Sweet as Jam

Before Anne, I was a glass-half-empty person. I was in despair. Those were dark days indeed... 

Knowing Anne through her diary made me a glass-half-full person. I can still be sad and depressed, of course. However, I will never look at life again from a dark and gloomy heart. In my own words: "She is my first contact star; my light against despair."

After Anne, the skies above my soul, day and night, became full of stars. I appreciate her very much.


Ok, here's a quote I got from her diary that resonates a lot with me:

"I don't have much in the way of money or worldly possessions, I'm not beautiful, intelligent or clever, but I'm happy, and I intend to stay that way! I was born happy, I love people, I have a trusting nature, and I'd like everyone else to be happy too." Anne Frank, 19440325sat

Which brings me to the gist of my post...

Opekta was Otto Frank's company at 263 Prinsengracht that sold pectin for making jams. I happened upon some of Opekta's old adverts and it struck me... Anne's cheer is sweet as jam...

The horror of the Holocaust notwithstanding, the people we lost during that time and all the people we, as humanity, are losing in the name of hatred, ignorance and indifference* deserve to be remembered by the light of their own lives also. For history will incline us to remember the fallen by the gravity of their loss. Time is severe in its account but we shouldn't be... after all, time is for man.

It is up to us how we shall remember those whose silence oblige us to abide in the memory. 

*the hatred of a few, the ignorance of some, and the indifference of many - a proven formula for war and genocide
---<--@

I used derive from history the blackest of hate. But from the memory, I caught a glimpse in the night through the hurt, a multitude of stars so great... my hate turned to love, my hope returned again to heaven above.

Thoughts on Peace and Anti-Semitism

A good sense of history seeks to address
the question of "where" more than "when"

History they say is written by the victors. But memory (national) is not. Remembrance is right that recalls the human cost (in all the names of those who fell along our journey of return) and makes a just and human account in the heart before God of all the things history seldom mentions... a present and living account. 

I used to study history but it was impersonal. I failed to impress upon myself that history is much more than pages of a book. The aim of history is to acquire a "sense of history". Not become all too familiar with the past but discern from a good knowledge of it, a clearer understanding of the living present. 

In this way, books become more valuable than just paper and ink. And what our teachers impart to us about history becomes for us a form of art than just ancient knowledge. We begin to have an appreciation... that history is not just a long tale of woe.

Anti-Semitism too is historical. Here is what I presently understand about it:

The Star of David corrupted into an anti-semitic label.
These labels are all of them devices intended
to dehumanize its victim.

First of all, anti-Semitism is easy. Maybe that's why small-minded people like it. Because it fits.

A says its better than Z to feel itself "the letter A".

A then proceeds to prove to the alphabetical realm that what A says is true, that Z is only half-a-letter. A then begins to persecute Z because A is "A" and A says so. Ludicrous!

The next in line for A after Z is laid low would be Y. Meaning after the Jews, the Gypsies... then the Blacks, Reds, Yellows, Whites, Browns, Grays, Blues, Muslims, Christians, Catholics - everything that doesn't conform to the "A"s own version of the alphabet right up to A's closest buddy, B.

In spirit, the relentless hatred that dwells behind all things anti-human shall only thrive on the victimization of our humanity - where ever and whenever we may allow it. This is the spirit that feeds on anti-semitism. Evil.

A's own version of the alphabet? A, A, A, A, A... get my drift? 

When everything is A, there will be peace. And it will make no sense. 

To A however, it really doesn't matter that in A's version of the alphabet, one can not even spell "peace". It is a paradox that will be rammed down every other letter's conception of itself.

I am not saying that the letter Z is better than A. 

What I'm saying is everybody is different and we should be knowledgeable enough of ourselves now (after enough of a span of time) to accept the fact that we can only be meaningful as letters (as nations) as we are and as a whole. That way we can spell anything (truthfully, meaningfully, and profitably).

The fuse that A needs to light that will cause the subsequent implosion of the synergistic diversity that is the real alphabet, of course, is Z.

That to me is Anti-Semitism.

Allow it into the soul of your nation and it will fester into all those other "isms" that a free and human people ought to always guard against.

Certainly it was never a part of our peace here in the Philippines and if I can help it, shall never prosper in the soul of this Nation.

Not just because of my memory of Anne Frank and her times but because the memory of the last 2000 years is full of destructively inhuman divisions like these... too many, too much. We are confronted with numbers so large and so terrible, it intimates to each our remembrances that we shall not even be enough to render unto the living God, an adequate account...


Go past 2000 years and we get more of the same... but 2000 years is all it takes.

Indeed, the last century as the culmination of the last 1900 years is a foretelling enough to understand that if we remain adamant in our clinging to old molds that need breaking, the momentum of the past shall sweep us into perhaps another century of more of the last age... if we can not account for that century then another one more terrible than the last shall be poured as fire down upon our heads.

Until everything is parched dry. Until the spirit of humanity is diminished enough and darkness overwhelm all nations utterly with the madness of war.

I do not want that... a world overrun by sin and war, dark and indistinct from the darkness of the void. In contrast, I choose another vision of peace. (As it were, one that spells p-e-a-c-e.)

The peace I want is the opposite, obtained through the opening of a new path into the morrow. One that leads to a vision apart from the one whose fruits (the bitterest of which is genocide and an absent sense of truth) we have experienced in the last century; a vision obtained through the closing of the door of the present - as completely as possible - from the evils of the past age.

Peace can be complicated at times, I agree.

We are being confused by so many truths about it even now, here in our Philippines. But if we stay on the path (knowing the firmness of its first principles) and keep our hearts focused on a shared vision of "something new and wonderful", I know determination and faith will take us to places in time we've never been as a Country... better places.

Together, only together. Without those ruinous "isms"... extremism, terrorism, racism, sexism, ageism, shapeism, etc. More wheat, less tares.

The peace of our times will never be a perfect peace, I definitely agree.

The national peace shall always be an unfolding work in time and will always mirror the truths about our common humanity. Knowing its foundation and its vision should be enough... for it is both location and destination, plus a compass of identity and memory to carry us through.

And vigilant trust; an agility to react and to innovate (ideals, principles and vision) properly. For we are as a nation still learning a new landscape and have yet to reach a safe distance down along the path to our new morning... a new dawn para sa lahat ng Pilipino (para na rin siguro sa lahat sa mundo).

Salaam. Shalom. Peace. 

Let us continue to work and pray for peace in our time, here in our Philippines and in our world...

Mabuhay po tayong lahat.
---<--@

JFK in a letter requesting his Secretary of Labor to deliver 
a wreath in their nation's behalf to the Anne Frank House wrote... 
"the hopeful and the gentle are the true makers of history".

Cry in the Dark

It is terrible to recall
what we have done to each other
in the name of human progress.

More terrible still,
despite all the many atrocities
and the slaughter of so many of our innocents
   (unto whom we all did belong forever
   as citizens and as human beings to each other)
whose dignity and particular good we all did despise
and continue to do so, in continuing to so freely carry out
the very same acts that in spirit
committed to murder them -
the common fruit of so many of their gifts
we now suffer to deny ourselves
and continue to suffer to deny to ourselves
and to our common posterity -
in the Nation.

It is painful to see
that we have not gained a thing,
for their loss.

That we have forsaken so much
for not an iota of good.

And continue to do so
far, far into the night,
into a night without a twilight -
unto a place where the night itself
can not get any more darker than it is,
where the darkness may only deepen into madness,
comprehending not itself dark -
but light.

How much pain must we endure?

How much can we endure
before the pain itself our spirit forsake?

How many lives will it take to teach us humility?

How much darkness
must we call upon ourselves
to allow us to realize
all this blindness is sheer and utter madness;
that we are human after all - and that -
it is our own inhumanity to ourselves that is killing us all -
as a species of living soul entrusted by God
to shepherd the life of the earth!

For
is it not madness that - as living souls,
we did intend to carry out our own death
and bring about upon our own living world,
a swift and final desolation?

When will lukewarm hearts in the Nation arise as the day,
to a fierce and burning longing for Thy Peace?
When, O God of Peace...

It is terrible to know what we have forgotten - that -
at times, when my own remembrances of these things come to me,
I do not know what is more painful, to recall them
or to forget them.

Maybe I do not want to know anymore.
---<--@

On Food Security

Hunger in Man we will not be able to fully address as Nations in exile. It is hunger in the Nation that we should contemplate - hunger as a social evil.

Food Security is the primary means we will utilize to defend the Republic from this social evil.

What is Food Security?

Food Security is the presence of the ready means to effectively address the basic question of hunger in our national communities.

Availability and Accessibility is key.

This is how I interpret it to be.

It is must always be planned in surpluses yearly, ahead of the basic food requirement of a healthy Nation. Necessary adjustments might occur to us, in the course of our build, according to prevailing climate and market readiness conditions.

Rice is the natural foundation of our Food Security. Rice shall also be the means we may use to measure our successes and deficiencies in this regard. We will develop Rice Sufficiency as a Region with ASEAN.

Consistent and cost-effective agricultural modernization, progressive, positive agrarian reform, the empowerment and establishment of "green" Provinces, the establishment of an efficient distribution network, and effective strategic warehousing systems in the Republic - done to address the basic question of hunger as a National development imperative may add together to form a structure whereby we may secure reasonable degrees of Food Security in behalf of our citizenry.

Hunger is not circuitous.

The means to secure ourselves from it through Food Security may not be as straightforward. But the core compass direction we will be building towards must always remain clear and quite resistant to any untoward politics, regardless of its positioning platform or guiding personalities.

We will be grinding at a stone. But obtaining a clear vision in this regard will allow us wear out this granite mountain down to a molehill long before our convictions become dulled.

Without the actual means to defend this Republic against hunger, the question of poverty as an adverse social phenomenon will always outwit and outflank both our thought and our will as a people.

Poverty is its own solution to a Nation determined. Providence decreed our labors to come together unto the good and were never meant to be but a futile suffering. But we have to have a clear vision.

No human being in this planet is immune from hunger. Even our politics must understand that.

Hunger as a National development imperative motivating Food Security simply seeks to adequately address this basic need in Man through the Republic as a functional, synergistic whole, impressing upon our citizenry that each Filipino citizen possesses an equal share in the Philippine State.

We owe it to ourselves as a whole, from least to great, to help each other advance the greater human causes Providence, through the heritage of our citizenship, have seen it fit to endow us with this same belonging.

Addressing this need in the Nation creates work. Labor - good, honest, gainful work - that affirms for our Republic the value of human life and, according to each our labors, elevates human dignity to a station met for every human person.
---<--@

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.
---<--@

The Nine Common Human Needs: Clothing in the Nation

The Devil and his angels 
hid from the LORD 
for the same reason 
our First Parents 
hid from God.



For it had never occurred
to either Lucifer or his corrupt angels
before the onset in their awareness of evil 
that the mortal dread that must arise in terror of God
was to be born of the coming swift realization
- of the real consequence of their own treason -
that they, by so choosing to freely cast themselves
- as realities distinct and apart - from the one Sovereignty
of their one Creator, did come to fully recognize
to their everlasting shame - that their own impotence
was - and shall forever be for them - the very real cost -
of their futile act of betrayal against the Omnipotence
of the one, true, and always-victorious LORD, our God. 

The most apparently visible cause
of the nakedness in Man and in his Enemy
(being the Devil and his fallen angels - who are all likewise
the Enemy of God, all the Holy Angels, and all of Mankind)
seem but one and the same - a betrayal of a most Sacred Trust.

But the conditions that have arisen from this sin
   as they have been decreed by God to prevail in Justice
   forever - in the beings of the Devil and his fallen angels
   and for a time - in the beings born of the lineages of Man
   that Divine Providence have reserved to long in sorrow endure
   and eventually - through the shedding away of our many tears,
   prevail from the fallen state of our Exile - upon an Unknown Earth -
   far across the generations of the Nations of the Children of all Mankind
are wrought not in similar forms, nor are they one act of Judgment.

For the roots of this sin of betrayal were born
from very different motives - and the grounds upon which
these seeds of treason were sown - are of two very distinct natures -
which neither Man nor the Devil can adequately comprehend
in the attempt to fully understand or relate with the other.

For in not understanding the other, 
one is lead - unto an understanding - in the self.

So that each act of Divine Judgment 
are wrought for either Man or Devil alone 
and have nothing to do with the other. 

For the Pride that leads to Perdition
and for the Humility that worketh 
unto Repentance and Salvation.
---<--@



Nakedness is another condition of our Exile. 

It is expressive of Man's fear of his human vulnerability
essentially expressed as a deep and profound fear
of all things life-giving and salvific (in God and in Goodness)
but seamlessly proceeds to rise into the surface
of our everyday human understanding as bodily fear 
of the many evils that abound on the unfamiliar
and hostile ground of an Unknown Earth.

And proceeds
as a realization in the human awareness - that -
as Man alone, each of us are weak and vulnerable of being.

The symptoms of these are fear (and daring), despair (and hope),
and our very human need to seek the safety of living shelters
of God - in our family, in friends, and in human community.

For we are naked
and we know that we are naked -
and in need of clothing - for our nakedness -
clothing fit to preserve our inherent
dignity and promise.

And so God gave us 
the initial clothing to wear... 
and so we are, and so we must.

The fruit of this Vision 
in the reality of the Nation is 
Access to Universal Human Healthcare  
and Public Hygiene Services.
---<--@

Taxes we bear with money;
Remembrance, with memory;
Poverty, with wealth and posterity;
Death, with the life of our humanity.


The Nine Common Human Needs

Awesome vs. Not Awesome

Awesome - Elizabeth Smart.

Look at you, sister Smart, you have grown in maturity and grace!

Thank God your terrible ordeal at the hands of your jailers have passed and now they - who did abuse your freedom in your youth are now themselves without freedom in their old age.

For they were not able to mature as you did, Elizabeth. You have grown in measure and dignity where they have weakened - and by the grace of the LORD, here you are. 

Their evil was not able to triumph over you, not before, not during the unhappy days of your captivity, and most certainly not now. And so may you long endure.

You kept what truly only belonged to you, Elizabeth, that which is only thine to give that none can ever take from thy soul by deception or force - and now, by the love of our Savior, here you are.

Not Awesome - these two.

Anyare?

Let us pray for Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, may God have mercy on them and teach them of the Justice that does not seek to impose itself by fear but is freely sought because it is a virtue both highly esteemed and deeply loved by the heart of all Mankind - of love and mercy and truth embraced - and freely given - for the repair of the human spirit and the restoration of the human heart.

Personal Reflection

The most important possession of a girl or a woman can never be taken from her by deception or force by any man or creature on earth or in heaven.

For it must proceed freely from her spirit and is truth.

This is not the same as the last ages, the liberation of Woman from the receding tides of things past is ever in effect, especially in this new age of spirit and thought.

Woman as every Man's complementary but equal half - each a human being,
one whole in their persons that - when taken together, through the blessing of the LORD,
form a new creation of Love - in the wedlock union between Man and Wife
wherein new worlds are begun again anew with every human family.
---<--@

Salutation #183

"One sees only with the heart. 
What is essential is invisible to the eye."

- from "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupery



(Philosophical Realism)

Common Reality is
a reflection of the totality of things unseen -
an unfolding vision of the entirety of the truth of things
we see (without seeing) as an image in the eye of the heart -
and that also which is inaccessible yet necessary to our wellness.
It is a one whole spiritual continuum - completed and perfected.
The invisible canvass of a great and eternal work upon which is added
each our own life as colors are added unto the awakening dream
of God for all creation - in our behalf.

How deeply each of us understands
the visible universe of which we are all a part
AND how completely we perceive this spiritual reality
- through the eye of each our heart -
IS how exactly we "see" with each our mind
- by the wholeness of our knowing -
what is received through our external senses
and THIS determines our Relative or individualistic view
of what is made particular to each of our individual perception
of Common Reality, interacting with it freely and accordingly
under the Eternal Vigilance of God and the All of heaven
ever as individual threads are carefully and together interwoven
in a grand pattern that is beyond our ability to seize or comprehend.

Each our lives are called in this way to seek, love and know Truth
in order to create the ever living patterns of our most beautiful forever.

Each of us alone
can not create reality -
Neither Common reality
nor the myriad particular ones
that each soul must continually receive
at the twinkling of every eye - seamlessly -
and from moment to moment - constantly -
from the intermingling in time of what is individual
and what is collective in All that is living in all souls
as that particular truth that inexorably embrace each of us
to be perceived as realities Relative to each ourselves as ourselves.

For these are aspects
of an unimaginably greater fullness
much, much larger than our freedoms
and much, much nobler than our minds together
immense beyond our scope to contain with our understanding
all too wonderful and all too unimaginably loving and joyful
all too brightly lit for our hearts, shining with a million shining suns,
being filled with the wonder of limitless golden horizons
overflowing with the realizations every human hope and longing
unto which we may only hope for, dare against, and strive with,
so that we may each, God-helping, through a little bit of our own giving
add a little but of ourselves freely... unto what is truly and absolutely real.

Certainly,
even the all of us together
may not complete it.

For Truth is forever in a state of limitless perfection.
It is the heart of Man that reality must bring unto completion.

- selah (pause and think) -

We can neither choose to willfully take away (or distort)
the freedom of our own experience of all that is in reality
nor deny the freedom of its existence (the Call of Truth)
from the being of other living souls not unlike ourselves,
whether seen or unseen.

We - as we are now -
are not possessed of strength
to effectively govern any kind of truth
much less govern those necessary realities
that are benign and receptive to the life in our souls
and nurturing to the life of visible creation on our own -
as individuals, as nations, even as nations together.

We are the Children because we are vulnerable in this way.
We are the Children because we are also precious in this way.

- selah -

Truly,
we must rely on God
and on each other for safety
- safety of body, soul, and spirit -
in the most complete sense of the word.

For the Mind of God
mitigates most of the things in our minds
that we do not have the capacity to comprehend.

He walks in the calm of our souls - gently -
to instruct us of things that must come to pass
through the Scriptures, even here - in the Now,
that we may come to believe in His Truth
when the present unfolds - as it is -
(Amen to the LORD, and bless His Name!)
so that each our hearts may safely apprehend
through the slow awakening sunrise of every faith
the safety and certainty of his unseen Presence
nourishing our souls with the grace to withstand
(and therefore, to eventually understand)
what we, in our nakedness, can not hope
to directly withstand in the reality of the Divine;
that we may in time always dwell in His Memory
and live in the Eternal Remembrance of our God.

Truly,
our God will not allow matters to burden our spirit
with burdens that we can not carry - together with Him.

Hence, there are likewise
things in the Eternal Memory
that are completely kept away
from Our Remembrance
for our own good.

- selah -

We all know each our particular realities must differ,

such is the completeness of our awareness of individuality!

But these Relative realities
are all relative to one Common Reality -
and we experience this in the mystery of the spirit
of all those inward things that must inescapably connect us

in our common need of community and individual meaningfulness

present in varying degrees in the expressions of our civilizations

and in the many individual reflections of a perfect conception 

we human beings are capable of knowing and dreaming 

of ourselves together - in the light of we, as we are

born of a timelessness that belongs to none of us 

yet at the same time belongs to all of us.

Sacred is the Silence that knows 

of the one Music in all things!

For all things in time are in motion 

because God is - in all things, stillness.

- selah -

Truth is what is essential in our being human.

We, as human beings can not create any kind of truth in the Truth,
like we can not call into being the soul that breathes life into the body
nor can we hope to re-create any reality whether Relative or Common.
like it is to hope to contain the sheer immensity of the deep of things
that give rise to the ocean of every present time in every present thing.

We can not be the designers of our destiny
who did not know the perfection of it's makings
from the very beginning.

We can not be the masters of our times
who have known not the whereabouts of time
from its very roots.

Yea, there is an aspect of Common Reality that must be apart from each of us
Light that shines apart from our individual thinking - and being - and becoming
- Light that enlightens and Light that ennobles and Light that shines through -
and Truth that is absolutely independent of our conception of any reality.

But we, even as human beings in the here and now,
can become privy to the truth and by so knowing the Truth
obtain wisdom enough to live in harmony with it,
at-one with God and heaven, at peace with our selves on earth,
and at peace with the good will of all human and angelic community.

In so doing this,
we let go, and in so letting go,
add by the freedom of our giving
to the fullness of our one, Common Forever.

- selah -

Each our souls
might be individually and uniquely redeemed
by the one Redeemer of all Mankind in Jesus Christ -
but the fullness of our Salvation comes
by the strength of our common communities!

And so we continue to co-create - with every present time -
in intimate cooperation with the Providence of God and each other -
the reality of the things that ultimately shall belong to each of us
and because God is good, it is a brilliant destination for all of us.

In this we must,
for in this we know
to trust in the LORD -

All shall be well.

By the light of our freedom - 

from the many labors of each faith;
love and hope into one work of living life,
peace and good will are our manifestations.

God created everything first, then Man.
So Nations are a people first,
then everything.

- selah -

People - especially the captains of our humanity -
who in the past believed reality is created by their needs
musts obscure Remembrance in order to silence the voice of the past,
that they may in so doing weaken the life of the present and,
forgetting all things, unwittingly cut themselves off
from each their own appointed lineages of eternal victory
who by their own evil eventually destroy even their own makings
for theirs and theirs alone are the legacies of those defeated dreams
- inhumane, unfeeling, incapable of truth, incapable of peace -
that sink with the sinking of the darkness of exile time
into the oblivion of the void of all things that never were...

We can not blindly adopt
this kind of un-thinking... ever again!



Human Dignity and Human Promise
and its preservation is paramount
in the life of every Nationhood.

Tread carefully... 
recognizing the space 
between thy souls
as sacred.



This is realism.
---<--@

Farewell to Promise

Truly, your individual remembrances make you a human being and your national remembrances make you a citizen. Therefore, know ye in the end that all national remembrances are human remembrances; that every nation's hurt are always ultimately a hurt that arises from the human condition.

When you pass the line of your own remembrance - from past to present - and complete the necessary labor of your spirit... you should, in deepening your memory of all of these things, be carrying in your will of human citizenship - more love, more hope, and more faith in our common humanity and in the labor of our family of nations*... not less.

(*to build up the Inhabited Earth and fill our world with a myriad living lights)

Certainly you are going in the wrong direction (retrograding) if your remembrance causes you to forget all these things and instead, embrace the easy power of hatred (and become by evil inspired).

This is not remembrance but the corruption of it.

The way of remembrance returns us back to our nation's lineages of victory and is proof against the spirit of war - the way of return guarded by the Angel at the East Gate of Eden (Gen. 3:24).

Will those souls who - from all ages and from all our nations - have suffered death from the spirit of war and hatred in the past cry out to our God for more war and hatred?

There is no other kind of suffering but the human kind and we do not remember to forget.

The past will not penalize us for not confronting it, the future will.
---<--@

September is peace month... may we deepen in the spirit of our peace!

Starshine, peace is not the mere absence of war 

just as Cherubs are not those fluffy, little, baby angels 

sitting dreamily on lazy, white clouds... 

For peace is a mighty presence - 

'tis in all that is worth keeping and defending 

born of every love worth living and dying for... 

'tis the presence of a spirit that is unafraid

to force to bless, transform, and fulfill
as truth to overcome the world -
in spite of the presence war.

Turn the Other Cheek

When the Lord said to "turn the other cheek", it doesn't mean to invite more disaster. We Christians should understand we do not want to suffer more than what we have to, for suffering is evil.

But to suffer well we must. For our Lord did suffer well, indeed well enough to overcome the world and all it's evil for all humanity for all time.

And so we are taught by our Jesus to "turn the other cheek" as a form of non-retaliation and forgiveness to those who are unjust and seek violent means for violent ends and to keep our Christian dignity even in the face of our oppressors.

When we turn the other cheek, we forgive, we learn, and we let go.

When we turn the other cheek, we desire to break down cycles of violence, teach justice and Christian love over adversarial hate and contempt for human life, and return all souls to God.

When we turn the other cheek, we do not seek to invite more evil to come upon us but seek to invite more peace to come among us - and make what once was wounded and divided, healthy and whole once again.

Let us together meditate on this and pray about it.
---<--@

Salutation #173

Wings that work
are wings that lift - aloft -
they fly not merely
because they can, or they must;
they fly because
they carry something that belong
to the skies!



(Burden of Justice)

A nation's burden of justice - is -
all its unaccounted for losses
   (these losses being all that was given us
   that was taken by force from among our midst)
measured in terms of individual human life
each in their own distinct and unrepeatable persons,
each with their own particular names known to the LORD,
the God Who commanded all nations to keep them all,
ever in their entirety, each in spirit preserved
in the sacred remembrance of every nation of the children of Mankind
as a debt of remembrance owed to the God of all life - and -
as a work of peace to be kept - in common trust -
on behalf of all the life of living creation itself.

To each nation God has provided a right of ascent,
a way through which a nation may attain to a knowledge of itself
   (being a way of our returning from the exile darkness -
   in spirit - through - the easternmost gate of faded Eden)
and to every nation there is only one right of ascent.

It is therefore crucial
especially in these present times
that every nation know - as well as -
understand the (1) truth that abides within itself;
   (in general, that every nation is distinct yet the same;
   that every nation though it may long for many things long for only one thing;
   that though the spirit of war marches to threaten,
      in every time, place, and in every age, the peace of all nations,
      that every nation exists for the good and only for the good;
   that every nation exists for the other and that, in the economy of grace,
      there is no other but the self alone;)
and (2) that the power of this ascent is directly affected
in proportion to every nation's burden of justice
and that the weight of this necessary burden
is carried by all of our citizens,
   (each of us according to the measure
   by which we receive them from the Providence of God)
to be shared - as a common labor of peace - across all our generations,
according to our national debt of remembrance -
   (so that it may be heavy - the people choose to forget their hope -
   or it may be light - the people choose to take responsibility for their hope.)

Failure to responsibly carry
this burden of justice - in a nation -
is failure itself.

For a nation overtook by the darkness
is no longer itself.

And every spirit of Country
that has become utterly corrupted
by the adversarial nature
of the enemy of all nations
shall perish forever
from the earth!
---<--@

Salutation #172

There is no weaker sex, only the perception of weakness wrought by the division that the sin of the Devil had also placed between the man and his most faithful helper.

There is only man and there is only woman. And there is only man and woman joined together by God in their particular strengths to form the nucleus of every human family.

(Parity of the Sexes)

Listen,
dear Starshine -

Gender equality
does not mean parity of the sexes
in terms of physical distinction,
which is complementary by nature,
the one and the other making a whole
- the nucleus of the family -
but in terms of spiritual endowment.

For man is indeed equal to woman
in terms of human dignity
and human promise.

Man
will always have
a preferential view of woman,
this is so that man can make the world safe
for woman.

Woman
will always have
a preferential need of man,
this is so that woman can make the world less unfamiliar
for man.

These two natures work
to complement each other
- and when taken together -
bonds the human family
in bonds of freedom
and strength.

Yet both man and woman
are the image of God - in that -
their very soul contains the breath of life.
This very life gives shape to their corporeal body
to give a definite form unto a unique person - that -
being made alive in the Spirit of God as living souls
formed in our Creator's very own likeness
radiates it even as the LORD radiates it
- ever like the everlasting Light -
sustaining the living life
of all His creation.

To recognize this image
in the being of each man and woman
is to recognize the dignity of God in all Mankind
and to uphold this dignity of man and woman
is to honor the divine dignity of the LORD
(Who is Being, Whose Image IS Existence)
the one Creator of all Mankind -
and of all worlds, seen and unseen:
This is the basis of all human respect
and is the universal medium of peace.

To recognize this likeness
in the soul of each man and woman
is to recognize the presence of God on earth
(Who is THE Truth, Whose Likeness IS Life Everlasting)
and to nurture this presence in man and woman
is to love the Divine Presence of the LORD
our Holy Sustainer and one Provider - in all Creation -
this is the basis of respect for all human life
and is the universal foundation of earthly justice.

Man and woman
in their spiritual endowments
are the same - yet they are also -
created by God to be different.

To seek to understand the parity of the sexes
is to seek to know it - without opposition -
to the justice of the wisdom of God
in both the image and the likeness
of God in man and woman.

In this way
- the symmetry of its truth -
is made meaningful
to thee.
---<--@

Afire in the Darkness

Self-immolation
as a form of self-protestation
(particularly in the Buddhist tradition)
seemed a futile exercise to me
- until yesterday morning -
when I understood what it was saying
and what it was condemning
by the sheer power
of its sacrifice.

"I love...
yet I am part of you
no more."

"Awaken,
that you may live!"

- selah -

When a creature of living compassion
withdraws its noble spirit from our midst

our poverty is multiplied a hundred
and even a thousand-fold!

   For every
   human promise
   (in every lifetime)
   once it is left unsung
   is left forever unspoken.

   Therefore,
   a completeness of life
   is the strength of nations!

Life is grieved - as we must -
because we have come
to understand it.

BUT
we should shed more tears
for our not understanding
for it is this ignorance,

this reluctance to affirm,

this remaining act of denial...

which the action itself
seeks to enkindle
and burn away...

...that in the darkness,
we may - as nations - 
find the light.
---<--@

Salutation #154

(Human Rights)

Human rights - are those - 
inalienable and universal legal protections 

granted all human individuals 

that are derived 

from the manifest necessities 

that arise from the fundamental nature

of all human beings.

They
envelop human dignity 

- and - 

embrace human promise 

- and - 

constantly seek
- to do so -

each in their entirety.

In principle, 

these protections are directed 

toward defending our basic vulnerabilities 

and promoting our fundamental responsibilities 

to each other as human beings cognizant of our humanity

and are laws purposed together
by all nations for the benefit of all nations
to recognize, foster, and preserve
human life, liberty, responsibility, posterity, and destiny 

each in their most evolved
and universal sense.
---<--@

Human Rights in Syria Now!

Human rights in Syria now!

About 18,000 people
have already lost their lives
- and - their promise
in this struggle for internal control
of that beleaguered nation...

18,000!

This
represents a sizable tear
in the fabric of our humanity!

For
we can neither bring them back
nor can we resurrect
what good they would have stood for 
in our needful world
if their lives were not cut so short...

Now,
the opposing sides of the Syrian conflict
might have already decided to pursue
- through armed conflict -
each their necessary outcomes
and we might not be able
to change that now...

BUT 
if we - everywhere - stand up
for human rights in Syria - now
and if enough of us starts doing it,
and truly believe in it's work 
though we can not directly affect
the prevailing will of the opposing forces,
we can move to effectively lessen
the unwanted suffering of the Syrian people.

We have our own outcome to work for in Syria; 
an outcome seeks to responsibly preserve 
that nation's own spirit and energy 
for the task of the rebuilding 
that is certain to come after 
this bitter struggle.

Human rights in Syria now!
---<--@

Salutation #135

When you speak,
thy words set time forth
and imparts motion to all things
so you must be sure of thy speaking.

When you are not speaking,
you observe, you listen, you understand.

So you must be aware only of thy not speaking.

- selah -

Pay diligent heed to thy not speaking
for only in silence shall you know the words.

In the timeless,
when all things within thee are still -
you observe all things around thee in motion.

Tact is when not to speak.
---<--@



(A Rock, A Hard Place, and [Diplomatic] Tact)

It is not Man's nature to wage war,
it is War's nature to wage war.

- selah -

If we bandy about with evil words
- one to another -
and in our nations do the same,
if we are indecent and respect not
the dignity of other individuals,
let alone other nations,
we are indeed sowing the seeds
of new conflicts.

But if we speak
like Men should speak
and not debase our humanity
into the level of brutes,
all men, rational men,
and not evil men who have already
slept in their souls with War,
listen to the sound of reason
and would try to avoid
harming themselves
or others like themselves.

Life - as a whole -
is not inimical to itself.

But sadly, 

my brothers and sisters of the Promise,
we live in an everyday world of contradictions;
of lies, half-truths and malice -
the veritable atmosphere of hell.

We can ill afford
to conform to it
and hope to remain human.
---<--@


...

Salutation #130

From the Book of Life proceeds -

   the Eternal Law!

Thus
is the way of all nations
established for all nations by God -

   for our law serves life, 
   and our life observes the Law.

'Tis but one great cycle
of exile and of exile returning -

   proceeding from peace, 
   and leading again into Peace!
---<--@



(The 2nd Cause: The Cause of Law - Unity)

The 2nd Cause
is concerned with Law
- and - the juridical processes
that guide, form, and strengthen
the evolving social consciousness
of the national community.

   (For human law
   as it is manifested - in time -
   is ever imperfect and as thus require
   - constantly - the guidance of the Eternal Law
   written in the hearts of all Mankind.)

- selah -

LAW is
what imparts necessary shape
and requisite strength to human reason
- and - human reason - as it directly relates -
with the LORD God - the one Author of Law -
and consequently, other human beings
(as well as other living beings,
seen and unseen).

Therefore,
Law must first be reasonable.

- selah -

Law must be made meaningful
to human reason - unaided by faith,
and so must draw its binding force (of truth)
out of a desire to advocate and advance
the authentic freedoms, intrinsic rights,
and the sheer quality of life
of those constituent communities
of whose citizens its necessary promulgation
is intended by the legislative branch
of the Responsible State.

- selah -

Law serves all of life.

But Law must - first and foremost -
be placed ever in the service of Sacred Life.

We
of the generations
of the children of Mankind
being both the guardians of the law [of the nations]
- as well as - its beneficiaries must dwell
in constant remembrance that:

   Life is a pre-existent good
   - life is before everything else was -
   the transcendental substance of its Truth
   is of the One Who is both limitless and eternal -
   and law inspired by the LORD
   is one written in defense of Sacred Life
   which is like clothing given for our nakedness,
   sewn as shelter for the needs of all living creation
   particularly human life.

   Therefore,
   law [human] is Law [Eternal] that serve all of life.

      (The intention
      of the law [of the nations]
      is to respond to human needs,
      and in particular, those human needs
      that are needful of its protection.

      Therefore,
      a law can not be written
      to create and/or to exploit human needs
      because this is the reverse of its original intention.

      The reverse [of law]
      can never ultimately hold true
      - against the flowing out of exile time -
      for it shall never hold fast in the one heart of Man
      being naught but a tyranny of words
      and of entire languages of words -
      offensive, empty, and barren.)

One
who beholds the law
and lives to abide with the Law
- in the heart -
must ever be aware
that those common human needs
are forever protected by the Eternal God -

That Law exists
in the service of Sacred Life!

- selah -

A law that serves
is one that is observed.

One must first observe the law
who desire to gain from its original intention.

In this way,
law is no respecter of persons
but is above all persons
(and personalities).

Therefore,
if any human community is to benefit
from the original intention of law,
then it must first be willing
to freely and completely apply itself
to its prescripts and ensure that the rule of law
both extends to all and applies to all
(which is effective promulgation and civic participation
founded on effective civic education respectively).

What precedes
this necessary civic observance
is an inherent public trust of whose original domain
is founded at the very foundation of law.

To be sure,
law was something inspired by God in Mankind
having variously revealed it to our humanity
- throughout Salvation History -
as a sign of our LORD's manifest will
to lead all hearts to the Truth.

It is an extension of His good will for all nations.

   (The highest [noblest] form of law being
   the Law of the Gospel or the Law of Christ-Love
   or the one Law [beyond which there is no more law].)

Since
the purpose of Justice - is -
the restoration of the Original Ideal,
Justice by its own virtue
seeks to preserve and to promote
what goodness there is.

We are then left with the reality of evil.

Now,
the intention of law is to bind evil
(and defeat the Evil in all evil things) -
to deter, deflect, deny, and expose it.

Therefore,
the purpose of law is - also -
to preserve and to promote the good
but this law wills to achieve
by the discouragement of evil acts.

Law is what deters evil
from afflicting all who
are covered by law.
---<--@

The Circular Relationship of the Causes

Salutation #94

One life lost to War is (always) one life too many.

(Human Promise)

O my nations, listen -

Human lives

once willfully cut short and stolen

in the midst of our communities

do not just end, they linger -

They linger because

by each life lost to War,

we are truly diminished.

One can not expect

to eat the fruits of a forest,

benefit from the shade of its wood

as well as rest within the protection of its multitude

if there are no trees left.

- selah -

If the nations are hungry,

if we are vulnerable,

if we are weak,

it is because

War in the heart.

When we forget to remember

the unsung promises of those

who are now lost to us through War

and reckless, wasteful violence -

when we forget the hopes they have left

to our every present care,

we stand to learn nothing of their pain and loss

and are therefore, doomed to relive it.

Because it is not the sins of the past that curse,

it is the inability of every present generation

- to overcome its evils -

that prevent our Day from flourishing.

Human promise

once forcefully taken

- by the hand of Man -

becomes an inescapable part

of his unbearable burden -

to be borne by all of his generations

spread across all our nations.

Without Justice,

it hinders his eternal destiny.

Without the Mercy of God,

it prevents it.

Without the Peace

of the nations of Mankind,

by this burden,

Man is sunk in despair.

Without the Love

of a mighty Redeemer,

by this burden too,

Man is to be lost to us forever.

---<--@

Farewell to Promise

An Appeal for Dondon Celestino Lanuza

My national interest can be summed up in one word - you.

When the Providence of the LORD singles out one of our compatriots as in the case of Dondon Celestino Lanuza, our national leaders should listen, in fact, we should all listen.

Because these are the times when our sense of unity is tested not through the threats arrayed against it but through an opportunity to actually benefit from its merits.

For our sense of unity is further strengthened not only by our sense of repulsion from the things of War but also by our sense of attraction to the things of the Light.

To respond to this invitation to assist in obtaining the freedom of one of our own is an exercise of unity. And if we are successful in giving this needful brother of ours his life back, we are indeed further strengthened.

Let us now bear this first principle in mind - we are to love our own - in a hundred thousand ways, direct and indirect, if we become to each other, a keeper and a friend, a citizen though and through, we shall only heap blessings upon our nation.

Justice is not upheld through vengeance, my fellow Filipinos, nor is Justice served by anger.

Justice animated by Justice shall always be solicitous of our individual potential to bring in more good into this world despite the sins one is oft inclined to humanly commit, however grievous they may be.

In the case of the criminal, once the sanction of Law is applied, it is still the domain of Justice to restore the peace of the community and to the individuals concerned - repair and restitution.

With this in mind, I am now formally appealing to each one of you, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, the case of Dondon Celestino Lanuza.

Dondon was convicted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the murder of one of their citizens in 2000 and condemned to die by beheading.

He has always maintained that the act of killing of which he is convicted is an act of self-defense.

Forgiven by the kin of the victim in February of 2011, Dondon is now in need of the customary "blood money" to be paid to the aggrieved family to obtain his freedom and the relief of his own family.

Dondon is a father of two and has been supporting his family in jail through alms given to him by his friends. He has been awaiting execution for the past 11 years.

We need to help him raise the 35 million pesos (USD 800,000) required by the victim's family to secure his freedom. Through each our own gifts, in each our own ways, I want us to contribute toward the welfare of one of our own in the person of Dondon.

This is my formal appeal to you.

I especially would like to see prominent people in our society - politicians, movers and shakers, industry leaders - become more and more interested in the plight of this littlest Filipino. Citizens of other nations with a heart of common humanity are also welcome to help.

Please, I shall leave it to you to find out more about it. The same with everything I post on this blog, I shall likewise be following this issue.

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen.

Mabuhay po tayong lahat!

---<--@

Think about it -

They say, my brothers and sisters of the Promise, famously - that a team only goes as fast as its slowest member.

This is not true. (Imagine if it were...)

A team only goes as fast as its willingness to act as a team.

Unit efficiency not individual weaknesses is the constant:

This shall be our mindset as well.

---<--@

NOTE: I usually do not openly disclose my humble material offerings to the LORD (my prayer life is not unlike my almsgiving - a deeply personal and private affair) but in this case, I shall have to make an exception. (20120123)

I am going start with a donation of P500.00 which I shall deposit to -

Account Name: Letty Lanuza

Bank: Metrobank Malolos McArthur Hi-Way Branch

Savings Account No.: 575-3-57501112-9

Bank Swift Code: MBTCPHMM

(20120124) Important: One has to bring up the fact that all Metrobank related fees are to be waived when donating through this channel (per the information on the helpdondon.com website).

The teller system does not automatically bring it up. I deposited my donation today and was asked to pay a fee of P50.00 (as the account opening branch is outside Metro Manila) to the Metrobank branch near SM Southmall - gladly.

I might come back another day to get my P50.00 back though. P50.00 is still P50.00, right? I'll just put it through to the account also and make sure it does not go to the bank.

(20120127) I went back to the branch to inform them of the fee waiver but was - in no uncertain terms - asked to "coordinate" it with the account opening branch. In other words, despite my explanations, the supervisor on duty decided in advance not to help me.

I can see through his poker face as he blew me off and as I am not ignorant of bank procedures this was doubly upsetting to me... so there. No matter, this is not about him. I pray for your freedom, Dondon!

(20121122) Responding to the call to be one of 1,500 donor, I deposited another 1000 today for Dondon's freedom account at the Metrobank near Starmall Las Pinas. I wasn't asked the P50.00 fee this time which was cool. Everything went smoothly. Inshalla, Dondon, God be with you to be your comfort and strength.

Only For a Moment

We live only for a moment - and -

that moment passes away all too quickly

so that if we do not pause to remember it,

it shall be as if we never lived at all.

(my Anne with a neighbor's dog, Dopy)

I know that in this life,

I can never fully express nor explain

how much I love my Anne.

I love my Anne and my Anne loves me. PERIOD.

---<--@

One life lost to War is one life too many.