The Politics of our State

Two thought exercises -

Sea and Sky

Politics in our Republic
is like Sea and Sky

The Nation the Sea, the State the Sky
thought reflecting thought, blue upon blue
salt and water and spirit - in faithful motion
we, the people, in deep conversation.

Turbulent water disturbs it,
stormy Skies don't calm it -
but then, Nights turn to Days,
clouds, storms in their great rounds,
governments, parting ways, election days,
gold and silver rays.
---<--@

The Talk in the Walk

Let us first recall to mind - 

Countries take, people make. 

And that this is true for all Countries, including ours... 

More interested should we be in what Countries do 

than in what their people say - whether true or false. 

Because as regards decisions, 

people make them, Countries only take them - 

that Country may translate water into Motion. 

Country, for the intent and purpose of this blog, being a verb, 

its motion is only as faithful as the substance that give rise to it. 

And the richness of this substance 

depends on the depth of our civic spirituality 

as a human people. 

---<--@

If our Nation stops talking the talk, 

our Republic stops walking the walk.

Now, imagine if you will, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 

that upon this - our Land of Promise - 

you were this Republic - 

the particular spirit of Country 

tasked by the deeper workings of Providence 

to shepherd this one Filipino Nation, 

not the Nation itself, mind you - 

but our Republic organism.

Imagine it were you. 

What would you like to hear from your Nation? 

Worthless banter? Bitter silence? Empty thoughts? 

Unfeeling, uncaring politics? Contemptuous prattle? 

Distasteful murmurings of unbelief? Scornful distrust? 

The incessant noise of battle, of war and discord? 

Hate speech and the ignorance of your Liberty? 

Or the happy chatter of a joyful people? 

Let us look now at our National bird - the maya bird - 

An industrious, little, long-suffering creature with wings. 

Almost invisible to us Filipinos for its commonality. 

T'is a bird 

who lives in the moment, 

not because it wants to 

but because it has to

humble
with a life span of only a fraction 

of what is allotted to us human beings  

yet courageous enough for its future 

displaying great fortitude for their young  

at times even more solicitous
than human mothers. 

Hear them sing in the morning... 

just before they go about their day, 

its almost like a daily prayer 

of praise and adoration 

to our God. 

- selah -

Do you think our Nation sounds like the bird 

we carefully took to symbolize and represent 

something we cherish in our people?

Certainly,
we can not all be incapable of worthwhile talk. 

But certainly also,
there is still much to be desired 

in that same regard.

- selah -

What is the center of the Republic? 

The place in the heart 

from which we speak to each other 

as citizens not unlike
one another. 

If we, in this thought exercise, 

should come to the same conclusion 

that there is indeed insufficient 

"chattering of a joyful people" 

going around these days, 

then we must find this center - 

the citizen in ourselves. 

And rejuvenate
the National Dialogue - 

that we may fill it once again 

with substance becoming 

of the Philippine State.

- selah -

My brothers and sisters in the Nation, 

nowhere can we find the best solutions for our problems 

than in ourselves. 

For we are each other's keeper  

keeper to our common humanity, 

our human community, our remembrances, 

our liberty, our posterity - before God.

We were born into it - 

by a choice to live the values 

that make our citizenship 

noble and worthwhile. 

Hence, 

whether natural or naturalized, 

we profess one spirit.

So let's talk the right talk, 

and together walk the right walk.

We can not build the right world with the wrong values.

Nor the right Republic with the wrong civics.

---<--@

=^.^=