Ode To Life

 Free verses flowing from a mind in idle gear, on a Sunday morn:

Ode To Life: Playing Mindlessly With The Words Plaguing Our Life

Do we have enough living in our life?

That is a most basic life-long question.

If it is not lived on our idea of what life ought to be, 

Can we continue to say that we are still living life?

In other words, if we live against our concept of life,

Are we still okay to refer to that living as living a life?

If death is forever in our mind as we struggle to live,

Are we said to be living life, rather than living death?

In dotage, we are apt to say we are tired with living,

Could we say that we are still living, with a purpose?

Is life an empty vessel where we store daily our living of it, 

Or could it be simply a veritable storehouse of living stuff?

Why are we admonished that to live a most useful life, 

We ought to turn our backs and begin to die from life?

Isn’t it very funny that we are blessed with our precious life, 

But we are always reminded that our fate is not in this life?

A constant reminder is that Christ is the Way of Life in this world,

Yet His tenets are fraught with thoughts of death from this world.

Truly, there are many lessons to learn from the living of life, 

All mostly requiring our wrenching ourselves away from life.

Oh, the woes and perils of living a life!

Some Stray Thoughts About Election

Are we putting too much in the position of President and as a result, putting too much emphasis in our choice of one?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Thus, our choice of president will depend largely on what we expect him/her to do in office.

Hopefully, six years is not an eternity for any error of choice made.

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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.

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.

 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.

By way of example.

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.

In the Philippines?  What about members of the clergy taking political sides and promoting them as their moral equivalents?

PATIENT, HEAL THYSELF

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 other.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Mine gets a little more complicated, having gone through more medical gauntlets, aggravated by an age seniority of close to a decade.  

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.

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.

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!

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.

Or quoted exactly,  "...exhibiting hydrogen-induced accelerated battery depletion."

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.

Thankfully, it was found that the pacemaker installed in me was not among those models or versions flagged by the advisory.

Still we will continue to monitor the accelerated depletion to forestall any catastrophic incident brought upon by a dead battery.

And in the quiet of my room, I learned more than enough about the latest developments  and made my notes. 

Quietened and assured in the fact that life is proceeding with sufficient foreknowledge and design.

For that is the lot of man.  He proposes, but God disposes. 

Musings On The Go

 

When In Doubt

During bouts of sleeplessness or idle times, one scans through social media groups to pass the time.

And invariably one inherits  the feelings of helplessness and depression.

For what we read are mostly a litany of the things that are observed as being wrong, both in our city and in the whole country. 

Do we need to be constantly and incessantly reminded?

Do we really need to know all the wrinkles we can observe in and around our surroundings?

Isn’t it sufficient especially after all these times to keep those in mind and accept them as there. 

But then start unobtrusively doing whatever little things we may be able to do  both individually and collectively.

In our lifetime and beyond, most of these things observed will still be with us.

There is nothing humanly possible to remove all of them.  

As one problem is resolved, another one pops up. Life is meant to be like this.   

So judge rather the efforts expended than the problems solved. 

There is no going around that.

Much like we are admonished,  lighting that solitary candle rather than loudly cursing the darkness may be more cleansing.

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How Things Have Changed.

Not too long ago drilled into our minds was this pious thought.

That the  Holy Week of Lent was a season for fasting, abstinence, and sacrifice. 

An opportune time for  reverential solitude amidst the din of daily living.  

The time to bear all possible tribulations, doubts, and vicissitudes we could all possibly  endure.

Cramped in those few days of the Lenten season, in imitation of the examples set by Christ.

But now when Semana Santa rolls along, our harried mind wanders elsewhere.\

It starts dreaming of the possible hideaways and getaways that we can sequester ourselves and our families.

All  to escape the hustle and bustle of city life, the torrid summer heat and deafening chaos of urban living.  

In other words, with sacrifices bearing down on all, we seek to enjoy the few days in ease and comfort.

Yet He did counsel and admonish, take up my cross and follow me!  For this leads to eternal life.

Thus, we have to empty our vessels with the temporal pursuits and cares of this world, so we can let Christ in.

SUDDENLY THEY STIR UP OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS

February 2015

But aren't  we STILL missing the bigger picture?

Words heated to red hot when China started reclamations on some atoll islands (called shoals, really).

When the Chinese started its clandestine incursions into some atoll islands geographically close to our shores, we immediately boiled up with passionate and nationalistic protestations about violations of our precious sovereignty, over some outcroppings of land in the vast expanse of the China Sea.  Lands that probably have very little value for agriculture pursuits not only with regard to fertility but because of their miniscule sizes.  Of course we may say that there is always the possibility that valuable mineral deposits could be found in those tiny dots of islands.

Or fishing rights that would be curtailed. But if they are close enough to our national boundaries, then can we not surmise that whatever they’d got there could also be possibly found where we are?  Anyway, all these long years, what have we done in and about these suddenly now famous shoals?  Nada.

Anyway, to this day this is a daily thorn in our national discourses which have of late then at helter-skelter.  Heated words burned continue to spew out of the mouths of our government officials, the media, and from many of us.

Then picture the big and lush island of Mindanao, long heralded but neglected as the land of promise, a veritable goldmine of natural resources and vast fertile lands and valleys.  And what do we do?  

We want to slice and dice it so a good portion of it could be handed in a platter to a minority that has not much to show with regard to democratic governance, no worthy credentials to vouch for its financial cognitive abilities to manage an economy much less a complex political system, and that has always been regarded dating back to the Spanish times, through the American regime and as late as yesterday, as bellicose, troublesome, untrustworthy, and from past labored experiences as unfit for the rigors and demands of civilization.

Why, only last week or so our eschewed national discourses have suddenly been fused into one focal subject – the massacre of 44 of our elite policemen out to arrest a known international terrorist, a bomb maker responsible for the deaths of many innocents, domiciled and coddled right in the heart of the benighted place where some kind of a new state is supposedly to be constituted under some negotiated agreement with our duly-constituted government.

Anyway, while we hem and haw about some bleached shoals out there in the vast China Sea, our resource-rich Mindanao is laid waste with strife and neglect.

Shades of some forgotten facets of our history?