> implanted in malleable and innocent minds,</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> by the close partnership of home and school.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Of the existence of one incomprehensible Supreme Being, </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>adorned with tremendous powers and Lord of all creation.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> The self-same Being being also all-knowing,</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> and is everywhere his domain extends.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Mystifying paradoxes that clearly and unduly supplant</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>the arguably limitless freedoms humanity was born with</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> or destined to, designed as likened image</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> and equipped with incomparable free will.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>As fate dictates, our maturity would soften such stance.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Promoting instead by labeling us instead as partakers.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Of His powers we still not easily see,</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> but have deigned to believe in faith.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>But these days, as we recall the times past revisited</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>with clearer eyes what innocent lives were fed with,</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> beliefs nurtured by traditions.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> And the demands of society.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: x-large;">Advances in information and technology permeate lives,</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>integrally enmeshed to the minutiae of our very living.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Ubiquitous as to be unnoticed</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> and acutely taken for granted.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Detaching ourselves as estranged from that kind of living, </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>we experience a discernment of these stupefying realities.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> If we are earnest enough</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> and equally honest.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>The knowledge that more than just images of the Being,</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>we too are invested with some of his awesome powers.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> That of omniscience, omnipotence,</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> and even of omnipresence.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Credit dazzling advances in Web/ Internet and technology</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>and the manifold manifestations of Artificial Intelligence </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>To witness man's power and influence in the world.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Not since witnessed nor imagined by him.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>A host of our physical limitations greatly deconstructed. </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Expanding universe-like, though largely in virtual context. </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Knowledge of things exponentially stretched, </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> almost beyond temporal boundaries or limits. </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Powers to influence as active participants or as causes.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Readily available to an entire world of sentient beings.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Limited only by the dreams </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> and aspirations of humanity.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Sitting in house, or any place one may opt to locate himself, </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>one invested with capabilities far beyond puny understanding.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Limited only by what one could think, </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> or dream in the wildest ways.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Parkour. MMA. VanLife. Boxing, Tennis, Politics. Religion. </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Economics, Global Events. Ukraine. Russia. Globalism. Oil. </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Climate Change. Sports,Entertainment. Sciences. Philosophy. </i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> Astrophysics. Deep Fake. Men of Science, Arts, Entertainment. Etc.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Truly then current man could be enshrined to the level of god, or at least, a demi-god. Possessed of seeming mystical powers.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-43487296712642479582022-06-28T08:00:00.000+08:002022-06-28T08:00:13.559+08:00When Leaders Are Exposed as Uncouth and Unrefined<p>It saddens me, as I am sure many others are, to listen to our Dear Leader so uncouth and unrefined, so careless and inarticulate, in public pronouncements about subjects that require deliberate circumspection and careful preparation. Stray and confused words that many of us still believe are so diametrically alien to what he holds dear and valuable in his heart. But why utter them?</p><p>After a while, one is hard-pressed to even listen to him speak in public, which most times have become excruciatingly painful and grating to one’s social sensibilities and perceived rectitude.</p><p>It seems like a curse has been injected in our midst, after having been blest with a very rare opportunity to choose a leader that for once could make the country move forward after countless years of wallowing in the ugly morass of its own making. His unabashed and transparent records had enlightened enough of us to anoint him as our leader.</p><p> It seems like we have been dealt with a two-faced coin, though fused as one but estranged by a dichotomy of extremes. A flawed leader no doubt, but with a great harbinger of a promise to bring peace and prosperity to a troubled nation. </p><p> But added to boot and to bedevil, a speaking style that is so out of this world. A worrisome style not only of enunciation but of a convoluted manner of weaving words and ideas that run counter to the reservoir of social niceties and moral rectitude which we assume as in possession of our high elected public officials.</p><p>The economic and political gains, both domestically and globally. have been noteworthy by the reckoning of many. But the heated rhetoric from his detractors have gone off the rails. One has not before been witness to such venom and ferocity from some sectors of our society.</p><p>From all this radioactivity, where can we find shelter? Can we take refuge in the argument that we ought to judge based on results rather than the dizzyingly vacuous and unkind words of a president who in public speeches appears to sleepwalk?</p><p>Maybe we can by finding cause in an obtuse way, with another person who was also such a controversial and divisive personality. His life and claims as judged by a slew of temporal judges from Annas, Caiphas, Herod to Judas and the rest of the people themselves had been condemned as blasphemous and worthy of execution. </p><p>Christ justified and redeemed all that he did in life and more by a result that proved most everybody wrong, including those most close to him. He rose from the dead.</p><p>What is in store for us?</p><p>In life, the belief is that nothing comes in neat bundles. Everything comes as a pesky menagerie of good and bad. Asking us to take the good with the bad, or vice-versa.</p><p>Apart from being just pure bluster, I cannot see how this particular wishful statement of his could stand on its own. To me, this is yet another haphazard attempt on his part to portray his good intentions, which I personally do not doubt.</p><p>But how could anybody wishing and consigning himself to hell, have any direct part or hand in helping other people gain paradise? Ill-will and ill intentions could not produce goodness. Barren land cannot grow anything good.</p><p>Thus, a statement that could never be or happen. Delivered simply for effect.</p><p>Unless, by hell he meant taking on the sufferings of his people, and thus could be a “living hell” as we are wont to hear said by people. Thus, simply as hyperbole.</p><p>Sad to note that the president is of our generation, though age-wise we are a bit older, but I am hard-pressed to understand where he is coming from with his ideas and the ways he represents them.</p><p>Even his manner of speaking is quite different from ours. And we grant that he too was educated similarly with us having gone to Jesuit schools.</p><p>Rummaging through his rambling statements on Theology, one concept stands out for me as reminiscent of our early years in school.</p><p>In our representation of a God, we no doubt invests that Being with human or earthly qualities, like having feelings (so, can be insulted or mocked), having a body and a face, etc. And we understand that doing that reduces and limits God.</p><p>That we ought to go back to the reverence and regard the old Jews had. That the Yahweh was so limitless and incomprehensible that even the act of giving Him a name was not only limiting, but also irreverent. So he was referred to as the one with no name or as the one that could not be named.</p><p>Sadly, even the Church hierarchy of today has temporalized many of the more mysterious and mystical doctrines and beliefs of the Church. The many grandiose church buildings and elaborate rituals would appear to make the Kingdom of Christ one that is temporal and of this world.</p><p>So he does in his own peculiar ways come up with profound ideas that truly challenge and make us think twice about certain concepts we hold regarding our religion. He just needs to articulate them better, more precisely, and more importantly, in such a way as not to be misunderstood.</p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-58478493068499330552022-05-05T08:31:00.009+08:002023-01-16T06:46:22.888+08:00PHILIPPINE ELECTIONS: STILL TRYING TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Extensively reading through the babel of social media posts, news articles, commentaries, etc. one could collect a litany of the reasons why many continue to lend support to the candidacy of a family member of the disgraced Marcos family .</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In fairness, it would serve us better to sift through them and to glimpse at the whys and wherefores of such support.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As premise, I doubt any sane person sufficiently aware of the lamented regime would deny the collective corruption, murder, malfeasance, etc., found endemic under that despotic rule. And by no means was it, just one rotten apple in a basket, but facts point to the entire family being complicit in most if not all of them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One recurring theme for this support has been that voters ought not to attribute the sins of the father to the son or the rest of the family. But clearly incontrovertible evidence would point to the fact that the entire family, each and all already full-grown adults then, was complicit. Clearly this issue is beyond debate or that it needs to be re-litigated at this point.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many throw their support because of their unconscionable disgust and loathing for the other leading candidate and her team. And are therefore hell-bent on making sure they are denied the victory. And the only most likely sparring partner would be the Marcos team. But talk about cutting your nose to spite your face. There are other choices. Thus, this development is more like jumping from the frying pan to the fire.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many like inveterate gamblers find themselves easily pushed toward the side of early uncrowned winners. After all it is only human to associate with the winners and hop into the bandwagon. But rather a reckless way to treat one's very critical future.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many identify themselves with the political elites of the country because that is where life-giving resources are always coming from. Nothing much in the self-aggrandizing scheme of things could be expected in the other groups.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many still do practice identity politics, making their ethnic background, narrow regionalist bents, even their geographical loci, etc. huge factors to determine where their political loyalties lie.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Gone are the time-honored practices of comparing candidates' track records, their accomplishments rather than heavy doses of verbal calisthenics. Now it could be as simple as name recognition, wealth, machinery, etc. as the primary criteria for choices to be made.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Gone are even the most basic standards of ethics and morality as measures to align candidates with. So it amounts not even to a hill of beans if the Marcos family, to the man or woman, whether with the current or younger generations, does not even acknowledge the sins of the past, expresses remorse for the damages done, or even pleads with promises of restitution against whatever purloined wealth is still in its possession and still not spent to support a most lavish lifestyle. All this, juxtaposed against a cruel backdrop of a people in great suffering and dire want.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> In a reconciliatory mode and gesture, many compatriots declare that when all is said and done, after the election, all of us will be back to our normal lives, and should thus move on to rise above the rancor and enmity engendered during the campaigns. Re-building damaged relationships with friends, relatives, etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It does sound Christian and altruistic to maintain such decorum.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">One wonders though if all of us have made enough plans on what to do if and when the palpable fears and apprehension now felt become reality. And that the new administration will indeed be a continuation or a redux of that dearly lamented tyrannical rule that lasted decades and wrought incalculable losses both present and future.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Or are we simply ever ready to bow our collective heads and accept our lot, until such time as the despots' avarice and capricious whims have petered out, or that a miracle of deliverance re-appears to a benighted country?</span></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-83261082047697665152022-05-04T02:14:00.003+08:002022-05-04T02:14:24.347+08:00To Rage and Rant Sometimes<p> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">Sliding in a comment edgewise</span></b></p><p>Do we love our own voices very much, that when we post on Facebook we expect an echo chamber to follow, one that is loud and unambiguous as our sign of self-affirmation?</p><p>Let it be said though that that may sound good for many people, many may also find that unfair to expect.</p><p>This corner lets it be known then that the posts found here are not for that purpose. That it is not expected for those who happen to visit to affirm or agree on the statements made.</p><p>One can disagree.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">A self-indictment</span></b></p><p>The Filipino gene pool appears to have become so contaminated and diluted so that now those so-called malefactors that we constantly see and read about have become the models and exemplars of our society and politics.</p><p>And we see and listen to them ensconced high in society and politics, spout motherhood statements about good and profound things for society and the polity, and many of us are easily taken in by the hypocrisy and absurdity which every right-thinking individual ought to readily recognize as falsity.</p><p>But these same people go about their maleficent ways, none the worse and instead enjoy dubious renown and respect, most everybody else quite oblivious of where reality stands. Or maybe they do, but the lard is too deep a siren call to ignore. </p><p>Who to blame?</p><p>We all are, not just them. As a matter of observation, these same people probably sleep better than the ordinary harangued citizen trying to make both ends meet. Maybe constantly ready to break into a smile, with nary a tinge of conscience remorse.</p><p>We are now beyond language to resolve this highly metastasized cancer. Drastic collective action appears the only remedy</p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-90678046591542642802022-05-04T02:10:00.002+08:002022-05-04T02:10:25.382+08:00Always For The Greater Good <p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">We humans do make conscious choices about the lives of other humans, though we accept the unassailable truth that each human life is precious, priceless, and that only God can take it away. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">And it is thus the ingrained responsibility of each human to exhaust all means to preserve any one human life, at all times without exception. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"> We know we are even averse to “rationing out” limited medical care resources primarily because we value human life as sacrosanct and no one life can be sacrificed in the altar of expediency. But in reality, we do ration out limited resources.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Even in the rationalization of capital punishment, we gingerly tiptoe around it and justify it in our limited logical ways. While we legally sanction capital punishment, it is not because we are justified in taking human life, but only because doing so is for the greater good. Preserving life by taking away another!</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Thus there is sufficient historical data to rely on when making choices about whether we aim to sacrifice some people so the greater good can be achieved. Continue with strict lock-down regimes and risk destruction or collapse of the entire economy? Or take calculated chances and focus on trying to preserve economic integrity and health?</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The greater good always takes precedence.</span></b></p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-38053110917658133982022-05-04T02:06:00.000+08:002022-05-04T02:06:28.489+08:00Ode To Life<p> Free verses flowing from a mind in idle gear, on a Sunday morn:</p><p><br /></p><p>Ode To Life: Playing Mindlessly With The Words Plaguing Our Life</p><p><br /></p><p>Do we have enough living in our life?</p><p>That is a most basic life-long question.</p><p><br /></p><p>If it is not lived on our idea of what life ought to be, </p><p>Can we continue to say that we are still living life?</p><p><br /></p><p>In other words, if we live against our concept of life,</p><p>Are we still okay to refer to that living as living a life?</p><p><br /></p><p>If death is forever in our mind as we struggle to live,</p><p>Are we said to be living life, rather than living death?</p><p><br /></p><p>In dotage, we are apt to say we are tired with living,</p><p>Could we say that we are still living, with a purpose?</p><p><br /></p><p>Is life an empty vessel where we store daily our living of it, </p><p>Or could it be simply a veritable storehouse of living stuff?</p><p><br /></p><p>Why are we admonished that to live a most useful life, </p><p>We ought to turn our backs and begin to die from life?</p><p><br /></p><p>Isn’t it very funny that we are blessed with our precious life, </p><p>But we are always reminded that our fate is not in this life?</p><p><br /></p><p>A constant reminder is that Christ is the Way of Life in this world,</p><p>Yet His tenets are fraught with thoughts of death from this world.</p><p><br /></p><p>Truly, there are many lessons to learn from the living of life, </p><p>All mostly requiring our wrenching ourselves away from life.</p><p><br /></p><p>Oh, the woes and perils of living a life!</p><div><br /></div>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-41263268177796536922022-04-21T00:14:00.006+08:002022-04-21T00:21:10.632+08:00 Some Stray Thoughts About Election <p><span style="font-size: medium;">Are we putting too much in the position of President and as a result, putting too much emphasis in our choice of one?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Theoretically, the president is the head of state tasked with implementing enacted laws, and is also the commander in chief tasked with protecting the country and its citizenry from interior and exterior forces, and bringing about peace, order, and prosperity.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As such he is one institution among many other institutions in the country, both in government and private sectors. Thus, we also have our legislative institution, judicial, the different institutions in the public and private sectors such as financial, agriculture, manufacturing, etc., all forming part of the economy.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">If all or most of these other institutions are viewed as so weak as to be undependable and not worthy of trust, then we have a duty to elect a very strong and uniquely-qualified president as head of the state to help bring about stability and strength in all these other institutions.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Is this what we are asking from the current crop of presidential aspirants? To be that very strong and uniquely-qualified messiah to all our accumulated challenges?</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Many of us may simply be looking for one to address and maybe ameliorate certain specific problems considered top priorities. Such as endemic corruption, unacceptable criminality and social chaos, an ineffectual government laden with both bureaucracy and corruption. Or maybe simply looking for one that could give the electorate the opportunity to “trust government”, given that very few people have faith in it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Maybe for us here in Mindanao, one who can effectively address our challenges that have largely been neglected by what many of us view as imperial Manila. And maybe also we seek earnest resolution to the many challenges with our ethnic minorities.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Thus, our choice of president will depend largely on what we expect him/her to do in office.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Hopefully, six years is not an eternity for any error of choice made.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> 00000000000000</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In theory and in principle, I do believe that human law has it right when it deals with separating church from state. But it is the human agencies on both sides that wittingly or unwittingly blur the lines and thus make the divide confusing or untenable. The devil is in the nuances needed to straddle the fine lines between the two.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Treading then in the at times difficult path of freedom, I say leave it to individual consciences to make that determination. But nothing by way of criticism and comment ought to be taken out of the table.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> BTW, political ideology could be said to be a or part of a religion. And many do practice it as some kind of strict moral guide.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">By way of example.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When then US Pres. Trump insisted on building a border wall, his detractors did not anymore think it expensive, useless, exclusionary, etc. It was regarded as immoral. Politicians now cross whatever lines to promote ideological agenda.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In the Philippines? What about members of the clergy taking political sides and promoting them as their moral equivalents?</span></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933501.post-91158565942083865952022-04-14T23:35:00.002+08:002022-04-15T05:31:04.885+08:00PATIENT, HEAL THYSELF<p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJmJjsZ8eI3XepmjxOSd3shjJgJH5W2VA6xdfCXRYwEzpGk6WPZbCk898qKGbGynj-FQ6GnjRUqxyLb4GrRmOIFbN--XiIJ0KPdFZU_tRcmnLg4BEFw-zTPi5bfR5KCM6j5TOAGfiMnkhfU-KJzej37mFQGgRspOtzd8hn4QPBkvI5XEZdFeA/s1120/Patient,%20Heal%20Thyself.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="778" data-original-width="1120" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJmJjsZ8eI3XepmjxOSd3shjJgJH5W2VA6xdfCXRYwEzpGk6WPZbCk898qKGbGynj-FQ6GnjRUqxyLb4GrRmOIFbN--XiIJ0KPdFZU_tRcmnLg4BEFw-zTPi5bfR5KCM6j5TOAGfiMnkhfU-KJzej37mFQGgRspOtzd8hn4QPBkvI5XEZdFeA/w400-h278/Patient,%20Heal%20Thyself.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Recalling an old and obscure adage learned many years ago, and which to this day has not really gained much traction or acceptance. That still in any final analysis, your health or medical condition is best served and attended to by yourself. And not by any othe</span>r.<p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Especially in these uncommon times when medical services are being pushed toward the path of dreaded rationing, resulting in shortened and less frequent visits and care. We are beginning to witness situations where harried medical professionals can only devote or do so much or so little for each individual case, caused by unprovided piles of cases caused not only by exploding populations but by such catastrophic calamities as pandemics, shooting wars, natural disasters, etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Realizing such incumbency, one is then disposed to undertake personal analyses and assessment of one's own overall health, in light of these impending shortfalls. And one already in his waning years, has to also contend with the many concomitant issues inherent to the geriatric phase of life Current technologies have of course made this task easier and more accessible. Within reach by most everybody in the world today.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">And this we, both I and the wife, try to do with our own situations, hobbled a bit by our having to travel from afar to have access to medical care.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Thus so far, we are in the midst of those required visits, eschewed as they have been because of the ongoing pandemic and its constraining mandates world-wide. But so far, things continue to be okay and we continue to be upbeat.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">And we certainly take full advantage of the shortened visits, encouraged by some preparation and being attentive to the facts and advice coming from the health providers. And this attitude has been quite helpful and productive for our purposes, resulting not only in timely and efficient medical care, but one as affordable as it can get during these times.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In the case of the wife, she has been a given a clean bill of health for all her prior issues and a thorough-enough going-over of the likely events she can expect will eventually visit her life at these latter stages.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Mine gets a little more complicated, having gone through more medical gauntlets, aggravated by an age seniority of close to a decade. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A life lived with pacemakers (2) for over 15 years, one among a score of medical experiences, may not reveal much from the outside. But one never gets used to the idea that a man-made device hums inside of you, ever watchful and needful when the expected challenges show up. The device may be viewed as so wonderful, reliable and awe-inspiring, but still one cannot disregard the fact that it is coming from the fragile hands of man who is heir to errors and failures. Still a far cry from our body and its life which were designed, created, and sustained by a Higher Power.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Anyway, I too was given a good report on that score. Rather, the device inside of me which is powered by a long-lasting battery got the good report. Functioning as designed and configured electronically, save for one issue, or make that, two.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The lesser and not so new finding has been that usage on the atrial lead has been maintained at 100 percent, while the ventricular one is still at 6 to 9 percent. To explain, it simply means for the function of the atrium that my heart is now completely assisted by the pacer. It now relies fully on the pacer for that electrical spark to initiate its pumping function. The crutch is now deployed on a permanent basis. Not a very good development!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">While that may not be a rosy revelation, the other one may be just as grim. The charge left in the battery as signaled by the interrogation, could suggest that there is an unexpected accelerated discharge that could be caused by one factor that is hydrogen-induced. And this accelerated depletion could render the pacemaker inoperative.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Or quoted exactly, "<i>...exhibiting hydrogen-induced accelerated battery depletion.</i>"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Language couched in such a manner as to immediately trigger countless questions from any typical patient hearing it for the first time. Huh? But I kept quiet and deposited that in my best memory cells. And the session ended as the unmentioned (but understood) alloted time came to a close.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Thankfully, it was found that the pacemaker installed in me was not among those models or versions flagged by the advisory.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Still we will continue to monitor the accelerated depletion to forestall any catastrophic incident brought upon by a dead battery.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">And in the quiet of my room, I learned more than enough about the latest developments and made my notes. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Quietened and assured in the fact that life is proceeding with sufficient foreknowledge and design.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">For that is the lot of man. <i>He proposes, but God disposes. </i></span></p><p><br /></p>Amadeohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00040096079637569742noreply@blogger.com0