Only in America...

Local cats panic as tigress walks into a 7-11 looking for complaints desk.

Reminds me of my own stint at Longs Drugs #3... those were good times!

Independence Day 2014

"I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heaven by the Americans", the second President of our Republic is famously quoted.

Indeed, these present days, further up (or down) the lineage of that prestigious and noble Office, some might convincingly argue this country indeed is being run like hell by us Filipinos.

Was President Quezon being cynical about the budding Republic with which he so diligently served our struggling and anxious nation as our first head of State? Was our second President, after Aguinaldo, being bitter about our chances at actual Independence?

Should we be careful what we wish for? Should we dare not believe again in our hopes of Country?

My brothers and sisters of the Promise, Manuel L. Quezon is one of this Republic's guiding lights. His star is one that shines bright, but only when we care to look at ourselves in the right light.

To do the memory of the man Justice, allow me to finish his quote, "...because however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it."

He knew the learning curve would be steep. He knew the world during his time was consumed by war and our nation was in the thick of it. He knew the way toward maturity for our young lion of a Country was one fraught with much danger and pitfalls, internal as well as external.

But he also knew, Independence was a risk we should always be willing to take.

We are always better served by bravery rather than timidity when it concerns Liberty and Country.

Because however badly we may be going at any time, were we single-hearted enough as he was to dare to believe we can as a free and sovereign people change things around for the better, we can.

We have a lot of heroes, if only we should want to seek them.

There is an entire constellation of them up in the skies above this nation's soul - if only we care to find it. And at nights, if you must know, when our Republic is at rest - it is the forbearant, quicksilver light of their living memory that watches over our way towards every golden sunrise.

Personally, I admire President Quezon for the compassion he showed to the suffering humanity of the elder sons and daughters of Israel, our brother and sister Jews, who during WWII, at one of the darkest times of their nation's life, this President gave free sanctuary among us in our lands.

I would, if I had the clout, likewise provide free sanctuary to the suffering humanity of the people of Syria not because of anything else but because they are suffering and they are human not unlike you or I - just like our second President.

Let me remind us that War is a slavery, and is a master we ought not serve.

We shall never achieve the fullness of the promise our actual Independence is meant to bring for this nation with a spirit divided, dark and confused. Let us carry on with the peace process - unto completion.

May we be blessed with a meaningful Independence Day.

Happy birthday to our citizenship, my fellow Filipinos, mabuhay!
---<--@

President Quezon 
lost his battle against tuberculosis 
away from our home away from Home
but what he never lost was - who he was - 
and in my remembrance - still is -

a leader to his people,

and a friend to his friends.

Infinity

Infinity
is quite small -
so very, very small indeed. 

So small,
in fact, and so fine
that it is
to our coarseness,
immense.

It is a profound fineness
that escapes our every apprehension
of measure and shape and form,
in and among and beyond everything
we know - and shall ever know, immense -
infinite!

To search for it,
one needs not look far into the temporal heavens
for what is infinite - it is nearer - to each of us
than even our own thoughts. 

Let us seek it in the smallness,
and in the stillness - pause to wonder -
how near to us timeless moments really are.

Let us therefore,
draw nearer to those infinite moments
of loving, sharing, laughing, and caring
knowing the further away from the infinite - we are,
the less these precious things that truly last
may endure with us - forever.
---<--@

Love is - here. Love has been here - forever.
The real question is - where have we been?

Do not despair for moments, drifting away.
Be sad for their memories, passing away.
Forget thee not therefore, you must say.
And hold on to them tightly, everyday.

Let Peace be -

The Despoliation of the Sword

Fallen humanity
in following the Devil,
upon the bones of their fellow human beings,
shall worship their swords saying,
"O look how mighty we are,
how glorious is our arm
upon the earth!"

Repentant humanity
in obeying the LORD,
upon the Remembrance of His Nations,
shall cry out to the heavens and pray,
"O look how weak we are, O God,
that we need weapons
to live."
---<--@




Broken is thy Earth, in Sin overrun. 

The Sin of thy original wounding,
bearing the spiritual weakness of thy temporal undoing,
a mortal fear of the God of thy Holy sustaining;
a rupture in the human soul that bleeds with thy blood
unto death, and upon evils manifold and diverse,
upon sins many as the seeds sown for thy dispersing,
thy human lineages exiled from Life
for their own life's preserving.

Broken is thy Sky, in War overcome. 

The Beast of thy ancient pursuing,
seeking the devouring of thy every living soul of National doing,
that the living of each Man may sink ever near the sword of War's despoiling,
and undo in Darkness, the Light of thy common human obtaining  -
a rupture in the human spirit that caused the Sky above our world
to shatter into an endless Night without Twilight;
the long march of the Nations fallen in time begun
with each Country's spiritual Ascent
unto the Summit of a new Morning Bright.

Therefore, let Peace be - upon the three great lineages
of the faith and fatherhood of our Father Abraham -
unto the children of Ishmael - let Peace be,
unto the children of Isaac - let Peace be,
unto the children of all our kindred Nations
who bear in their hearts, in Spirit and in Truth, common witness
to the Incarnate Word of God in Jesus Christ, Who is Emmanuel,
the one Redeemer of all Mankind - let Peace be,
and unto all children of good will who among us persevere
in friendship and in their faith, one with the other - let Peace be.

Let Peace be - and divide it not! 

This one Peace.
---<--@

Together this time...

Zealous for Souls

God is.
And that is all.

God is - because life is.
Life is because - we are.

We are because - the soul is.
And the soul is because - God is.

And God is - unto all things living
for God is - the God of all the living!

- selah -

The soul is
possessed not -
of its own life.

It receives its being from
- the LORD Who is -
and life is its being.

From it,
arise every nature
of everything living.

And thus
by nature
is alive.

For all that is
in spirit - is alive.

It flows forth
from the soul
and is alive.

- selah -

What heart could truly love
without having beheld the beautiful?

The soul contains the living Breath
that breathes into everything that is - alive.

Separate it not from its Maker.

'Tis a manifestation of the Truth of its God.

Esteem it not by its smallness.

- selah -

What mind could truly think
without having thought about truth?

The soul is - the principle of life.
For God is - and gives shape to its being.

Mistake it not for its Master.

'Tis a reflection of the Life of its Creator.

Regard it not by its fragments.

- selah -

Why then, Starshine,
dost the eye of the heart
in regarding a soul without God
claimeth it has seen the soul
when it thinks of naught
but utter disrespect for life?

Who could trust the darkness
when it speaks of itself
about the light?

Thy own soul, precious Starshine,
may only be truly perceived
by other living souls.

That thou art by Beauty beheld!

Therefore -

Do not despair with those
who in death and in desolation
seeketh to perceive life in the living.

Neither weep with those
whose pre-occuppation with evil
have moved them to seek what is good.

There are some who seek,
who find they never find.

Yet, precious Starshine,
there are some who seek,
who are eventually found.

- selah -

Dear Starshine, the eye
that seeth far - into the soul
knoweth from where it proceeds.

It has come to know the majesty
of a myriad unfolding universes.

For it has come to behold the glory
of such dreams - in a grain of sand...

It beheld them in their moments,
as worlds upon worlds arising,
as truths that are everlasting,
and so - knoweth Spirit.

By the Love
through which one shines
far into the darkness - and into
the reality of other souls.

And in the Truth
through which one reaches
deep into the darkness - and into
the reality of other hearts.

- selah -

The soul is -
the principle of life.

And life is -
what gives shape to its being.

Being is
- what makes everything exist -
as they are.

And the soul is
- the being of its life -
being in every living being.

All have their being - because life is.

Thus,
all in Creation is -
because life is.

- selah -

In lower creation, being is
a soul - that is - in each - a soul.

'Tis in the trees and the plants of the earth.
'Tis in the animals of the land, sea, and air.

And gives them life.

- selah -

In higher creation, being is
a soul - that is - in each - a living soul.

'Tis in each Angel up in the heavens above.
'Tis in each Man here upon the earth below.

And gives us life.
And the knowledge of life.

- selah -

The soul of every Man
is heart and mind.

'Tis heart and mind
united as one!

For the heart proceeds.
And the mind knoweth.

 - selah -

And so the heart is in darkness.
And love awakens in darkness.

For the heart in every Man
knoweth not - 'tis a heart.

- selah -

And so the mind is in darkness.
And thought arises in darkness.

For the mind in every Man
knoweth not - 'tis a mind.

- selah -

The Beloved
beholds the heart
and the heart knows -
'tis a heart!

And the heart
in beholding the Beloved
beholds the Beautiful.

- selah -

The heart
in knowing itself
knoweth - thought.

And love
in knowing thought
knoweth - mind.

- selah -

The Beautiful
beholds the mind
and the mind knows -
'tis a mind!

And the mind
in beholding the Beautiful
beholds the Beloved.

- selah -

The mind
in knowing itself
knoweth - truth.

And love
in knowing truth
knoweth - self.

- selah -

The soul of every Man
is heart and mind.

'Tis heart and mind
united as one!

And spirit is - its brightness!

In the heart,
where the seat of the soul is,
'tis a brightness of love.

In the mind,
where the seat of the intellect is,
'tis a brightness of truth.

- selah -

For the heart proceeds.

As love must
from the seat of the soul
proceed -

And the mind knoweth.

As truth must
through the love in the heart
succeed -

And spirit is - its brightness!

- selah -

For the heart proceeds.

As the stars must
from the power of their being
shine forth -

And the mind knoweth.

As the stars must
through the reality of their truth
shine forth -

And spirit is - its brightness!

- selah -

Spirit is brightness.

For love
is the life of the heart
and beholds - the Beloved.

Love is -
not because of the heart:

For love
is the way of
every human heart.

- selah -

Truth is fullness.

For - the truth
is the light of the mind
and beholds -  the Beautiful.

Truth is -
not because of the mind.

For truth
is the way of
every human mind.

- selah -

We live
through the Life of a Being
that is eternal.

We love
through the Love of a Truth
that is absolute.

We think
through the Light of a Reality
that is infinite.

We are found
not because we seek to find what we seek
but because we have come seek of these things
in and of themselves - in God alone.

- selah -

Thus,
our beloved Starshine,

In spirit and for truth dost
each thy light ever proceed
from the seat of thy every soul
to alloweth thine own time to flow
through the abundance of every heart
into those many rivers and into their seas
that join into the one Ocean of the Infinite.

And in this -
Infinite Ocean
all in Humankind is  -
a species of living soul:
That make us all common
in each our being - just human.

For the human spirit is
everywhere the Beloved is
because everywhere the Beloved is,
there is Beauty - and verily,

Beauty is everywhere.
---<--@

What will happen when the wood is dry?

Our world is as dry
as a tinderbox, Starshine -

For
- everywhere -
there is a thirst for water,
water this world can not provide.

And
everywhere
- across our earth -
our Nations are drying up
turning to ashes from the inside out.

Starshine,
can you now see - that -

peace anywhere
is peace everywhere?

In our hearts first, Beloved -
...and then, in our Nations,
...and then, in our needful world.

Truly, truly,
it shall only take a spark,
but one spark to set things afire!

But what kind of spark,
our precious Starshine,
what kind of fire?

God's grace alone 
is sufficient, alleluia!
---<--@

The Nine Common Human Needs: Functional Literacy

Education in an Age of Spirit and Thought.

The state of our Public Education in the 21st Century must change with the times. The advancement of the Filipino spirit through the pursuit of academic excellence is the central reason why as a Nation we maintain a public and a private school system - right alongside each other.

Education in our Nation is not exclusive to either public or private domains. Neither is Education as an institution of the Philippine State obscure about its principles and intention. This Republic shall and will maintain a system of education prescribed by our Constitution (Article XIV). 
---<--@

We shall forgo the mindset that private schools are better than public schools.

This is a remnant thought left behind by a system of things past - a manifestation of colonial mentality, if you will - wrought about by an unjust division in our Nation (between conqueror-and-conquered or those-who-subdue-and-those-who-are-subdued) that is founded upon a reality in our midst that no longer exist...

And have not existed for some time now.

Let me also re-iterate that while we struggle with these remnant thoughts, particularly about those past evils that our Nation and its spirit was forcibly subject to, we should not place any blame on things that no longer materially exists - our colonial past is not an evil to blame, but a memory we should bear in mind to properly place into our living remembrance of these present times. 

We can not hate the past for being what it was: Spain is to be loved and respected because we are a people of the Now and live not in the past, accounting before God, only the promises of the living moment, imploring Him to bring this Nation unto a morning worthy of our Flag and Anthem.

And in this moment - forever, mabuhay - there are only those who we elect to govern and those who elect who choose to be governed by them - freely, in a free, fair and representative system of Country wholly and faithfully embraced by a State that is entirely the belonging of the Filipino people - past, present, and forever.

Therefore, our public school system will co-exist harmoniously with our private school system united in their synergistic commitment to Academic Freedom.

Private schools are mostly specialist schools. They adopt means and methods particular to their design and are possessed of their own specific institutions accordingly. 

But our public schools shall be built as foundation institutions of academic and civic fluency.

And the entire Educational system in this Nation shall and must be re-dedicated in the service of the Filipino youth upon whose strength and spirit every new dawning that shall, God-helping, break upon this Land of the Morning entirely depends - in all our behalf.

Human ignorance is profoundly spiritual in nature. Knowledge is to us as time, only a borrowed thing. What profits the labor of our Education is how it shall resolutely and faithfully serve, in the name of our children in the Nation, the Truth.

We must consider this, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, when we think of Functional Literacy in the Nation: Truth is not in the eye of the beholder. Truth is what beholds us back.

This is decidedly a subject possessed of more breadth and depth than can be handled in this work.

However, for our intents and purposes, we shall limit our thoughts to the renewal and re-dedication of Public Education in the Nation as an institution of the Philippine State entirely. This Republic being what it is, private institutions of learning shall then be made to freely and creatively compete. God-helping, with our successes.

I shall commit for us here, some thoughts I have been nurturing regarding the matter. Let me also add that it is good that I commit these into writing now - that others with a similar persuasion to improve on Education in our Nation may freely add upon these thoughts.

K-12 Standard, National

Civics                                                   Academics
- Open Learning                                   - Structured Learning
- Realized "In"                                      - Recognized "From"
- Learner with Nation                           - Teacher with Learner
- Core Competency                             - Core Curriculum
- Informal Transmission                        - Formal Instruction

Human Fluency is Academic and Civic Fluency exercised in unison. 

Foundation Thinking - IS - the Foundation. 

The product of this Education system is in the students we successfully transform into the dominant spirit and thought that must pervade their chosen fields of service.

In common, this we shall call Human Fluency.

We seek shall to graduate human beings who are professional citizens and life-long learners in their own right - knowledgeable both in heart and mind.

They shall know their profession and know what to love in their Nation (and in other Nations) and therefore, apply themselves accordingly.

They shall upon graduation be - 

Work Ready - and - Career Worthy (or) College Ready - and - Career Worthy (and their Education shall be esteemed) Global in Currency - Local in Scope.

"Hindi hilaw, hindi over-qualified - talagang tamang tamang tama lang."

The fruit of this vision
in the Reality of the Nation is
Human Fluency.
---<--@

The Nine Common Human Needs

Salutation #196

(Egalitarianism as a Civic Virtue)

Peace be with you, 
our beloved Starshine -



All human beings are
equal creations before God.

This we are
along with all the flesh of the earth.

We exist. 

And we exist because we have a right to exist.

In all other living things with Man upon with earth,
this right to exist resides in each their common natures.

In both plants and animals alike it equally resides,
and is expressed as a common survival instinct.

In Man above all other living things of the earth,
this right to exist resides in each our persons individually.

In both male and female alike it equally resides,
and is expressed as a common longing -
not only for all of life to survive and persist
but for all of life to ultimately triumph and prevail.

We neither caused our own existence as a whole
nor did we individually sought to exist
in our world, at its present course,
before our time.

Yet here we are - we are here.

We are - because we have life.
And we are here - because we are
of the human lineages of our Mankind.

Our right to exist is a natural right. 

Our right to life is a human right. 

And proceeds from our natural right to exist.

This is our most fundamental equality.

It is a moral reality
founded upon a spiritual truth
about ourselves.

For what is natural
is inalienable
to its own reality.

What is human therefore,
is inalienable
to the reality of Man.

The preservation of this right in Man is therefore,
an ethical imperative that is universal in character.

It is also among our Nations, a sacred duty.

As citizens,
beloved of the one Creator,
we are bound to each other in the freedom
to preserve, nurture, and improve upon
our natural rights to life - and thus, to live that life
in order to advance in and among our Nation/s,
a quality of life suitable
to the progress of our Liberty.
---<--@

Further Reflection -

Here in the Philippines, in this present day, we are witnessing multiculturalism anew.

Our Nation - by nature - is already a multicultural society but only on a hitherto local scale. For within our borders we enjoy a human diversity that is equal to or even exceeds what diversity the Providence of God intended from the beginning to abide within the souls of our other kindred Nations.

The richness of our human diversity should be a source of both wonder and joy to this Nation of ours... 

This is so because this self-same human diversity and its appreciation is both the cause as well as the hope of other forms of diversity in the life of lower creation.

We only impress upon the life of our animals and plants, our own understanding about life and its truths; that they were made to exist for us. And we for them.

Again, these days, we are beginning to see multiculturalism in our Nation that is regional, continental, and global in nature. And we, as a grateful people before God, should know how to welcome human diversity - and to actually love it knowing what a blessing.it is to truly understand that in this Nation of ours there is no unity without diversity.

This unity in diversity is built on our most fundamental of equality as human beings - to exist. 

And in our Nation, this is unity is made to prevail in time besides - through our citizenship with each other as we work through the economy of our generations to improve quality of life for all Filipinos - to the last of our generations at the Last Day.

(Our most fundamental civic equality being to know, seek, and do what is human, and true, and good for the other - as ourselves. That citizenship begins with the self. This is also was in essence what JFK was asking the American Nation when he said his most famous statement, "ask not...)

There truly can be no civic clarity where there exists no just human equality before God and in Country.

In animals or plants, when they shall take a life - they do so only with a knowledge of their own life.

In Man, when we shall take a life, we do so not only with a knowledge of our own life but also with that of the life of others - whether plant, animal, or human.

Any human life, each in person unique and meant by God always for completion, once willfully took by the hand of Man can not and will never be replaced. Its intended good shall always be missing in our midst... this is true - no matter what the externals may seem.

Yet the same challenges we will as a Nation face - undiminished; the same demand for virtue and its fruits God shall require of our labor of Country - in every generation.

Let us remember this, my Country, that we may thwart among ourselves the unbecoming devices of the evil and unwelcome spirit of past times -

Skin is innocent. Sin is not. (i.e. the sin of inequality)

Racism, in all its ugly appearances, has no place here in the Philippines.

We are all the colors of life. What is superior here is what is - in spirit and truth - faithful.

For the color of Gold is in our national standard.

It is the color of all things about ourselves - true and everlasting.
---<--@

Genesis 9:16