Journeying with Starshine

I do not believe in forcing the young to do things mechanically.

I want them to learn good judgment. Live their actions on their own merit and discover its outcomes on their own terms. More than anything else.

One must never cease to counsel them though. Whether they like it or not. Our job as I see it is to plant the trees that one day shall line the trail. Their job is to pave the road of their own lives.

One must always make sure though, there is always time for the young - for more time. That they should never run out of better choices to make.

Likewise, one must never allow the young to wander too far off their trails that they should accidentally have a mortal encounter with the hidden beasts of the wild. As I have. As many in my generation have.

Yet if they still do, we must fight it off alongside them. I know I will.

And if any of our young Starshine should come ask us, what may lie ahead - around a corner, in the dark, we might with them look ahead together, make decisions jointly, and walk the way together for a while...

Until they find their own feet again. Until they feel safe.

But the road they shall pave into the wilderness shall be their own. They shall walk all the way through the barren desert into the land of their own dreaming. And claim it.

And their victory shall truly be theirs.
---<--@

Second Class Citizen

I am a second class citizen,
living in a second class Country,
in a dead-end corner of the earth,
three worlds away from the memory.

My struggle is not for Liberty,
my dream does not reach that far,
I only want something to fill my belly,
and a safe bed to dream in under a star.
---<--@

Love for the Elderly

It may be clear to many in the Nation how we inherit from the love of our children the ability to reach into our common tomorrow and affect the shape of days to come. But what of our elderly?

Elderly people are a blessing. The Filipino soul has known this forever. Our elders deserve our love and respect. And deserve it unconditionally. (see R.A. 9257, that make exception in their behalf.)

The elderly in the Nation comprise from among us, all of those generations most experienced in the nuances of the National life. Especially those whose days are nearly spent, who have spent their lives sedulously preparing our generations for life, and are now preparing for death.

Our elders have the ability to transmit to our younger generations a common sense of proven truths that make it easier for us to realize their hard-fought wisdom in our own lives.

If we, through our living culture, are a people capable of appreciating the love and the lives of our elder generations properly, then we stand to save ourselves a lot of trouble and pain.

And so enable us to channel our energies more efficiently, as an economy of generations, into the ascent of our Country into its ages in time and unto the Truth.

Or we can fail our elderly. And slide into two extremes. To either become too overly submissive or too excessively antagonistic of our older folks. In both extremes, we have come to fear our elders more than we love them. Fear them with a selfish fear. Love them with a hollow love.

For both extremes are pretenses. They are lies once took in, deprives us of our own Nation's sense of foundation and denies our present generation the unyielding strength of a living memory. As with all lies, its power lies in the depth of our willing belief, in the strength of our self-deception.

In the former, we lose our nascent ability to self-realize the distinct potential of our own generation and fall short of being sufficient in our own good against the evil of our day.

In the latter, we fail to bring forward what momentum of hope the memory of each passing generation may seek to impart to the labor of our present time.

We become a generation disjointed from the power of the present moment (the Now) and from the power of the living memory of the Nation (the We forever).

Each generation is always faced with an evil sufficient for its own distinct good. If we are wise, and if we are vigilant, each our generation is always sufficient to endure the evil of their own day.

Now, all our common generations in the Nation together form a lineage, and from each other gather a certain momentum in time. Much like a diesel locomotive.

Imagine then what can stand against a Nation determined.
---<--@

A Nation is a people first.

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