RIZAL (the abnormal)

RIZAL ( the abnormal )

I consider myself lucky that I took RIZAL as a requirement course. Through the course I learned so much about Rizal not only as our National Hero with statue at every municipality but more especially as another Filipino with extraordinary and unusual qualities.

At the end of the course we were required to submit an essay about Dr. Jose P. Rizal. There were so many subjects and topics to choose from. Many have already been written extensively by famous and infamous authors.

I tried to think of a topic not yet written about him and ended up writing about “Rizal, the Abnormal”. Yes, abnormal in the sense that he is so unusual and extraordinary, markedly different from the rest.

When we say it is abnormal to be an idiot, an imbecile or a moron we also say it is also abnormal to be a genius, for normality refers only to the inferior, the average and the superior mentality. Rizal is a super genius in almost all areas, with exceptional natural talent or creative intellectual ability from agriculture to medicine, to literature and the arts. He is a ‘super genius’ in a highly positive manner.

From early childhood he already showed abnormality as to be able to write a poem at the age of eight. He behaved ahead of his age and development.

As a young man he was linked to at least eleven (some say 23) women from Leonor Rivera to Josephine Bracken but he seemed unable to impregnate any of them presuming that Josephine Bracken was already pregnant when she came to the Philippines. Does it mean he was sterile in spite of some suggestions that he is the father of Adolf Hitler?

Furthermore, it is most unusual or “abnormal” to exhibit a normal pulse rate and possibly normal blood pressure in front of a Firing Squad before he was executed at Bagumbayan.

I do not mean to diminish the greatness of our National Hero. I am just looking at him from the point of view of a medical man that I am. In fact, I think our beloved country needs more unusual, exceptional and abnormal people like Jose P. Rizal to save our Motherland from the abnormal situation where it is now.

Happy Birthday Dr. Jose Protacio Rizal, our National Hero. Since you are the Father of our nation, let me greet you Happy Father’s Day too. From your normal Filipino height of five feet, two inches,you grew up to be the tallest Filipino to whom the whole world now looks up.