Christmas 2014

Maligayang Pasko po sa ating lahat!

Just a little share...

Just a little share...

2012, I had both Christmas and New Year's eve dinner at the steps of Puregold Molito having a sandwich and a soda by myself...

At the time, I thought I was kind of a tough s.o.b., roughing it for the sake of the job.

Now, when I look back, I still think it is awesome to be able to sacrifice for the sake of a good job but I no longer think I'm a tough s.o.b. for doing so.

Truth is, no one wants to be away from family on a Noche Buena or a Media Noche...

No one... including yours truly.

Even if I were to be throwing it down with the best team in the universe... no team beats the team you were born into... especially on Christmas or New Year's eves.

Thems the breaks though, as they say... Such is such, my darling dear, until such a time that it is no longer such... or until the last pence is paid.

In short, ganun talaga ang buhay, parang life lang... paikot-ikot... ang mahilo taya! Lol.

Life isn't giving anybody lemons because life totally sucks. Actually, when life gives one lemons, many a time life is only teaching one how to make good lemonade.

So here I am again this year it looks like... 

I'm going to make me some good lemonade.
---<--@

My mom and I did some Christmas shopping yesterday. We were on a meager budget but we managed to stretch it. We had a nice lunch after.

In the afternoon, my mom did all the wrapping for me as I was so tired. I came back from my Friday shift in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, you see. Anyway, I didn't know my mom was really fast at wrapping gifts... she was like a gift wrapping machine! Lol.

Right now, when I think about it, I'm really glad I got most of my Christmas presents wrapped and ready. It makes me smile inside when I recall how my mom and I made it all happen in a day.

The gifts themselves are not that much but all my thought went into them with the simple hope of making my loved ones smile inside this Christmas.

I say they are "not that much" not because of what they cost but because I don't like giving gifts I myself do not like. When it comes to the principle of gift, my attitude is: If God decides that I should keep what I am giving, that I should be just as happy (i.e. in keeping them as I am in giving them away). For I would that I neither give nor like the act of giving rubbish gifts.

Because the giving is the gift. 

Therefore, if I were able to get what I really want to give to the all people I love this Christmas (and there are so many), I'd have gotten something different and incidentally, because the world is still the world, a tad bit more expensive. For now, however, such is such. 

Receiving gift is another matter, mind you, involving another aspect of liberality.

When the miracle of sharing is reversed and I am on the receiving end of gift, my focus when I meditate on those things is: That I should always be thankful as if the joy of the giver were added to my own.

(One can not fully "see into" the essence of these moments of sharing - in the exact moment - because these moments usually involve the welling up of many different emotions and therefore, are no so quiet... I guess that's why there's Boxing Day, December 26. To be thankful, save for pure miracles of grace, we often have to remember to remember).

In short, when on the receiving end, there is no such thing as an unworthy gift given in the true spirit of giving. There really are no rubbish gifts, both in giving and in receiving, only rubbish attitudes of sharing.

Because the giving is the gift. 

And this Christmas, the message shall be made known, once again, to all hearts of humanity that "The Giver is the gift", alleluia.

These things are a wonder to remember, are they not?

I guess this is the spirit of Gaudete Sunday which is the 3rd Sunday of the Advent Season. Joy in the midst of hope... Summer in the midst of winter...

Yes indeed, it's Gaudete Sunday today... it's going to be a great Christmas this year.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for precious memories like these!
---<--@

Freedom for Sale

Corruption is not inspiration.
Corruption is trouble and ruin.

Do not give in to corruption!

Citizen, who you are is why you work.

So just be the best you can be... 

And it will be well for all in the world.
---<--@

Is your freedom for sale?

Do not sell your vote. 

Those who would buy your vote
would buy your rights and your freedom too
if they could...

So don't sell yourself out, Citizen - reserve the vote.

If you can't vote or if you feel disinclined to vote,
for any reason you may think compels you, abstain. 

Reserve your vote.

Vote only when you are convinced of the power of the vote.

- selah -

Your vote counts. 

So vote to win!

A single vote might seem to you insignificant
and should tomorrow you came to believe this true, Citizen,
then tomorrow our democracy too might perish.

Consider the reliance of the stars,
how entire stars rely on the action of their most fundamental elements
to complete their life cycles.

Can we not shine bright as those stars, Citizen,
through the Three Foundation Stars of our Country?

Therefore,
whoever one may choose to elect by way of the ballot,
understand that when we, the people, vote...

we vote to win.
---<--@

End Modern Day Slavery

The poverty of war
and the poverty of hunger...

These are forms of modern day slavery
that weaken and impoverish the life
of entire human communities.

The former is a wholesale form of bondage
arising from lack of spiritual remembrance,
the latter from a lack of temporal means...

Both are evils that lend their strengths to each other. 

We can not effectively defend against one
and forget the other.

Think about it.
---<--@


I am committed to ending modern day slavery.

Immaculate Conception 2014

Let us implore our Lady, the Immaculate Conception, 
to help see our Country safely through Typhoon Ruby. 

May the Blessed Virgin Mary watch over our communities 
and keep our families safe...

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

---<--@

20141212 Friday 306H: Salamat po mahal naming Ina sa ibinigay ninyong awa, ang Bagyong Hagupit sa ami'y hindi naging sobrang lupit...

Thinking Forward 30 Years

So in a future world 30 years from now... 

When our technology has developed widely enough and deeply enough that the sum of all these innovations combined have become applications fully capable and mature enough to replace us in those fields of human endeavor traditionally reserved for the human professional...

What then?

If the maturity of our remembrances do not keep abreast with these advances, not to mention keep ahead of the evolution of the spirit of War, our own technology might eventually forget who we are and soon after become hostile to our common humanity.

Instead of being in our common service, our machines may become our masters and through them, War will gain another way of entering into our times.

The human realm is a temporal realm - time is for us what the timeless is for the angels. Time is the sea we human beings were created to swim in and prosper through - as a family of Nations.

Our exile was also a time not a place. Place is relative to time... 

Choice is important... The choice for peace. The choice to love. The choice to remember. The choice to accept. The choice to change and to be... The choice to say, "yes". 

Awakened freedoms awaken dreams and bring them forth in time.

These choices take us places... places arising from things we think about and do everyday.

Small indeed when compared to the immensity of the universe we inhabit...

A universe that itself was birthed from a single choice... a choice our Creator made for us... still makes with us and through us and for us - for the glory of His Name and for our good.

Here things rise and fall, but in the midst of all it's comings and goings, we know of things that stay and are for always - and these are not things.

Machines can never be made to understand or comprehend these deeper things of the Spirit. How can they? Our technologies are purely temporal constructs. But we human beings are not machines - a part of us shall always transcend, now and forever, of the physicality of all things temporal.

For we are the stewards of this realm of God's creation. This is how He made us. If we forget, it is our loss.

But how can we? All things seen and unseen proclaim His Peace.

Religion proposes this to our hearts - we react as if it were an expectation already in us, so that if we are generous to the call of faith, we are then made to discover the wonder of faith seeking understanding...

And we make a choice.

But even if one is not religious or have chosen to have no religion, it stands to naked human reason... If we do not take care of what we have on this planet, what little we do have left will soon leave us with the ebbing of the tides of time.

We are how we treat each other, and that is all.

- selah -

Here in the Philippines, our path in the short term as regards these takes us through to 2046... Half-way through, we have to prove our peace and pass the test, that we may carry on safely, assured of better times ahead.
---<--@

Bansa at Bukluran at Sambayanang Kanlungan

This is my most current attempt at expressing in the Filipino language, the key elements that by my accounting give rise to the particular character and sovereign being of our Republic undertaking of Country i.e Nation, State, Society = Country.
---<--@

Ating Pagka-Bansa
(Our Nationhood - Sovereign Foundation)

Pangngalan: Bansa na sa ati'y Sarili

Gawaing marunong: Pakikipag-kapwa tao (o ang Pagiging-makatao) at Pakikipag-diwang totoo (o ang Pagiging-makatotoo)

Lamang dunong: Kapayapaan at Katotohanan
---<--@

Ating Pagkaka-Buklod
(Our Statehood - Sovereign Expression)

Pangngalan: Buklurang Panglipunan

Gawaing marunong: Pakiki-bahagi (Pakikipag-ugnayan) at Pakiki-isa (Pakiki-atin)

Lamang dunong: Katarungan at Katiwasayan
---<--@

Ating Pagkikipag-Ayunan
(Our Society - Sovereign Motion)

Pangngalan: Sambayanang Ugnayan

Gawaing marunong: Pakiki-bayan at Pakiki-bayani

Lamang dunong: Kapatiran at Katapangan
---<--@

Bansa at Bukluran at Sambayanan ito ay ang -

Ating Pagka-Republika
(Our Country - the Filipino Spirit)

Pangngalan: Republikang Katigan o ang Republika ng Pilipinas

Gawaing marunong: Pakiki-baka o Pakiki-Pilipino

Lamang dunong: Kalayaan at Kasarinlan
---<--@

Pinoy Magiting

Sino ba ang mahal? 

Ano ba ang minamahal?

Galit ba o Pagmamahal, Pilipino?

Katapangan sa Pilipino'y
bunga nitong puso na sa ati'y likas
may bisa at bigkas, may ganda at lakas
kung mag-alab ay wagas...

Puso na sa ati'y
kung magmahal ay mabagsik,
na sa mata ng lupa't langit ay tunay,

at sa isip ng mga makakata'y napakakulay, 

na kung magpatunay ay masipag at mahusay 

pero kung magbigay ay mapag-angkin...

Dahil ang kagitingang taglay
ng ating pusong mapagmatunay,
marami man niyang anyo
ay mula lamang
dito sa iisa nating puso.

Pagmamahal Pilipino
na sa ati'y laging sumusubaybay
ang sa puso din sa ati'y pumipintig;
pagmamahal na sa para sa Minamahal
pa lamang palaging pinahihiwatig...

Dahil kung sa galit at kabuktutan
tayong mga Pinoy ay likas na sa puso'y dala,
wala na ring lungkot na dapat
sa puso nating mga Pinoy bumibisita.

Kung galit ang sa puso nati'y mas likas
at kung galit na rin pusong Pinoy
dito sa lupa pinaglihi't ipinanganak,
marahil ito'y isang bulag.

Dahil puso na sa galit lamang nakalagak
kailan man ito'y sa atin ay mag-alab
ay puno ng dilim na mapagwasak
at hindi ng mapaganking liwanag
na sa pagmamahal natin ay puno.

Sa minamahal ito'y bulag,
sa pagmamahal ito'y duwag,
sa sarili ito'y huwad.

Pero kung sa puso tayo'y sa pagmamahal
nang Minamahal nating Diyos ay itinagi
sa tapang ang giting ng Pinoy
kailan ma'y di pahuhuli.

Tapang na sa ati'y
may dalang bait at dunong,
tandaan natin na sana
kung mula saan isinusulong
dahil ito'y mula sa puso natin
na kung magmahal...

Ang paalala na lang sa Pilipino ay ganito -
parang alab na kung araw ay matindi uminit
at kung gabi nama'y liwanag na matahimik.

- selah -

Tapang nati'y pinapayagan
ng puso na rin nating
pagmamahal ang dahilan.

Hindi ito nadadala ng bilis
at hindi ito parang walang tulis,
malayo't maluwag magbigay tanaw
at walang kasing tindi ang tamis...

Dahil hindi kailanman sa galit
ang puso ng Pilipinas naging tapat,
ni kahit minsa'y hindi iyan naging
sapat sa puso nating lahat.
---<--@

The Illusion of Race

Race is an illusion, an artifice of a species of nationalism that is not ours. What is proposes is the division of the Nation according to tribal distinctions. What this means is the subjugation of the soul of its peoples by the temporal powers of this world.

Race is a social construct purposed to be divisive of unity and disruptive of harmony among Men. This is so because the concept of race is meant to fill an ideological necessity (that upon our needful earth gave rise to a domination of evil we have together fought and prevailed against in the last age).

It is a thought prejudicial to our Liberty!

For the Nation that is ours is a soul that dwells in and among our peoples, and through it stirs the spirit that gathers our generations together and sends our generations forth into forever.

No human being or temporal power hath placed and purposed this Nationhood in our souls.

The belonging that calls to each of us within our souls is issued among us by neither man nor angel.

Nor may our citizenship, one with the other, be received by any earthly or temporal dominion save our own love and remembrance of all the good and blessed things that made us accountable to the God in heaven for the peace and good will that we are made freely and humanly responsible for together here upon this earth as a sovereign undertaking of Country.

We are made equal in dignity and promise - before God and the assembly of the Nations - not by virtue of external appearances or the whim of fashions temporal but by the truth of what is permanent in our spirit and what is for always to us in the truth.

Race hath no place among us. We are all the colors of life.
---<--@

November Thoughts

Today morning, an interesting thing happened to me. A good citizen of our Republic asked me out of the blue if the Zodiac sign, Scorpio, is good luck. To which after a moment's thought I replied, "It is".

One has to be gentle with the truth... And truth for me is this: Though I do not personally subscribe to horoscopes, I respected that he might.

So I affirmed it for him and told him it is also my Zodiac sign. November is also my birth month, you see. In a small way, I sought to bless his day. That he may carry on his labors happily for the rest of the day.

I know though my Christian faith what decides destiny is freedom, truth, and spirit in the soul not in the temporal stars. So if I should not respect and love my fellow human beings, I'd be a liar to myself and to my God. (Moreover, as temporal heaven has fallen, those stars above us won't care. So I must.)

Life can be harsh. It is a hard battle for everybody, daily living. Indubitably.

Struggle makes all men ordinary. It makes successes extraordinary. And makes community necessary.

Across our needful world, human beings scramble about struggling to make do, looking for better and better forms of wealth, health and happiness.

It is not easy... But whatever lies ahead for anybody is better faced than not at all, easily. Because none of us can navigate through what lies ahead with our backs to the future.

This is the essence of these November thoughts. That 'tis the season to be forward facing, bravely dealing, humbly accepting in the following to follow through.

November folks know winter lies immediately ahead. Wiser ones see through what lies beyond the winter.
But the best of us November people understand (or are doggedly trying to learn to understand) that facing up to life's difficulties in a posture of faith, trust and perseverance always eventually lead to the enjoyment of better climes and brighter times. That after November... June.

Happy birthday to all of us, November folks. =^.^=
---<--@

To Christmas, and beyond!

Love of Family, Love of Community

Self-interest is an exact definition of national interest. 

The national interest as self-interest is intrinsically selfish but the center of its will lies illumined in the life of the national community. A community must be self-interested else it shall not last long. 



All human beings are naturally self-interested creatures the same with all creatures in God's creation. 

We must be or else, we have a problem. There is no backing out of being. No physical coming back to the womb. Else, life and living itself can not progress and evolve. 

Self-interest here is not an evil, lack of it is.  

Now, there are forms of self-interest greater than the person of the self. 

An example of this is the institution of the family. Man and Woman as a unified whole is invested in a form of self-interest that is distinct from Man and Woman as their individual persons.

Religion regards this union as sacred and it is. 

Religion blesses those who bless life even at its conception and regards with holy esteem those who receive with the welcome of peace the life of those who are born to this world.

Nations regard this union as necessary. 

Ours is the trust that protects and prospers the life of the family and the communities that bless, provide for, and accept tribe and family with a greater welcome of peace. 

- selah -

Family is our basic introduction to life in the national community. 

It forms the ground of our civics. 

As individual citizens we must know without our fathers and mothers who as Family gave to us the choice we could not make at birth, we would simply not be. 

No babe is born with a freedom that is complete. In fact, we were the least free among God's creatures at the very moment of our birth. As babes, not one of us could even make the choice to live.

It is family who gave us the choice to live. 

And these choices often come at the expense of other choices that our fathers and mothers willingly subordinated to that form of self-interest greater and maturer than what their persons usually demanded of them as individuals alone. 

Regardless of how everything proceeded from that moment therefore, to honor thy father and mother is pre-requisite to the knowledge of life in the national community. 

The common instruction to the value of the choices we make in community - we learn simply from the action of family and as not all families are the same, we honor father and mother still for that one choice they had to make for us as babes. 

For none of us could ever truly make that choice. Nor boast about it without sin.

So in civics it is the same; that those of us who are without choices is served in society by those of us who are able to make those choices - to live - so that none of us should ever be so poor so as to live without liberty or be so fated by the random nature of this world to endure without hope or live without peace. 

- selah -

I think the saying that those who have least in life should have more in law is one better illumined by the first principle of sufficiency through reliance. And this principle better understood simply by honoring our fathers and our mothers in the light of the right remembrance.

Through life in the family, love and memory is from generation to generation brought forth into the nation so that in our civics, we may make good choices in each other's behalf - that all of us in the land may live long and the nation prosper in peace.
 ---<--@

Judge not

When you can hold back the water from these falls and stop it all from falling... 

You can be judge above all men and women. (not just among)

Judge not

Don't say jelly before the jelly sets...

Let's allow something wonderful to happen first. (better yet, let's help it along)

Liberality of the Filipino Spirit

Filipinos, they say misery deserves company. But not from ours.

We in the nation deserve happiness.

In all its wondrous shades of diversity, happiness and the paths that from it lead all to human progress and achievement to us is possessed of one ageless color - gold.

This splendid color for our nation is the color of imperishable treasure.

Therefore -

Let us trust ourselves to be happy for the good fortune of our fellows.

Liberality of the Filipino spirit is thus:

Generosity exercised not so much by the hand than by the heart.

And forget crab mentality.

Just do it.

---<--@

Fossilized remains of Filipino crab mentality.

Resuming the Peace Process with the CPP-NPA-NDF

Peace with the CPP-NPA-NDF (CNN) is a government initiative. 

Therefore, it may only be effectively resumed primarily through the auspices of the GPH. 

A formal invite to return to the table must be extended and accompanied by a means basic that presents a path toward an honorable truce. 

In this initial truce, the RPH calls on the GPH and the CNN to honorably observe a cessation of hostilities as a requisite condition to a mutually pre-approved terms of a durable truce.

(Raising the white flag of truce in a conflict that divides only our nation is not a sign of weakness nor is it a mark of dishonor. It is a sign of humility and a mark of realization and truth. No one side shall be raising it alone, we shall as one Republic together raise it, so that after it - our Flag may soon follow.)

Terms of a durable truce will include powers-under-truce intended to further without prejudice the mutual goal of establishing and re-establishing effective mechanisms for peace and stability on the ground.

(Within the context of this framework truce we shall equitably re-apply the spirit and letter of JASIG and CARHRIHL that they may, while preserving their intrinsic value and integrity as separate documents, gain perspective accessible to the minds and hearts of our common citizenry.)

And these conditional powers be therefrom further defined and achieved in and by degrees of proven trust. 

Proven trust gathered under truce shall in time merit the endowment of mutual grants - granted by both sides permanently to the center of the table - and protected by policy - as beneficial to the facilitation of the process whole.

This is how I foresee the talks renewed.

The unifying vision of the RPH in this particular aspect of the one whole peace process must be especially clear. In this, the MILF process stands to teach us some vital lessons learned. 

Social justice and the political process must be salient points in the minds of conveners from the CNN side.

Memory and remembrance must therefore be at the forefront on the GPH side. That the GPH may express knowledge of ourselves as RPH enough to dispel the overthrowing vision that has guided and misguided for so long a time this armed insurrection we are attempting to quell - by reconciling all to the unifying vision of our one Republic whole. 

That the Filipino spirit may have a home to rest within - peace for our nation, prosperity for our people.
---<--@

Time to develop a planetary sense of good will

If species survival seems our most common reason to finally venture out to conquer the depths of space, I must say it isn't the finest. After all, who are we surviving against on this one planet?

We need time to develop a planetary sense of good will. I think we have the time, a lot of it.

However, can we choose to make the time - together this time?

In the Universal Record of the Recorder of Universes, it takes an average of 500,000 years worth of recorded history for any species of living souls to successfully evolve their civilization and ascend all it's attendant worlds from unnamed to Named.

That's a lot of time to think about... a lot of empty space to fill... space substantially better utilized more through time spent in good thought and the fruits of good thoughts which are good acts.

If the present spread of time-space is to be filled with 500,000 years worth of good thinking by any form of extant sapient planetary civilization - on the average, it would amount to brilliant energy equivalent to the lifetime collective stellar output of a single, medium sized, medium age, yellow star.

(Yes, that star. Our home star without which we may not have a home world at all. From our home star we learn that light output is our ultimate measure not darkness.)

If the universe we were to truly inhabit were a container, that particular amount of brilliance would be so incredibly minute and fleeting especially in the midst of all that is to us, dark (matter and energy). 

The fact that it really and truly does matter immediately implies that the Creator of All does not look at any of us from afar. But is very near.

And there exist a lot of darkness out there that remains to be filled and transformed - right here.

The evils of our history may seem like darkness overwhelming, true. 

We live in a universe of big violence and small truths...

Therefore, let us also be aware that in spite of our past, there might likewise exist in our universe a lot of room out there in space for more kindness right here on earth.

Choices we as a particular species of living soul has yet to make, times we have yet to fill, ages we have yet to enter, and infinities we have yet to cross - together this time, if we are peaceful and wise.

Half-a-million years less twelve thousand approximately.

(A concept excerpted from a fictional book I'm writing... truly spooky action from a distance)
---<--@

Love this view from Interstellar. It provides the beholder with a truly awesome sense of scale.

Love this view of my kitty cat co-pilot (lol.)

                                                 Love this song just because...

Peace is not a place

Our exile is not a place.

Our exile is a time.

Therefore,
peace upon the earth to us
is not a place.

Peace to us is a time.

Peace to us is a truth.

Peace to us is a season under heaven
and the knowledge of this season on earth

Let us seek peace therefore, not as a place.

Let peace be for us a willing choice... 

And let this be the time.

Filipinos,
if in each our hearts there is no peace,
there shall be no peace to be found for us
upon this earth under heaven.

Unless there is no peace in our hearts,
we shall find no peace here in our nation
nor among the nations to whom we are kin.

And shall persist to wander this world
without a home... restless of heart, 
restless of hope.

Home is where the heart is!

Whenever peace is in the heart -
everywhere love shall lead us,
we shall always find a home
and shall never be left
wanting of rest...

Most especially here 
in this Country of ours.

So let peace
be our inspiration
to renew our spirit
and build!

Let this time be the time
we make ourselves belong...

One lineage of hope,
7,107 islands strong.

Let this time be our time.

Let peace be everywhere we are.

Because 
if not here, where?
If not now, when?
---<--@

Time and For Always

There are some things reflected in their moments...

when the soul is struck by a sudden impression of a great majesty...

or the spirit is instantly moved by an act of great nobility...

When you see a glimpse of what is beautiful in the common everyday...

When the heart sees glimpses of what is true in time... what is for always...


Moments that unconsciously invite unto thy external observation
the sweet expectation that there may exist an unseen realm
apart and beyond what is visible and temporal...

Seeker, how may the soul of Man have an expectation of what in time is for always?

If the human soul itself exists upon temporal realms alone
and therefore perishable and corporeal with the physical body,
why does it delight in things spiritual, in moments that are for always?

Indeed the souls of animals and plants do not indulge in spiritual matters absolutely.

If the soul of Man is no different, why do we persist to contradict ourselves
and seek those things beyond the immediate
and risk the ruin of our species?

Why do we possess souls that need to seek and to be sought
in the spiritual and not just the corporeal?

Seeker, 'tis because...

we are human.
---<--@

Man and Woman as a New Creation

In this day, precious Starshine, the women of this Country possess a high degree of freedom. And it gave our national thinking a kind of soul.

Prostitution they say, is the most ancient profession.

Truth is, prostitution is only as ancient as it endures in the life of our communities today.



It has been such a persistent truth over the ages that prostitution is a womanly profession that perhaps, a greater part of our humanity may have somehow come to believe it were an honorable and ancient trade - disgracing and abusing Woman and her children.

Let me say that it is not.

Woman too was a victim in the beginning.

She and Man suffered equally the consequences of our temporal banishment from the everlasting freedom of our our original innocence.

Prostitution, dear Starshine, is a failure to protect. It becomes a profession only as a result of this evil.

And by a failure to recognize and to craft effective laws that ensure the dignity of the person of Woman is to be preserved equally right alongside Man, we inadvertently sway in support of this lie, that somehow the sex trade in Women and children is in fact, "a trade".

Where this is the fault of Man, it brutalizes the image of Man because of who Woman is to Man, not despite of her.

Where this is the fault of our nations, we perpetuate the victimization of the inherent dignity of Woman (at our expense) and as a labor of Country the necessary success of our common ascent is held back by our lack of remembrance.

Man and Woman as a union is one.
Truly, both were meant "to be".

If Man is mind.
Then Woman is heart.

So that together
Man and Woman
may become
one soul.

They are qualities equal
but not the same.

If Man is pilot.
Then Woman is navigator.

Theirs is a journey that must proceed
from the freedom of their giving,
lest the family lose its power
to shelter and to raise you,
dear little ones.

Unity of family
proceed from Man and Woman
establishing both their faith and authority
over each other, lovingly and wisely,
that a proper dominion may be established
over the generations of Mankind.

This authority in Man and in Woman
to place upon the earth their common tent
in sight of the LORD is not an authority
to establish a permanent dominion
over one - or - the other.

For their union
of bearing and strength

is one complementary equality 

intended for the renewal of creation
being itself a unity - constantly new and ever new
upon the earth - to live, love, and to set each other free

and in doing so, in between their pains giving birth
to the transformation of the life of the earth.

---<--@

Beauty is timeless.

Beauty is ageless.

Beauty is always in season...
And is forever known to be so.

What is most beautiful is fleeting, all that is worth remembering is what is most beautiful...

Do you remember?

The Archetypal Hero

True self-expression makes heroes of us all.

=^.^=

I think there is a hero
hidden in every person.

We all have our right moments...

When this hero inside of ourselves arise
to uphold something good in this world.

The wonderful thing about this
I have found is:



Each time the hero in ourselves arise to save something good,
it arises to save that something good in ourselves first...

That something good in ourselves reflected in the other person
that the hero in ourselves implicitly recognize...

Whether we know it or not, when it arises, within that moment

we act.

In a way, it might be meant
that we save each other,
you see.

Because in a way, we are all heroes.

It just might be the way it is.

- selah -

The question then is this:

This hero spark,
our precious Starshine,
from Whom did we get it?
---<--@

A different kind of different, are you up to it?

Justice for Jennifer

Politics and justice do not usually mix well. The courts of our justice system insulates itself from public sentiment for a reason.

Justice is not a spectrum. It is a compass direction that must always point to true north. Public sentiment always represents a much larger expression than this.

Politics on the other hand is usually served by tides of public sentiment and public sentiment only insofar as the public passion is at its flood.

Both serve as distinctive expressions of the enduring life of our national values. Apart, they are clear. But taken together, they represent a false choice.

The cause of justice for Jennifer should prepare itself for a difficult road ahead.

Because when politics and justice mix, it is often at the expense of the other. Which one depends on who is left believing and holding on at the turn of the tide.

I am for equal justice before the law.

No one deserves to be murdered in the way she was murdered.

This is a human being, let us remember - with human struggles, human hopes, human connections, and a citizenship which causes her to belong equally and equitably with all other citizens in our Republic. One could say the same of Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton.

All of these are equal considerations.

The unfortunate thing is that, due to the inescapable weight of larger issues beyond the context of this case, these individually human considerations might have inadvertently taken on a political spin.

Due process, custody and safety, correctional jurisdiction are inherently non-political issues. They belong to a sovereignty (of being) that is universally exclusive and imiscible to States.

To be honest, I am not privy to the details of the issue. I do not think this is a hate crime though. It might be more a crime of passion. There are certainly things that can and must be done to prevent and deter crimes like this from happening again in the future.

I do not think this must affect our friendship and treaty obligations with the United States. I am thinking much more of those US citizens who live in friendship with our people than with the politics of the matter here.

However, if we do not streamline and clarify the process of expediting justice in cases such as these, it might affect the overall effectiveness of our being able to carry it out as kindred Countries. Defense being always a matter carried out in the absolute.

We are both a democracy and should understand the weight of public sentiment and the vitality of national memory. Our governments alone can not sustain the potency of a national friendship and treaties alone can not effect a truly common defense of this vital friendship.

Good will must be displayed in the treatment of this case on both sides.

My sincerest sympathy goes out to the family and the friends of Jennifer Laude. It would be remiss of me not to extend my condolences to the bereaved - to those loved ones she left behind in our care.

May her soul find the peace that this world was not able or willing to offer her. May she find her way back to the God Who loves us all and gives us hope for our humanity.

Jennifer Laude is a victim. This is the bottom line. Let us not make more victims in her name.

Justice must be done.
---<--@

20141026: Apparently, there exists two other concurrent cases involving the murder of a transgender individual. When I began ruminating about the fate of Jennifer Laude, the first question that came to my mind was, "what was primary will driving the public outcry, the core sentiment as it were at the center of the outcry?"

Is it because Laude is a member of the LGBT minority sheltering under our Republic peace or is it because the alleged perpetrator just so happens to be a serving member of the US Armed Forces?

I was afraid it shall be the latter because it proves that much of the outcry is political - clamoring for an issue more than the human issue we should be dealing about in the immediate.

I understand Susselbeck is outraged. I do not wish to expound on his morality here. I sympathize with his loss of an intimate personal connection. He led one of  the protests in Aguinaldo, got into an unfortunate scuffle with one of our soldiers, apologized, and is now on his way back to Germany.

Should we make him into a persona non grata? I think we should have clearer guidelines on that too. This however, is a matter for our lawmakers and policy innovators.

One great round

Time is a flow. 

Flowing forward for everybody.

For each of us however,
time seems one great round.

For all of time
for all of us
in the absolute sense
is a reconciliation
with ultimate beginnings.



Life is a struggle. 

Free will is at the root of this struggle.

Some people would say free will is the root of all evil.

I shall beg to disagree with them.

- selah -

We all live to be free. 

Free of what though? Free of our free will?

Shall we shed off time and mortality to find only nothing? 

Is this humanity's truest, innermost expectation of the end of time?

Even those who do not believe in the Divine must know there exists evil in this world.

The freedom we must all live for is not the cause of this evil.

- selah -

The root of all evil is evil itself. 

That we human beings
must suffer to live our lives through this world
is because there is evil in this world that persists
and shall persist while this world persists.

The Evil in all evil things is the root of all evil.
This Evil is the indirect cause of physical evils.
This Evil is the direct cause of moral evils.

It lies beneath the fabric of all things seen.

- selah -

This is why in this life, 
we must struggle.

Not in spite of all that is evil
but in the very midst of it.

Not despite our free will
but precisely because of it.

That we may know once again
how it is to desire to live
in perfect freedom.

That we may together again
regain in original perfection
at the beginning of all things new
the abundant power of our free will.

One great round.
---<--@

Brave

Choose the journey.
Change the world.

---<--@

Marriage is not a Love Affair

Found these passages meaningful...



CAMPBELL: ... But marriage is marriage, you know. Marriage is not a love affair. A love affair is a totally different thing. A marriage is a commitment to that which you are. That person is literally your other half. And you and the other are one. A love affair isn't that. That is a relationship for pleasure, and when it gets to be unpleasurable, it's off. But a marriage is a life commitment, and a life commitment means the prime concern of your life. If marriage is not the prime concern, you're not married.

MOYERS: Does romance in marriage last?

CAMPBELL: In some marriages, it does. In others, it doesn't. But the problem, you see, the big word in this troubadour tradition, is "loyalty."

MOYERS: What do you mean by loyalty?

CAMPBELL: Not cheating, not defecting -- through whatever trials or suffering, you remain true.

MOYERS: The Puritans called marriage "the little church within the Church."In marriage, every day you love, and every day you forgive. It is an ongoing sacrament -- love and forgiveness.

CAMPBELL: Well, the real word, I think, is "ordeal," in its proper sense. That is the submission of the individual to something superior to itself. The real life of a marriage or of a true love affair is in the relationship, which is where you are, too. You understand what I mean?

MOYERS: No, I'm not clear on that.

CAMPBELL: Like the yin/yang symbol, you see. Here I am, and here she is, and here we are. Now when I have to make a sacrifice, I'm not sacrificing to her, I'm sacrificing to the relationship. Resentment against the other one is wrongly placed. Life is in the relationship, that's where your life now is. That's what a marriage is -- whereas, in a love affair, you have two lives in a more or less successful relationship to each other for a certain length of time, as long as it seems agreeable.

from The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell
---<--@

Love Quickens

VII. Love Quickens

The measure of love is to love without measure.

I do not know where I happened upon this saying, my loveliest love, but isn't it so true?

When I was younger, I looked at love differently. I took it from itself.

I made love mine and mine alone.

I wanted my girlfriend for myself and myself alone. And she wanted the same of me.

But love has a way of turning the tables on strangers like us.

In its own mysterious time, unknown to the uninitiated, to make itself known, love suddenly reveals itself.

With a sword, love pierces the heart. It draws blood to quicken the lovers to itself.

Then with strong arms, it subdues the self until it makes us all its own.

And suddenly, the stranger is a stranger no more.

We are one.

Unfortunately, my darlingest dear, that relationship did not survive the quickening of love.

For our hearts were not able to bear the doubt.

Nor our egos able to withstand the hurt.

Neither of us were strong enough to bear for each other, our love; the failing of our youth.

I was hurt. She was hurt.

Love was also hurt.

But it was the hurting that heals and it was the bearing that teaches.

And so for many years I grieved. Not really knowing that love also wept with me.

I do not know how many years it took for love to bear me away from my grieving, my loveliest love. But when I was able to smile again, it was with you.

It is all that I can remember now...

- selah -

True love begins with a doubt.

When love asks of itself, "do you love me?"

If one loves the beloved without measure, there is a sense of wholeness that embraces the lovers both ways and the heart that knows it doubts itself not saying,

I do.

There is a bittersweet pain to loving.

Lovers long for each other like love longing for itself alone.

It is the experience of being in love.

'Tis pain and joy.

For the quickening of love hurts.

Truly, it must.

Love reassures us wonderfully however, and gives us every chance to prove ourselves.

For at the same time loves takes us unto itself, love sets us free.

- selah -

Now that I have been hurt, I can love again.

(personal anecdote 20090824)
---<--@

“Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.”

from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

The Craft of Citizens

Civics is the craft of citizens. Politics is the craft of the State.

Our first consideration: 

We are a nation. This makes us a human people.

We are human beings with common human needs. The cause of our nationhood are human causes. We are through our nationhood sought by heaven on earth that we may be sheltered in peace and sheltered that we may be sent forth in goodwill unto our Mankind.

Because we are, our identity and belonging is established upon a timeless foundation. There are truths about our being as a free and sovereign human community that are changeless and unyielding - as changeless and as unyielding as the peace that in our nation gathers us together and sends us forth as one.

Peace, written in our hearts, is the soul of our nationhood and has been before we were a people.

We are a nation forever. For the peace that forever belong to our nation is an eternal salutation.

The cause of our nationhood are our human causes.

The craft of all nations is peace.

When we know peace, we know memory. 

When we know memory, we know when and where in ourselves does hope spring and goodwill proceeds - in the peace of our nationhood and from the nationhood in ourselves (respectively).

God is our Highest Reliance. The First Defended of our Republic.

Before we know our civics, we must understand our nationhood.

That what makes us human, one to another, makes us also belong to all heaven and earth.

Our second consideration: 

What makes us citizens makes us belong to the temporal State and prepares us for greater belongings.

There is no science that serves to initiate the student of civics to a prior body of knowledge about the art of his or her citizenship. Civic aptitude does not come by way of great academic knowledge.

Recall to thy heart the fall of the first morning star of the first firmament and imagine a single star in the night sky, shining by itself from eternity.

Without the company of other stars, shall this bright morning star have cause to think itself dim or bright?

A great intellect may think itself bright only because he or she is always in the company of a myriad other lesser ones. Whether one is loathe to admit this fact or not, it is a civic truth. 

Sufficiency through reliance.

We are only as far as each of us allow, eaches only as far as we are.

Peace in the nation allows for each of us to allow that - we are.

Civics allow us to be and to function as eaches - as far as we are...

Citizens who together as a Body Politic form through the democratic foundation of the Philippine State, the one Philippine Republic whole.

Our third and final consideration:

A student of civics is a heart willing to listen... Citizenship is a lifelong art.

You do not learn it by reading alone. You acquire it by hearing it, and following, and leading.

You do not teach it by much speaking. You transmit it by living it, and loving, and remembering.

Apply yourself to knowing your civics and your civics will apply itself to teaching itself to you.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

And let us together in the nation grow bright, certainly brighter than the long night.

Start by simply not littering, if you like. And know why you do it.

Begin by respecting the ground of our earth.
---<--@

Personal Reflection

Civics inform our Politics and Politics shape the State wherein we all are citizens first.

One may be civic oriented without ever being political. One may not be political however, without any civic orientation. Politics that is professed without any grounding in civics is almost always mercenary in form, without any concept of loyalty to Country or duty to the common good.

Is it political to love a person, a thing, a place, a time, or a truth?

It may be that the State ought to be concerned about what we love. That the State may know to withdraw from interior freedoms where these are concerned.

There is no such thing as a wrong love.

Politics shall never find enough of itself in itself to prove or disprove what love there is or what love there is not - in any person. It shall soon exhaust its own expression against a question it is never intended to address.

Where interior freedoms are concerned, the State should have a recourse to exhort the civic spirit of the nation and empower the love of the people to bear the right fruit that more and more of our people may know to trust in better things and therefore, be served eventually by better loves.
---<--@

Apart from the Love of God, the Devil has no existence.

Or be a ninja, if you like.

Cheers. Steady on.