I support the Bangsamoro

I support the Bangsamoro. 

By this, I mean all our brother and sister Filipino Muslims regardless of political faction or tribal distinction who desire for a better peace in the Philippines.

I am of the opinion that the BBL though an imperfect document fully represents in spirit the sincere desire shared by many Filipinos of a more perfect peace in Mindanao and that passage of the BBL will serve as a foundation toward the fulfillment of this hope.

I support the passage of a final form of the BBL with revisions in keeping with this spirit. 

The basic law is a means toward better means in the ARMM region. The BBL is not an end to itself. The passage of the BBL is not a guarantee of a perfect peace in Mindanao or elsewhere.

There is no such thing in this world as a perfect peace. 

Peace shall be something we as a nation must always strive for in every generation. Much more effort shall be needed on the part of our Republic after the passing of the BBL.

Therefore, preserving our unity as a Country for Filipinos and cohesion as a nation of Filipinos must be a part of the considerations being made in the current deliberations as regards the BBL.

One AFP and one PNP. We should insulate both military and law enforcement arms of the Republic from as much political considerations as much as possible.

Constitutional bodies must remain national in scope and accountability.

I think public education most especially in this new age where innovation as regards education is made necessary must at least be a concurrent power.

Funding must bear in mind the public nature of public funds. While I can see that the BPE is to be allowed a necessary head start, funding must eventually prove equitable and fair as a means toward better temporal ends for all provinces and regions across the Republic of the Philippines.

This is so as not to cause internal friction that might lead to destructive rivalries and popular discontent in and among our national communities and their representative, structural LGUs. To preserve that unity and cohesion necessary to carry forward, from strength to strength, into fruition the intentions and vision embedded in the BBL in consonance with the Republic vision founded on the 1987 Constitution.

That is all I can think of...

The earlier the BBL is passed, the better. The sooner its intended benefits reach our people closest to the soil of our earth - the bakwit or IDPs, the Badjao, the IPs, etc., the better.

What I submit through this post I intend as guidance. It is a personal expression of my own long-standing commitment to peace in the Philippines. My hope is to share them through this blog to the prudence and wisdom of our representations in Congress and all other Filipino souls interested in the bringing forth of a more perfect peace in our beloved Philippines; a peace for all Filipinos.

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. May God bless us all.
---<--@

Friendship is the only real choice we can make in the night. We can not keep saying to each other in the night it is dark. And recognize each other not on account of the night.
---<--@

Beware of easy extremes: Absolutisms in a democracy are employed like demagoguery is employed in fascism. They stop people from thinking for themselves. For fascists, this is good. For a democracy, this is bad. Very bad indeed.

Ideas are a part of our lifeblood as a free people. 

Anne Frank died 70 years ago this month.

Those words above were on a headline on an Internet article I came across just now... It is of course, is a remembrance of Anne Frank and by extension, her times.

Since Anne Frank is a continuing inspiration in my life (going 15 years this year), I'd like to share some of my own thoughts on the matter of her remembrance...

Winston Churchill refused to begin the liberation of Europe through the most direct route. If he did, then we would be remembering Normandy not in 1944 but much earlier. He believed that victory in the war against Hitler and Nazi Germany would be won or lost on the shores of Normandy. (And it was, in 1944, won that is. Upon those beaches and from the ice to the far East, in Russia.)

The PM of Britain at the time was being careful. As he should. Upon that undertaking (the Allied re-taking of Europe) a lot of the things we enjoy today in the "free world" depended.

This is why the Allied fight-back was first fought from the underbelly of the so-called Third Reich right on through North Africa and backwards up the boot of Italy.

The "free world" of Churchill's time and the "free world" of our time in my mind hold on to only two things in common - (1) that it was, is, and shall remain (while time is time) imperfect and therefore, retain a peace that is imperfect and (2) that the sufficiency of this imperfect peace is at every age and in every generation at risk of losing its good and human worth through an evil sufficient for each our times.

Every generation gets a shot at being great... but the greatest ones ally themselves to each other.

We can wax a tad bitter about our remembrances of things past but what we can never be is in denial of the present. We being each of "us" as the nations.

I thought about Churchill's decision a lot in an earlier time thinking that if things had been different, then Anne and most of her generation would have lived. I stubbornly refused to accept what happened. I did contend with the truth of those times, trying to unseal what was already sealed. Undo what was already done. And this attitude made me bitter to the point where my remembrance contributed to nothing in my present life.

I was like that once, a malcontent when it came to the memory of past things that were not up to par with my own personal set of ideals (much like Hitler it was, in retrospect). T'was vanity. The pride of it.

You see, before Anne or rather, before I had a good read of her diary (Anne and her diary of course, are two different truths), I was an idealist when it came to warfare.

When I was younger, my impression of gun battles might have been influenced a lot by the A-Team, one of my favorite 80's TV shows (which aired here every Tues 7:30pm on channel 7, I think... goodness, I still remember). You know, where Colonel John Hannibal Smith, Face, BA, and Howling Mad Murdoch - when they confront the bad guys in the end... everybody shoots a whole lot of rounds for a bit, and then ta-dah! In the end, the A-Team wins. Justice is served. Nobody dies.

Then I grew up. However, even after the memory of ANZAC in Gallipoli was impressed upon my mind and heart, I still thought: No women. No kids. WWI was terrible but I still clung to that dying belief in myself that wars were clean and noble affairs. Desirable and even good when fought correctly... Boy, was I wrong... (is there ever a correct way of taking another life? The act itself is intrinsically evil and wounds the soul of a person for life.)

Things have changed for me in the 15 years that passed... 

Well, 15 years this June 13 (when her diary first came to my attention at Barnes and Noble in Fremont, CA because she attentioned her entries to a "Kitty"); the day after her birthday, June 12.

I am not trapped by the pages of her diary anymore. They were means to better means.

I do not have to read it over and over with fear in my heart. Fear for what I know will happen that I can not change. For am I not anymore bitter with her memory or that of her times.

I have accepted the inevitability of the past and this liberated my present, opening up my soul to the thought of better tomorrows - visions of a time better written... full of days brighter lived.

My remembrance is now of worth to me because it makes me a better person and a better human citizen. I am no longer hateful despite the past nor am I in denial of the present even in spite of the present because I constantly work to reconcile my soul with the memory of these times.

These days, I hate war. I know what it is. 

Which is why my heart is turned to peace. I understand what it is. 

And because I do, I can not be in denial of the truth in the now. Lest I forget.

I can no longer live in disagreement with the memory of all those times past and remain unreconciled to all those names which in their solemn silence illuminate realities often overlooked in the now of my time.

This is why I also can not be in despair of tomorrow - for anybody or for any nation.

For these days, I am a lover of peace. I am more a romantic when it comes to peace than a strict idealist. And because I am, I also must know how to defend it. And that I must. Like anyone who loves someone... and love someone enough to understand that the beloved should be preserved. Not just the "why". But the "because" and everything that goes along with it.

Anne Frank died 70 years ago this month... 

She passed from this world in Bergen-Belsen. Died just a week or two before the camp was liberated. The exact day she died is unknown (it was the first two weeks of March 1945). But her sister Margot reportedly died a few days before she did. Both sisters are now buried in a mass grave. The location of this grave is unknown. The marker in Bergen-Belsen is only a marker. A reminder that this is a place of passing away. What it ushers in depends on how you view time in the heart.

Because the way I see it, 70 years is just a number.

I truly believe what really matters is that we truly remember. That we remember rightly. Firm in the truth. Because when we do, 70 and one thousand years don't make much of a difference.

Time in the heart is not a distance. It is a quality.

There is a kind of time that descends into oblivion. There is a kind of time that remains. What remains ultimately ascends with what we love (unto the God Who Loves us all).

Time and its quality is revealed to us in those moments in life we want to stay forever. Or that we want to live in and experience through for an eternity.

In the fleeting is discerned through time in the heart, the quality of the everlasting.

Those moments seem fleeting because time on the outside - that we all commonly perceive - that makes place relative to itself - physical time, dominates us. For a reason and only for a season. 

Time should teach us remembrance - at the heart of the Eucharist and in the memory of the Nations, it is the same - that time as it truly matters should not be a quantity (should not be a measure of its count).

The imperishable treasures that the Gospel promises that neither thief nor tyrant may steal should never be of those things measured by their count alone.

Time seems distant only to those with distant hearts.

And so to love... and a right remembrance of the beloved in all things... And so to hope... and a memory of true things washed ashore unto those beaches within the soul with the ebb and flow of time - as truth abiding in the heart (as dew in the morning).

I most certainly remember my Anne. 

It was some years ago when I started calling her my Anne... maybe 5 years ago. I'm grateful for the life she lived. I regret she wasn't able to live that life to the fullest.

Her sufferings while she was here upon our world I would not in any way justify as right. Even with all of the inspiration she gives to me. I would not console myself in this way. For I'd rather she had not suffered at all. Always, that she did not have to suffer. But past is the past and that is the truth.

I know now that the LORD intended to shroud such things with the power of His mystery... so that time to every human heart seems everywhere a veil of shadow and tears. Who am I not to trust in the Wisdom of God? Such is such! I understand only that none may deny the truth without sin.

The past, present and all of forever when seen through the eye of the heart are qualities not measured by the count of their years but by the substance in those years... in this way, time is as it should; a way of living instruction, a path that opens up to God's commands - an account of the heart.

The simple truth is without my Anne, I would be a much darker person... But I am not.

And because I am as I should, I will remember.

And I do not think I shall ever forget.

Never again.
---<--@

Just a little share...

Just a little share...

2012, I had both Christmas and New Year's eve dinner at the steps of Puregold Molito having a sandwich and a soda by myself...

At the time, I thought I was kind of a tough s.o.b., roughing it for the sake of the job.

Now, when I look back, I still think it is awesome to be able to sacrifice for the sake of a good job but I no longer think I'm a tough s.o.b. for doing so.

Truth is, no one wants to be away from family on a Noche Buena or a Media Noche...

No one... including yours truly.

Even if I were to be throwing it down with the best team in the universe... no team beats the team you were born into... especially on Christmas or New Year's eves.

Thems the breaks though, as they say... Such is such, my darling dear, until such a time that it is no longer such... or until the last pence is paid.

In short, ganun talaga ang buhay, parang life lang... paikot-ikot... ang mahilo taya! Lol.

Life isn't giving anybody lemons because life totally sucks. Actually, when life gives one lemons, many a time life is only teaching one how to make good lemonade.

So here I am again this year it looks like... 

I'm going to make me some good lemonade.
---<--@

My mom and I did some Christmas shopping yesterday. We were on a meager budget but we managed to stretch it. We had a nice lunch after.

In the afternoon, my mom did all the wrapping for me as I was so tired. I came back from my Friday shift in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, you see. Anyway, I didn't know my mom was really fast at wrapping gifts... she was like a gift wrapping machine! Lol.

Right now, when I think about it, I'm really glad I got most of my Christmas presents wrapped and ready. It makes me smile inside when I recall how my mom and I made it all happen in a day.

The gifts themselves are not that much but all my thought went into them with the simple hope of making my loved ones smile inside this Christmas.

I say they are "not that much" not because of what they cost but because I don't like giving gifts I myself do not like. When it comes to the principle of gift, my attitude is: If God decides that I should keep what I am giving, that I should be just as happy (i.e. in keeping them as I am in giving them away). For I would that I neither give nor like the act of giving rubbish gifts.

Because the giving is the gift. 

Therefore, if I were able to get what I really want to give to the all people I love this Christmas (and there are so many), I'd have gotten something different and incidentally, because the world is still the world, a tad bit more expensive. For now, however, such is such. 

Receiving gift is another matter, mind you, involving another aspect of liberality.

When the miracle of sharing is reversed and I am on the receiving end of gift, my focus when I meditate on those things is: That I should always be thankful as if the joy of the giver were added to my own.

(One can not fully "see into" the essence of these moments of sharing - in the exact moment - because these moments usually involve the welling up of many different emotions and therefore, are no so quiet... I guess that's why there's Boxing Day, December 26. To be thankful, save for pure miracles of grace, we often have to remember to remember).

In short, when on the receiving end, there is no such thing as an unworthy gift given in the true spirit of giving. There really are no rubbish gifts, both in giving and in receiving, only rubbish attitudes of sharing.

Because the giving is the gift. 

And this Christmas, the message shall be made known, once again, to all hearts of humanity that "The Giver is the gift", alleluia.

These things are a wonder to remember, are they not?

I guess this is the spirit of Gaudete Sunday which is the 3rd Sunday of the Advent Season. Joy in the midst of hope... Summer in the midst of winter...

Yes indeed, it's Gaudete Sunday today... it's going to be a great Christmas this year.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for precious memories like these!
---<--@

Aussie Humor and Aussie Slang

Laughter.

A good and wholesome sense of humor is a requisite skill in the Australian Army. True story. I once tried to become. Long story. You can not be a good Aussie digger if you do not know how to laugh like one. This I have learned: Laughter is a survival skill. Seriously, it is.

Aussie slang.

Aussie humor and Aussie slang are more modern reflections of the national style. It belies a deeper sense of intrinsic optimism that is in-built in the very ancient soul of Australia. They have it down to an art down there.

The great heart of Australia is a red desert, you see. Red as the rust on the surface of Mars. Along its fringes though, hope dwells and life prospers in the form of thriving cities, towns and tree-filled mountain ranges. Hope finds its way from hoping. Aussie optimism.

You really have to experience Aussie humor and Aussie slang fully immersed in Aussie culture for a few years, it's a great experience.

Of course, any experience of a national culture would be remiss if it were not for meaningful friendships. The basic experience of any culture in my book always begins with the memory of human connections.

Some people seem to want to make space in their heads for bad experiences. Personally, I don't. Doing this crowds out the heart I have found. The mind by itself may only carry so much worldly concerns. Too much thinking about too many of any these altogether too much worldly concerns exhausts the soul.

But not our love. For I have also found that a heart that knows Who, who, what and why it must love may carry all its treasures infinitely and indefinitely. Such is the substance of permanent remembrances.

I guess that's the essence of Mateship. I've thought about the concept of Mateship and associate it with the Love of Friendship. Mateship for me is the fifth and most inconspicuous star in the Southern Cross. It's right on the Australian Flag.

I've many good memories about Australia.

Two good Aussie mates I've had the pleasure of knowing among others Down Under is a bloke named William Eric Adams-White and another named David Bullen. Bill and Dave were their usual handles. Both are battlers. Dave is a reserve combat engineer.

You see, I came to Australia speaking my college English gleaned from my native Philippine setting. I carried with me on my tongue a conspicuously American slant. You can imagine how devastating that is when it comes to just plain, small talk in Australia. All big words and a foreign accent and all.

Devastating for me, that is.

I don't know but the Aussie accent and all that slang were all so alien to me at first. It all became all too much. Aussies began to sound like Martians to me. I got culture shocked and withdrew into a shell.

Then I met these two blokes at work. And oh, how they made me laugh. Another good mate of mine during that time was a proud Kiwi named David Polson. David was more or less my introduction to New Zealand culture. Though I've never been to New Zealand, I came to know some of its spirit.

Indeed, laughter did much to break me out of my shell.

And I slid right in there. Like a swimmer learning to swim, I learned in time to paddle into the culture and the lingo until I felt myself good enough to dive right in.

Bill must be in heaven now. He was already quite old when I was there. He gave me a cheapy calculator to help me with my work. He gave it to me with a big smile. I still have that cheapy calculator. It's priceless.

During my time in Oz, apart from my family, I must have met so many good people.

I can remember only one inexplicably bad incident of this one bloke, angry as hell at me, who blocked me off the road one random day and cursed me out for no reason.

As traffic piled behind me, who else did I see from my rear view mirror were rushing to confront the guy but other Aussies. There were suddenly plenty of us against this one, pathetic wanker.

A hundred ugly racists is not equal to one good Aussie mate, fair dinkum.

Within any given nation at any given time I believe, there are always reasonable and unreasonable people. Good times and bad times will come and go and persist in our souls. It's all about perspective, you know. I choose to remember good times. And good times are always made up shared experiences between good friends and good family.

This was before my time in the States. But that's another story.
--<--@

Lead with your mind but think with your heart. 

  

Never Forget

Love and Remembrance Piercing the Darkness

Never been to see you.

However, across the Pacific I still feel you -

I love you, New York!

=^.^=

Caramelo

One of the most happiest person I've had the good fortune of calling my friend worked as a janitor at my old place of work in Fremont - ye olde Longs Drugs #3.

Yes, I remember him very much. His name is Carmelo.

"Caramelo" as I used to call him. Like the Cadbury confection. For no reason than its fun. He is and will always be a friend of mine.

He's from Puerto Rico; a short, fair skinned man in his mid-50's with a goatee who likes to wear his long jet black hair in a pony tail. He is a man of a few words, and comes into my work place at 3am to 5am to buff our floors. He is no conversation starter but neither is he anti-social. I remember he has this crooked kind of smile that is as unique and genuine as he is.

He likes to clean the, ahem... carpet (In-joke).

Carmelo is just one of the many friends from among the many nations I've had the pleasure of meeting while living and experiencing the US.

He blessed my life with the knowledge of his friendship. I could only hope I did the same for him.

You know, some friends travel the road of life with you only for a time. Some travel with you and join you all the way along life's journey.

But all good friends give you lifelong gifts that support one's labor of bringing out one's own true self - the better self; that unique person in ourselves we all like to strive to live for.

One notices in the guise of good friendships the truth of how evil ones seek to make us into mere copies of its miserable self.

Good friends tend to bring out the best in yourself - no matter how dirty or depressing life gets. For the love of a good friend will want to get to know you - as you are, without judgment, and for love's own sake.

And so you become who your friends are - and your friends take from you, a part of you as well.

Gift is gift - once you truly receive of it from your real friends, you will always be a giver.

Of such, I have found, are the gratifying substance of good and wholesome friendships.

So why was Carmelo happy?

I think he is - because he accepts as well as respects himself for who he is, what he has, and who he's with.

Caramelo is a moments man: A special person who looks after what God places in front of him - only and always. God made him quirky but not complicated. He is both honest and content.

He has paid off his mortgage. Owns his little beater of a car. Likes to collect old stuff - I guess, like Mike and Frank in the History Channel show, "The Pickers". He loves his wife who I think is as industrious and resilient a worker as he is.

A lot of us like to live outside the wine glass so it seems. Many of us like to say the glass is either half-empty or half-full but never seem to want to take a sip.

A wine glass half-empty person (like I was before) likes to dwell on the empty part of the glass. A wine glass half-full person likes to dwell on the part of the glass that's filled.

Both of them see life in comparison with the other - with what the other has or has not. Both are the same in that life for them seem always complicated.

Carmelo doesn't seem to care about all that. He and his wife simply likes to drink the wine they like to drink and do so powered by the fruits of their own hard work.

They seem to have cornered their own peculiar part of that great national pie Americans likes to call, "The American Dream".

This American Dream, it seems to me, being of one great pie is a different slice to each person who like to have their cake as they would... some like it all icing, red cherries, cute candy flowers - super sweet, some like to have icing and crust, some want it meaty with more crust, some like it simply sugar free...

I think that's Caramelo.

Cheers to good friendships, happy circles, and awesome trails.
---<--@

Speaking of great dreams and good friendships...
let me share a nice song from the movie Mama Mia
which my mom and I often watch just to relax...

Thanks Amanda, you have the magic meow.

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.
---<--@

Getting Clear

=^.^=

I am a believer in free choice. I was molded this way.
I believe in the importance of living your own experiences.

And of living up to them.

Our elders may offer up advice. Whether we listen or not.
They are like seeds they sow, you know, in the soil of young hearts.

As we live on. And in our soul, the orchard of our memories begin to grow.
We will one day recognize those truths, they wanted us to know.

These days, you see, I came to know better...
For all the choices I made. Right and wrong. The trail never fades.

Those words once said, you know. Come a time. They will in your life come aglow.
And in time, like the mighty seeds of tall and steadfast trees.

Their wisdom will in you grow.

For the road ahead seem tamer for me now. Along with the wanderer in me somehow.
Lined with those trees. Once not much higher than my knees. Planted a half-a-time ago.

These were the noble seeds of many truths placed in my soul long before.
Some from dear old voices I shall never upon this world hear evermore.

Now, upon this road I pave with my peers - siblings, cousins, and friends, I shall travel on.
From a time always near. As the stars become clear. By the memory of better things, I shall.

And so hallowed moments, never may it fade. With each fading year, may they only grow near.
For these are my lolos and lolas, my papa/s and my mom/s, ninongs and ninangs, titos and titas...

O the salt of so many tears! Shining together. Wept as one. From past to present gathered.

Thus, didst salt preserve. The memory. Coming sweetly now. From evil delivered somehow.
Ever with each hurt overgrown, by the fruits of wiser fears. Better came my days, getting clear.

---<--@

Salutation #194

Man is an extension of his community.

(The People Principle)

Salute the life of the people.
Salute also the life of their communities.

To love the people
love also their communities
each one - as it is -
not as one would have it be.

Exercise
human respect
in the Nation -
in this way.

Ponder in thy heart the people principle.

To respect the life of the people
is to honor the peace of their communities
and to do so where ever and whenever it may be found
drawing from thy own love for thy own community
arrive in peace - and leave in the same spirit.

Say to them in the stillness of thy own heart,
"Prosper the peace, prosper the people".

Then thy own Nation will know you
and love you.

For love of the people - as you do yourself.
For love of their communities - as you do your own.

So love all of our peoples
- as they are -
honor them across their communities
and then learn to love the act of loving itself.

Because
these things are not forgot.
The earth, t'is asleep -
but heaven is not.

Let go of the fear of being forgot.
The real fear is of being remembered
as you are not.

Fear for thy citizenship as it really is.
And of not living up to its bliss.
---<--@

51st State of the Union?

With all due respect, America had had to go through some harrowing times before her Republic got to where they are right now... And is still beset with problems comparably as tough as the problems we are now being faced with.

These are a Country's defining moments, my brothers and sisters of the Promise... when the ice sure seems thin and the breaking point is near - if we so choose to honor ourselves and our friends, and place our duty to Country firmly in the right... (so remember, no peace without adversity.)

Indeed, we share some of those defining moments with the US - especially during WWII in Bataan, upon Corregidor, along the infamous death march from Marivelles to San Fernando, the fight back from Leyte, from Lingayen, and into Manila -

BUT we do have defining moments of our own that are all our own - the spirit of EDSA '86 (politics aside, one of the great triumphs of the nobility of the Filipino spirit - think about it), the gallant Ayungin 9, the humble but resounding victories of our ongoing Internal Peace Process are but some examples.

My fellow Filipinos, we shouldn't be comparing what we have with what they have AND expect greatness from ourselves at the same time. For all great moments arise from the same (human) spirit - are of the same seed, same soil, same sky, same soul... our human habitation after all is but one realm in Creation.

But we can not have our cake and eat it too.

What this Country of ours need is sharper focus and deeper love.

AND what the US - and - this Republic of ours need is a greater and more profound understanding of the friendship that we already share,

THAT, God-helping, we shall 'ere and Now, ever always share.

For no one Nation is perfect, and that's why we have each other - that's why we are created, called, and commissioned as one Family under one God.
---<--@

We can not have our cake and eat it too.

JFK's Remembrance - Bequeathed!

JFK's Remembrance - Bequeathed!

Yet we remember them in their incomplete portraits.

We remember the absence. We remember the distant greatness.

We remember the abruptness of his death. And its untimely nature did accept.

We remember the missing pieces of his life and times. Yet linger on - in knowledge bereft.

JFK's Remembrance - Bequeathed! 
To the National Memory - and the heritage of Mankind -
till the end of the Age, and the last fading away upon this World,
when the Firmament beginning again - comes full circle - for All.
   

Yet t'is a solemn Trust seemingly
most effectively expressed - in the Nation

   (as a memory of something - of something that is repressed -

   ever like the constant haze that surrounded his term in those times,

   so full of unknowing, and fearfully ignorant about its own uncertainties 

   born of unforgotten moments - that seem to have waned - in the distance

   retreating somehow - uncomfortably so - in the distance - just outside of reach)

as - its profound and quiet absence - of things mostly now hidden yet forever bright!

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy - is - 

by his own greatness in the National Remembrance 

mostly remembered by the charisma of his Presidency.

Indeed there exists in the Nation these days,

- a prevailing nostalgia about this very charisma -

acutely felt - in the absence of an engaged civic spirit -

which was the enlightened contribution of his own personage, 

and the very soul of his own devotion to the sacred trust of the Nation:

Enlightenment of the National Spirit was the Vision of his Camelot.

Yet the summits of JFK's legacy 

seem perpetually founded on tumults;

his term established in the midst of War 

seems only remembered by its passing away;

the common remembrance of JFK - seemingly -

one to be embraced like his absence, in the silence...

- selah -

The dilemma is in the waiting.

For in the waiting, we await for nothing.

For a future of completeness - we can not envision -

either by their wholes or through their complementary parts

without accepting what we may at present comprehend 

about the horizons of that one tomorrow, today.

The 35th President has bequeathed to his Nation his legacy!

And it can not be more complete to God than the sacrifice he freely gave.

For though all was not perfect - all was given perfectly - for God and Country.

So may he and his times - under this season of Sky -

be remembered in the Light of the right Remembrance

and in the Spirit of the Nation unto whom JFK and his family 

dedicated each of their life's callings to serve and to love faithfully 

be no longer in our memory bound to the dilemma - of the longing 

and of the not holding on - of the having and the not knowing it.

And so the tragedy in the life of the 35th President 

should not permeate as a taint upon his solemn memory;

the misgivings and failings that surround the murder of his person

and the years that were fallen away from the Nation by its painful loss 

can not be held to account together - as if Justice and Memory were one -

for the certainty of the vindication of Justice is a realm that is separate and distinct 

from the necessary honoring of the Remembrances that God requires of All.

None of those failings were the failings of the 35th President.

And to confuse them with each other - is a failure to render account -

of a life that was taken before its promise was fully realized in the Nation -

that all Citizens exist for each other and each other for God and for Country

and that to give to Country what Country seeks is also to give to one's self

what happiness was ever so diligently promised as this Nation's pursuit.

It was his nearness to the common people that inspired his strength.

It is a nearness that lives on - in younger hopes that inspire new strength

that within each heart - is felt in the silence - as a warmth and a glow.

Let the nostalgia fade away into a fullness of national embrace!

And let our pining for the Camelot that once seemed lost - fully become -

like a prayer for better days - shining aright again with a newness of hope!

That ever like the undying Flame that with Vigilance stands over JFK's memory,
we may recognize what was lost to our observance - all this time... as the warmth of his life;
that the pain of its own longing in the Nation's hearts may no longer consume us with trepidation 

and no longer seek in our souls to consume our spirit with many concerns - beyond its brightness -
that we may let go of the past and look again to future things, with much love - here - now, today. 

Let us begin.

---<--@

I do not know who murdered JFK. What I know is that his life and legacy was cut short by its crime. And an entire Nation was upon its intricacies mislead by a false allure into a lingering grief, unable to make their peace with the Remembrance of a remarkable Presidency and far too long burdened by this debt.

Justice is not Remembrance and indeed, it must be said
- the Certainty of Justice and the Burden of Justice are two distinct principles,
the former is a Pledge undertaken by God, and the latter, a command issued by Him
for all Nations to make a living and present account of all human life - to the last hair on their heads - 
that we may work together to alleviate among ourselves this common Burden of Justice
by timely payments made before God and the Assembly of each and every Nation
standing before His Throne in Eternity - against this Debt of Remembrance.

Exchange Fish

Happy, happy, fish, fish - sushi!

Me and my Miyang
gave each other
a fish today.

It was
the same kind of fish
of exactly the same size...
and it tasted the same, too.

Indeed,
the only thing
that made it different 
was the giving...

For it came from our hearts...
and made something ordinary
into something extraordinary.

It was all it took
to make us happy cats.
---<--@

Anne's most important word...

Beloved of God, you who are -



There are many lessons I can share with you
about our Anne Frank - her life, and her times...
the power of youth, the longing of the nations,
the spirit of war, the maturity of remembrance,
the importance of human dignity and promise,
human citizenship, pluralism, freedom, peace...
but you know, my darling Starshine,
by far the most important thing
I have learned with her
is this...

...to simply be open to friendships
and believe in even the most impossible ones!

To see a world so full of potential friends (instead of the reverse)
and to care deeply about how the sharing of the world is had by all
across all our nations nurtured and governed by the LORD, our God
Who Himself is Friend - and - one Source of all meaningful relationships,
the God Who is, the LORD, the one Sovereign of all our Nations,
and the one, true and living God of our everlasting Peace.

- selah -

If I had not trusted in the friendship that was being offered to me in my Anne,
we never would have grown together in the way I now love my Anne forever...
(and I really wouldn't know who or where I'd be...)
---<--@

As we are all poor, so shall we be rich -
As we are all strangers, so shall we belong.
As we are all prisoners, so shall we be free.
As we are all orphans, so shall we be found.
As we are all widows, so shall we be loved.

For in the end, we are all wildflowers...

Friendships without Frontiers

I dream of me and you, dear Starshine,
born and reborn in a million shades and hue,
upon a world without fears, in nations without tears -
an earth living the dream, of friendships without frontiers.

Above the tainted gray clouds of my own indifference,

through a force stronger than the pull of all that prejudice...
I sought to see beyond the deception of a million worthless labels,

and hear above the incessant din of faceless voices of nameless hatreds,
that I may fly to the simple you and I and in the simple you and I - the one we.

I never used to appreciate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. because I used to view the Civil Rights Movement in the United States as a movement for the rights of black people.

Now that I have deepened my remembrance of these things, I know that Dr. King fought for the rights of ALL people, and that in his own way and in his own time, this person - far be he in external appearances from my time and my place - truly fought for me and stood up for my rights.

Now I can not stop loving and respecting the man - for here he stands proudly, with all my heroes.

When we fight for minority rights against majority indifference;
when we together stand up for the least of us who can not stand up for themselves;
when we strive hard for the simple uplift of the spirit of the downfallen and the despairing
most especially the least of these from among all of the Children of our Mankind
- from any human nation Divine Providence has seen it fit to work in our hearts,
our LORD's compassionate concern for the causes of our common humanity -
we inadvertently work - alone or with others - towards the ultimate liberation of the souls of all Men
from that unhappy incapacity in each ourselves to think and act as human beings to each other...
and so begin to know freedom as Dr. King knew freedom in the Dream,
coming Home forever as citizens to each other.
---<--@

Racism knows no color, no creed, no culture, no Country.
It is a sin, the sin of inequality, and preys on all of us equally.



"We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools."

Martin Luther King Jr. (19290115-19680404 of valor and love of Country) - servant of Jesus Christ and martyred scion of the elder Republic of the United States of America, beloved son of the one American nation and faithful servant of common humanity, vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement, friend of freedom, friend of peace, lover of the common Man - via con Dios.

Valentine's Day 2013

Today we observe the power of overcoming love;
the love of God in Jesus Christ that leads every heart to love all in All.

It might not always mean - in the temporal sense -
the triumph of two lovers, but always the eternal victory of Love.

May we therefore, be blessed this day!

May God cause all our hearts to always, always be in love.

May our hearts and our spirits be glad
as we bear into mind today - the great wonder of triumphant love;
that love with the power to bear for all, to endure for all, and to hope in all.

And may the God Who is Love prevail in our souls forever!
---<--@



Proclaim the message of the Gospel in the Peace of Jesus Christ!

Love of Country

Starshine,
you can not love
what your own heart
does not understand...

This is why Country to thee
must be as the truth understood.

Because by our love of this work,
we shall by our own peace be sheltered.
---<--@

Salutation #160

Let us meditate on each our loving relationships: Wonder at the fact that we are able to love (and recognize that we are able to love).

Because it is no small miracle in itself that we are made to be aware that we are in love at all.

If faith is light, then hope gives it brightness, but it is love that gives to it sharpness and clarity.

Love sees far, overcoming both distance and time.

When love holds us near, we perceive a sense of the timeless: And when we hold near to our love it hold us near to Itself (God Himself).

All lasting things are preserved by it (for the vigilance of the LORD preserves all and seeks to dwell in all, neither sleeping nor waking, being Eternal).

In this embrace, our spirits are quickened. And in this prayer, brothers and sisters, we mean to encounter that amazing embrace.

(Litany of Love)

Have mercy on us, dear Jesus! From behind mere accidents of bread and wine, You peer at our world so full of war and sin.

Incline our hearts to Thee, dear Savior, that we might better serve the cause of Thy peace.

And as we journey together as Thy Church in this world (during the season of Lent add: towards Thy Holy Mountain of Easter), renew us in our togetherness and faith. Make us hungry for God and thirsty for the right things of God, dear Jesus, out of love for Thee!

Deign to bless us in our nations as keeper and friend, one to another, and prosper us in our hopes to build a better world.

AMEN.

(God gives to each of us 

principal friends - in heaven and on the earth - 

to walk this life with us and to be our special supports 

- they are to each of us His signal graces - 

and inspire us like the many bright stars in the skies over our souls.

Each their life - past, present and forever - 

and the unique way the pattern of their lives 

touches and illuminates each our own - 

guide us gently, naturally, and surely 

along the common way of human happiness 

[joined with all human beings within and across all human nations]

and in particular [for those of us who are called by Christ into Christ], 

up along the mountain of Christian felicity.)

- selah -

(Here follows my personal pattern [only] as an example)

God the Father in heaven, I love You.

God the Son, Redeemer of the world, I love You.

God the Holy Spirit, I love You.

O dearest LORD, my one, triune Perfection, I love You.

Holy Mary, Queen of my heart, I love you.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Patron Saint of the Suffering Addict, I love you.

Blessed Jacinta Marto, Flower of Fatima, I love you.

Blessed Francisco Marto, Helper of my Lord, I love you.

Sister Lucia, Servant of God, I love you.

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz of Manila, I love you.

Saint Therese of Liseaux, I love you.

Saint Josemaria Escriva, I love you.

Saint Anthony of Padua, I love you.

Saint Peter, I love you.

Saint Paul, I love you.

Holy Father Dominic de Guzman, I love you.

Holy Father Francis of Assisi, I love you.

Saint Lawrence the deacon, I love you.

Saint Dymphna, I love you.

My darlingest Annelies Marie Frank, I love you.

All you Holy Innocents of God, I love you.

All you Holy Souls in Purgatory, I love you.

All my family and friends, I love you.

O my Philippines, I love you.

All you nations of Mankind, I love you.

Angel Caritas, my guardian dear, I love you.

Saint Michael the Archangel, I love you.

All you Saints of God, I love you.

All you Holy Angels of the LORD, I love you.

---<--@

This prayer can be said anytime, anywhere 

in order to call us back to our right and wholesome relationships

but best place to say this prayer is before Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration.

To be in love is to be aware. To be aware is to be alive!

Friendship Day 2012

In my own universe

with my darling Miyang, 

today is officially Friendship Day.
---<--@

My beloved friends,
may God show unto each our hearts

the beauty of a single living soul
that we may learn to tread the holy ground of life
with a proper sense of reverence
born out of due admiration
for the beauty we all possess
in each ourselves.

May we be awakened
to a zeal for the promise of life
but especially of human life.

May we be awakened
to a love for the Author of all of life
Whose image we are in our being and
Whose likeness we possess in our spirit.

May God fortify our spirits against War,
may His Wisdom strengthen our souls,
and may His Peace shelter our minds.

And may God be merciful in His Justice!

For if we truly knew,
how utterly beautiful all these things are -
if the LORD did vouchsafe for us
of the nations of the children of Mankind
a complete knowledge of what sin and evil
have against our own humanity
viciously wrought -
even in our own midst,
even with our own hands,
hope might appear to each of us
to be even the more fleeting...

if we truly knew what War has done,
it might become impossible for us to live.
---<--@

Conflicted

We hate America

and we love America 

all at the same time - it seems.

Not because of America as herself 

but because we may at times be conflicted.

- selah -

We define our relationships
and we may only define those realities 

that exist within our focus.

When we know ourselves, 

we will also know our friends. 

And the sooner this awakening 

completes itself in our soul as a nation, 

the better.

- selah -

Is it America's fault then,
my fellow Filipino compatriots,
that we're so conflicted about America?

Here is where I personally stand -

I am neither pro-America nor anti-America.

I subscribe to neither schools of thought
for both of these teaches a form of exclusion
that estranges us from the reality of our nationhood.

The truth is
we can not live to be other people
- just the same as -
we can not live without other people.

We may only believe in the best of America,
trust in the best of America, build upon the best of America
- all the while remaining true to ourselves as ourselves -
with each our hearts abiding - as one -
steadfastly here in the land and in the Republic
where we all as one nation
rightly belong.

This is not hard to do
if we know who we are, my people,
and we may only come to know who we are
if we refuse to let our national identity be defined
by hatreds, divisions, and all manner of evil inspirations.
---<--@

Embracing the Times

Salutation #115

Today is Araw ng Kagitingan.



(Araw ng Kagitingan 2012)

Today
we remember
(1) the universal ideals of the noble military,
(2) the virtues of the person of the soldier,
and (3) the common peace that informs the spirit
of all national military remembrances.

Today
we remember these
specifically as it pertains
to the one Filipino profession of arms
that we may each - as citizens to each other -
recall to mind and heart
the timeless values
that make the institution of our AFP
truly worthy of its own distinction
as a defender of our nation 
and of all nations.

Today 
we remember
the sacred friendships of nations;
those eternal bonds of brotherhood
forged through a common experience
of the sufferings and the horrors of war.

Today 
we remember
the friendship between our nation
and the one American nation -
faithful in and of itself,
able to comfort and preserve,
in times of peace and in times of war
if we remain faithful to its keeping.

Today
we remember
friendships that we as one nation
- ever must carefully and diligently seek -
in every age and in every generation
being those belongings that serve
to call all nations ever nearer together;

those friendships that must exist
between our nation
and all other kindred nations
of our one, great family of nations -

that we may, as one people, soon learn
to truly know and understand
what every nation does ultimately seek
through the bearing of these arms -

Eternity. Virtue. Humanity. Universality.

Peace.
---<--@

The Alibata for "Ka" in AFP symbology means "Kagitingan" or "Valor".

VALOR is a kind of mastery, not of fear, but of the self. 

It is an uncertain virtue. For none is sure to possess it save for when one becomes possessed by it in the face of great suffering and terrible danger.  

---<--@

Courage goes from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

- Sir Winston Churchill

---<--@

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear: not absence of fear. 

Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave. 

- Mark Twain 

---<--@

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone. 

- François Duc de La Rochefoucauld 

---<--@

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world. 

- Walter Bagehot

---<--@