Recalling the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

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.

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.

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.

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.

Getting any idea where this is going?

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.

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.

And we fear that the world is more concerned and interested in this other contest.

Morning Musings

 Thoughts on Waking Up

The concept on the living of life has been revolutionized since the time of Christ.

Yet we humans still cling to our hedonistic and temporal pursuits in life. We pray for an easy and comfortable life. 

We continue to race after fleeting and illusory experiences that appeal mostly to our senses. 

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.

Christ had a simple and clear message. If you want to follow me, take up your cross.

000000000000000000000000000000000000

Never Let Up On Life

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.

For me nothing could be more false when it comes to physical exercises after a certain age. It does not get any easier.

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.

Each day and time is a constant challenge to be hurdled and overcome.

It never gets easy until your last breath.

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.

About Depression and Gay Marriage

 Depression

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

 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.

Gay Marriage

This issue is so loaded with heavy paradoxes, one wonders how it continues to float.

Many supporters of the ruling are beaming with almost unexplained bliss and pride, like heaven has been opened to them. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

As a species we continue to be an enigma.

Man As Demigod?

   Man As Demigod?

The now hazy days of forgotten youth intrude uninvited

as we grudgingly recall the many astounding mysteries

      implanted in malleable and innocent minds,

      by the close partnership of home and school.

Of the existence of one incomprehensible Supreme Being, 

adorned with tremendous powers and Lord of all creation.

      The self-same Being being also all-knowing,

      and is everywhere his domain extends.

Mystifying paradoxes that clearly and unduly supplant

the arguably limitless freedoms  humanity was born with

      or destined to, designed as likened image

      and equipped with incomparable free will.

As fate dictates, our maturity would soften such stance.

Promoting instead by labeling us instead as partakers.

      Of His powers we still not easily see,

      but have deigned to believe in faith.

But these days, as we recall the times past revisited

with clearer eyes what innocent lives were fed with,

     beliefs nurtured  by traditions.

      And the demands of society.

Advances in information and technology permeate  lives,

integrally enmeshed  to the  minutiae of our very living.

        Ubiquitous as to be unnoticed

        and acutely taken for granted.

Detaching  ourselves as estranged from that kind of living, 

we experience a discernment of these stupefying realities.

        If we are earnest enough

        and equally honest.

The knowledge that more than just images of the Being,

we too are invested with some of his awesome powers.

         That of omniscience, omnipotence,

          and even of omnipresence.

 

Credit dazzling advances in  Web/ Internet and technology

and the manifold manifestations of Artificial Intelligence  

To witness man's power and influence in the world.

      Not since witnessed nor imagined by him.

A host of our physical limitations greatly deconstructed. 

Expanding universe-like, though largely in virtual context. 

  Knowledge of things  exponentially stretched, 

   almost beyond temporal boundaries or limits.  

Powers to influence as active participants or as causes.

Readily available to an entire world of sentient beings.

         Limited only by the dreams 

         and aspirations of humanity.

Sitting in house, or any place one may opt to locate himself, 

one invested with capabilities far beyond puny understanding.

           Limited only by what one could think, 

            or dream in the wildest ways.

Parkour. MMA. VanLife. Boxing, Tennis, Politics.  Religion. 

Economics, Global Events. Ukraine.  Russia. Globalism.  Oil. 

Climate Change. Sports,Entertainment. Sciences.  Philosophy. 

 Astrophysics. Deep Fake.  Men of Science, Arts,  Entertainment.  Etc.

Truly then current man could be enshrined to the level of god, or at least, a demi-god.  Possessed of seeming mystical powers.

     

When Leaders Are Exposed as Uncouth and Unrefined

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?

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.

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.

 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. 

 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.

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.

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?

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. 

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.

What is in store for us?

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.

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.

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.

Thus, a statement that could never be or happen. Delivered simply for effect.

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.

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.

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.

Rummaging through his rambling statements on Theology, one concept stands out for me as reminiscent of our early years in school.

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.

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.

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.

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.