Salutation #191

Beloved of Country,
give thy heart ear, and listen -
let us come away from the noise of this world,
and in the calm, and in the quiet - let our thoughts be,
let it be a free flowing river, gently leading out,
to a calm, quiet sea... selah. 

(Keep ye first, Beloved)

Keep your people virtuous and good,
and thy Nation shall never be hungry.

Instill in them neighborliness,
give them order - a human accord,
allow them time - to unravel its quality,
sharing with them their own seasons,
living in the life of their community,
and remove them from uncertainty,
and your Country will never be poor.

What can be counted can be lost!

What things can be measured on earth
can all be undone...

Grow and nurture those riches
that spring from out of the love of thy people,
and with them build up wealth that will outlast the ages.

Wealth is a people satisfied.
Happiness is a Nation content.

Money and material goods are its residue:
Wealth and Posterity for thy people.
---<--@

Possession of material wealth alone 
is not the fullest measure of every life's pursuit 
in Liberty.

The Nine Common Human Needs: Shelter in the Nation

Of the 9 common human needs, persistent deficiency - in the first three (hunger, thirst, and clothing) indicate material poverty, in the next three (shelter, human security [i.e. security of person and property], and functional literacy) - spiritual poverty, and in the last three (just society, authentic human freedom, and meaningful existence) - an unspecified immature form of tyranny.

Now let us move on to the next three, beginning with Shelter...

Tacloban is a community whose soul is a soul of sheltering. As such, the City itself bears the very name that dedicates her life - to the life of her people. Let us always remember what she teaches. Let us - just for a moment, stand apart from the politics of it. And see it straightforwardly.

After our First Parents were exiled out of our Eden. Shelter for Mankind became a necessity. And this is a reflection of our spiritual state: We all needed a "Tacloban", so to speak.

So Man sought first the natural shelter of caves. And this gradually developed - after the first human implementation of farming - to huts, houses, towns, cities, among the nations - into civilizations entire, across horizons and hemispheres, east, west, north, and south.

Everything that sheltered the soul of our human communities grew - only - because Man had Woman and Woman had Man. We must remember that the First Human Community is the First Family which is the nuclear Community of our First Parents - Man and Woman.

Exile and the conditions it produced in Man and upon our world - produced a very real need to shelter this precious Institution, completely human in nature but completely Divine of origin.

Adam and Eve needed a Tacloban.

And so when we shall speak of Shelter in the Nation - let us understand the fruit of this vision that it may be edible and good to the whole of our being human - that while we do need good, strong, secure houses and the modern benefits of hearth and home - a house shall always be a house - if the Filipino Family is left out.

And we, among the people of our world, have one of the strongest familial ties - our tribal essence is virile, and this makes our blood ties quite enduring. This of course, may go both ways. (For it may also be an evil visited upon our generations) Which is why we have to understand in Shelter - that -

a true Filipino - in his heart of sheltering - would desire for all Filipino families the best Tacloban there is - because - the beginning and the end of it - is - that we are all citizens of our Republic which is only one House.

And only one Peace maketh this House, our home away from Home.



The fruit of this Vision 
in the reality of the Nation is 
National Housing, Home and Family Life Services.
---<--@

God bless the Visayas, thou art of the three Foundation Stars of this Republic most patient of all, none may ever forget thee. 


The Nine Common Human Needs