Awesome vs. Not Awesome

The only way to counter racism is to foster a culture of racial harmony. 

Congratulations on your well-deserved Miss World victory, Megan,
you do honor to your people with your beauty and grace - salamat sa iyo. 

Miss World 2013, Megan Young, is awesome.


This person ain't (hopefully, just temporarily).

We could be friends, you know. 

Your India, if you really are from there, is an ancient human Nation and a vastly beautiful culture. I am in love with her just as much as I love my own.

Each of our Nations have distinct vulnerabilities, particular to our sufferings, for I'm not claiming India or the Philippines to be perfect either.

But this I do know, we are all possessed of something wonderfully good that makes it all worthwhile.

Because no matter the evil in the midst, large and expansive is our inherent capacity to hope and dream of better days. This makes us beautiful - as Nations and as individuals both - nowhere in All creation may be found such a great concentration of near limitless possibilities than in every human heart.

If only you are able to see that we are all struggling to be free from the fetters that keep us earth-bound and impoverished and incapable of just being happy. Because it is a difficult battle, Devina, this life.

We are rich or poor not on account of what we do to effect our ultimate release from the bonds that keep us unhappy, but on who we decide we truly are - so that each of us may hope to become - all throughout our choices in life - who we truly must - and be who we are - as a creation of a great and good God.

For all human work - no matter how menial - is directed towards this one goal of human happiness - a state of ultimate rest, a condition of perfect peace - a focus without focusing, a being without effort - all religions promise it - all revealed works teach it - all Mankind yearn for it.

In my rich Catholic faith, it is a state of Beatific Vision - the forever being with the Being of God - without the veil of time and the fear of mortality - felicity in Christ! Certainly, I would clean toilets to achieve it - if only it were that easy (or simple) - as many bowls as I can. 

You know this deep in yourself - this longing to be happy - because you too are - just like the rest of us, a human being.

So please try to acknowledge and appreciate what is enriching in our diversity and have a good think about your recent actions here so that, even though they were evil, you may yet profit from them.

May it all add up to your benefit. For Nations are expected to assist each other in this fight.

I forgive you, Miss DeDiva, and God bless you.

Thank you for uniting us more strongly as a Nation.

Salutation #124

In this way
all are made to be strong
and when all are strong,
the nation is ever at peace.

For those who have
and those who doesn't have
give to each other
- according to the freedom of our freedoms -
something that each the other
may not gain
by themselves alone.

Industry thrives,
and all the people thrive
in industry.
---<--@

(Labor Day 2012)

Today is Labor Day 2012.

A Republic is

a particular work of Country

and today is that day of days

we remember the toils of the common man

upon which splendor and virtue - each of us -

must constantly build and rely upon.

The day we remember

the toils of the common man, 

is the moment we shall finally understand 

the endeavors of our own humanity 

to be happy and therefore, free!

For the success of our nation's daily pursuits 

to liberate our generations (as a whole)

from the bondages of this world -

   from illnesses, from pains, from wars,

   from suffering, from corruption, from vices,

   from grief, from decay (both corporal and spiritual)

   and from death, even the final death -

is an unfolding work of a promised reality

we must constantly strive to master and to gain

from the realizations we shall together

profit - from this understanding.

- selah -

Today we reflect

upon the value of our labors -

   (Consider now, if you please,
   my brothers and sisters of the Promise, 
   your present abode - how it became -
   even before you called it a home;
   or the food upon thy table, or the water in thy glass,
   or the road before thy way, or the clothing on thy back -
   trace each their memory forth from thee - and understand -
   how you are made able to reap its blessings
   seemingly without sowing?

   For these are only these
   due to the nationhood in each of us 
   as well as through the nations that are all of us.)

How we cherish it.

How we recognize it.

How we appreciate

its potential, its dignity,

and its lasting contributions

in ourselves, in others like ourselves,

as a nation, and as a Country.

And therefore,

how we, as a nation,

have chosen to reward our laborers
a share of the national wealth -
   (i.e. with and through riches not just monetary
   or merely momentary in their natures.)

from least to great,

especially the least of all.

Mabuhay!

---<--@