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.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
FATHER'S DAY CONFUSION
FATHER’S DAY CONFUSION
The coming Sunday, June 19th is Father’s Day in the Philippines ( it is different dates in other countries) as well as the 150th Birthday of our Nation’s Father, Dr. Jose Rizal. I am reminded of a somehow memorable experience a few years ago.
That Sunday, the Parish Priest greeted all the churchgoing fathers, Happy Father’s Day! He even gave special blessings to all the fathers present whom the priest requested to stand up. There were more than a dozen of us who stood up for the blessing.
After the mass I was expecting some greetings at least from my wife and children who were all away from me that day. Came noontime and no greetings received. I felt so isolated that eventually turned to loneliness.
No greeter was felt till nighttime. Was it all I deserved after having been lucky enough to be specially blessed early in the morning? I was about to go to bed with a heavy heart but before doing so I decided to greet a father friend just in case no one greeted him too.
“Hope this is not too late, but Happy Father’s Day to you!”, I texted him. He replied quickly. “What too late are you saying? You are one week too early.
So, it turned out that because Mother’s day fell on the second Sunday of May, the Priest thought Father’s Day was second Sunday of June… and so the confusion that almost turned me suicidal.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Have an authentic record of important dates and send your greetings correctly.
The coming Sunday, June 19th is Father’s Day in the Philippines ( it is different dates in other countries) as well as the 150th Birthday of our Nation’s Father, Dr. Jose Rizal. I am reminded of a somehow memorable experience a few years ago.
That Sunday, the Parish Priest greeted all the churchgoing fathers, Happy Father’s Day! He even gave special blessings to all the fathers present whom the priest requested to stand up. There were more than a dozen of us who stood up for the blessing.
After the mass I was expecting some greetings at least from my wife and children who were all away from me that day. Came noontime and no greetings received. I felt so isolated that eventually turned to loneliness.
No greeter was felt till nighttime. Was it all I deserved after having been lucky enough to be specially blessed early in the morning? I was about to go to bed with a heavy heart but before doing so I decided to greet a father friend just in case no one greeted him too.
“Hope this is not too late, but Happy Father’s Day to you!”, I texted him. He replied quickly. “What too late are you saying? You are one week too early.
So, it turned out that because Mother’s day fell on the second Sunday of May, the Priest thought Father’s Day was second Sunday of June… and so the confusion that almost turned me suicidal.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Have an authentic record of important dates and send your greetings correctly.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
SENIOR MOMENTS
SENIOR MOMENTS
How long is a moment and how far can it go? The dictionary says a moment is a very brief space of time or simply an instant like what we usually consider a spur of the moment, But a moment could also be as long as the moment of great celebration like the momentous Edsa People’s Power Revolution
What is more interesting are the ’senior moments’ generally exhibited by, well, senior citizens… To begin with, senior moments mean many things. It is the time when a senior suddenly experience lapses of memory- when he is not sure whether he is coming or going. It is the moment when he forgets what he did a few minutes ago but remembers to the smallest detail what took place during the Japanese War.
It is interesting because it is the occasion when he starts looking for a comb or a key that he is tightly holding with his hands. It is even more interesting and entertaining when he buys something, forgets to pay then ask for the change.
Senior moments are significant inventories of what a person considers truly valuable to him like the experiences and people who are deeply imbedded in the deepest corners of his memories. Youngsters find this moment funny if not irritating.
Yes, senior moments are sometime useless pieces of information heard over and over again. But come to think of it, why are those moments surfacing every now and then? What makes an incident specially memorable while others are greatly insignificant? What happens to the mind of a senior citizen that makes it behave that way?
A moment is considered but an instant just like a flash of light or spark of anything but when referring to senior moments it could be a long story of epic proportion whether you are rich and influential person suffering from “Alsheimer’s Disease” are a neglected somebody afflicted by “senile dementia”.
When your time comes, what would you like to be doing and repeatedly expressing during your own senior moments? What about me, what do I expect? Well I hope I wont experience such moment because every morning I do Oil Pulling Therapy on waking up and before retiring while in between I drink 6 to7 cups of unsweetened brewed coffee.Most of all everyday. through the internet, I am showered with stimulating youthful ideas and constantly challenged by their 'modern' queries.
How long is a moment and how far can it go? The dictionary says a moment is a very brief space of time or simply an instant like what we usually consider a spur of the moment, But a moment could also be as long as the moment of great celebration like the momentous Edsa People’s Power Revolution
What is more interesting are the ’senior moments’ generally exhibited by, well, senior citizens… To begin with, senior moments mean many things. It is the time when a senior suddenly experience lapses of memory- when he is not sure whether he is coming or going. It is the moment when he forgets what he did a few minutes ago but remembers to the smallest detail what took place during the Japanese War.
It is interesting because it is the occasion when he starts looking for a comb or a key that he is tightly holding with his hands. It is even more interesting and entertaining when he buys something, forgets to pay then ask for the change.
Senior moments are significant inventories of what a person considers truly valuable to him like the experiences and people who are deeply imbedded in the deepest corners of his memories. Youngsters find this moment funny if not irritating.
Yes, senior moments are sometime useless pieces of information heard over and over again. But come to think of it, why are those moments surfacing every now and then? What makes an incident specially memorable while others are greatly insignificant? What happens to the mind of a senior citizen that makes it behave that way?
A moment is considered but an instant just like a flash of light or spark of anything but when referring to senior moments it could be a long story of epic proportion whether you are rich and influential person suffering from “Alsheimer’s Disease” are a neglected somebody afflicted by “senile dementia”.
When your time comes, what would you like to be doing and repeatedly expressing during your own senior moments? What about me, what do I expect? Well I hope I wont experience such moment because every morning I do Oil Pulling Therapy on waking up and before retiring while in between I drink 6 to7 cups of unsweetened brewed coffee.Most of all everyday. through the internet, I am showered with stimulating youthful ideas and constantly challenged by their 'modern' queries.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
SCHOOL DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN
SCHOOL DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN
School Opening is just around the corner. It is about time we scrutinize and understand the many different establishments active and connected to It. School is supposedly a place where people, especially young ones are educated.
To learn is to gain knowledge and it is but right to call the school for the very young ones, Learning Center which includes the Nursery and the Kindergarten. Then how about the Pre-School, does it refer to the Day Care Center? And there is the Primary School, the Secondary School and the High School.
A College is understood to be a place of higher specialized education. Now why are there schools called Colleges when they are offering only High School courses and why are some remains to be called just a School even if they are offering College degrees? It is simply beyond my comprehension.
An Academy on the other hand is a school for higher learning or sophisticated training. But I cannot understand why a school offering Nursery and Kindergarten is allowed to be called an Academy. It is ok to hear about such thing as Academy of World Healing or Academy of Cock fighting. Likewise, an Institute is an organization founded for a particular purpose that is why some schools are called Institutes.
What then is a University? It is an institution of higher or tertiary education but can also be called a Learning center because it includes everything from Nursery to Doctorate. With lots of establishments all offering education it is not unusual to find pupils and students confused enough to understand the different categories of the educational establishments. Where are you planning to enroll your children this coming school opening?
School Opening is just around the corner. It is about time we scrutinize and understand the many different establishments active and connected to It. School is supposedly a place where people, especially young ones are educated.
To learn is to gain knowledge and it is but right to call the school for the very young ones, Learning Center which includes the Nursery and the Kindergarten. Then how about the Pre-School, does it refer to the Day Care Center? And there is the Primary School, the Secondary School and the High School.
A College is understood to be a place of higher specialized education. Now why are there schools called Colleges when they are offering only High School courses and why are some remains to be called just a School even if they are offering College degrees? It is simply beyond my comprehension.
An Academy on the other hand is a school for higher learning or sophisticated training. But I cannot understand why a school offering Nursery and Kindergarten is allowed to be called an Academy. It is ok to hear about such thing as Academy of World Healing or Academy of Cock fighting. Likewise, an Institute is an organization founded for a particular purpose that is why some schools are called Institutes.
What then is a University? It is an institution of higher or tertiary education but can also be called a Learning center because it includes everything from Nursery to Doctorate. With lots of establishments all offering education it is not unusual to find pupils and students confused enough to understand the different categories of the educational establishments. Where are you planning to enroll your children this coming school opening?
Thursday, May 26, 2011
AM I PRO OR ANTI-RH?
AM I PRO OR ANTI-RH?
Are you pro or anti RH (?) is now the most asked question as it is also the most confusedly answered. It is the question that clearly divides the Church and the Government but also the people within the Church and the people within the Government. It is a powerful divisive question that may even completely divide the nation.
I answer it by relating my own story. To begin with, I married late but I married hurriedly. It was indeed a whirlwind wedding that happened so suddenly. My wife was the 10th in a family of 13 siblings while I was the 10th and the youngest in our family. If our parents stopped at three we would have never met but since RH was not yet a topic of much discussion during those times it was not difficult for our parents to follow their consciences.
In my mind I really wanted two boys, If possible twins, to be named David and Jonathan to perpetuate the strong biblical friendship of the original. My wife did not object to my ‘bright’ idea. So, like our whirlwind wedding we worked for a whirlwind child, a boy we named David but since Pope Paul VI was then in the Philippines we attached the name Paul to David.
After Paul-David we tried to practice spacing so we turned to use the Rhythm method just to discover soon enough that it was not really effective. Our Rhythm daughter was born. Discovering the defect of the Rhythm method we proceeded to use spermicide knowing that it was not abortifacient as it kills the sperm before it could fertilize the ovum. In less than two years our Spermicide daughter was born.
Thinking that Condom could be more effective we tried it in spite of the very diminished pleasure that it caused. But God knew better. He allowed the bursting of the Condom so that in less than another year our Condom daughter was born. Now with four children to attend to we tried everything from withdrawal to interruption to abstinence and of course it took three year before our Abstinence son was born. Now we have the dreamed-off Jonathan to be paired with David. Because David combined to a Paul we decided to attach Peter to Jonathan. He turned out not only to be an Abstinece son but also A Menopausal Child.
All the time we used our knowledge, reason, conscience and logic in building our family but God decided to gift us with two sons to guard our three daughters who are all doing good and at present has already graced us with eleven grandchildren all very healthy. God must be at the center of everything.
Are you pro or anti RH (?) is now the most asked question as it is also the most confusedly answered. It is the question that clearly divides the Church and the Government but also the people within the Church and the people within the Government. It is a powerful divisive question that may even completely divide the nation.
I answer it by relating my own story. To begin with, I married late but I married hurriedly. It was indeed a whirlwind wedding that happened so suddenly. My wife was the 10th in a family of 13 siblings while I was the 10th and the youngest in our family. If our parents stopped at three we would have never met but since RH was not yet a topic of much discussion during those times it was not difficult for our parents to follow their consciences.
In my mind I really wanted two boys, If possible twins, to be named David and Jonathan to perpetuate the strong biblical friendship of the original. My wife did not object to my ‘bright’ idea. So, like our whirlwind wedding we worked for a whirlwind child, a boy we named David but since Pope Paul VI was then in the Philippines we attached the name Paul to David.
After Paul-David we tried to practice spacing so we turned to use the Rhythm method just to discover soon enough that it was not really effective. Our Rhythm daughter was born. Discovering the defect of the Rhythm method we proceeded to use spermicide knowing that it was not abortifacient as it kills the sperm before it could fertilize the ovum. In less than two years our Spermicide daughter was born.
Thinking that Condom could be more effective we tried it in spite of the very diminished pleasure that it caused. But God knew better. He allowed the bursting of the Condom so that in less than another year our Condom daughter was born. Now with four children to attend to we tried everything from withdrawal to interruption to abstinence and of course it took three year before our Abstinence son was born. Now we have the dreamed-off Jonathan to be paired with David. Because David combined to a Paul we decided to attach Peter to Jonathan. He turned out not only to be an Abstinece son but also A Menopausal Child.
All the time we used our knowledge, reason, conscience and logic in building our family but God decided to gift us with two sons to guard our three daughters who are all doing good and at present has already graced us with eleven grandchildren all very healthy. God must be at the center of everything.
Friday, May 20, 2011
FLOWER CENTER
FLOWER CENTER
What grand scenery! The whole length and width of the Church’s Plaza is beautifully landscaped by the collective efforts of the different Cut Flower Farms doing business in Alfonso. They coordinated their own versions of a Garden Show for the month of May, and why not? After all Alfonso is the Flower Center of Cavite and May is month of Flowers.
Not only that… all the vehicles from the smallest tricycle to the biggest bus are decorated with simple flower arrangement. All the establishments including the small carts of the ambulant vendors are bedecked with flowers of all scents and colors. Private houses are even more sophisticated in appearance.
Come procession time with the parade of the beautiful “sagalas” and their handsome escorts is extraordinarily presented in a very dignified way to honor the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Mayflowers who is superbly decorated with rare orchids, roses and flowers of all scents and colors.
She is surrounded by the “Damas de la Virgen” consisting of twelve pretty maidens uniquely crowned with intricate floral crowns sponsored by the different cut flower farms.
This is the first time a thing like this happened in our town. Everyone is extremely exhilarated. Thanks to the cooperative participation of the different Cut Flower Farms. We deserved to remain the Flower Center of our province. The Church and the Municipal officials through the initiative of the Youth Leaders specifically that of the May Flower Organization all joined together to make this Festival possible.
Suddenly I hear the festive tolling of the melodious Church Bells. I am awakened from an amazingly pleasant dream.
What grand scenery! The whole length and width of the Church’s Plaza is beautifully landscaped by the collective efforts of the different Cut Flower Farms doing business in Alfonso. They coordinated their own versions of a Garden Show for the month of May, and why not? After all Alfonso is the Flower Center of Cavite and May is month of Flowers.
Not only that… all the vehicles from the smallest tricycle to the biggest bus are decorated with simple flower arrangement. All the establishments including the small carts of the ambulant vendors are bedecked with flowers of all scents and colors. Private houses are even more sophisticated in appearance.
Come procession time with the parade of the beautiful “sagalas” and their handsome escorts is extraordinarily presented in a very dignified way to honor the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Mayflowers who is superbly decorated with rare orchids, roses and flowers of all scents and colors.
She is surrounded by the “Damas de la Virgen” consisting of twelve pretty maidens uniquely crowned with intricate floral crowns sponsored by the different cut flower farms.
This is the first time a thing like this happened in our town. Everyone is extremely exhilarated. Thanks to the cooperative participation of the different Cut Flower Farms. We deserved to remain the Flower Center of our province. The Church and the Municipal officials through the initiative of the Youth Leaders specifically that of the May Flower Organization all joined together to make this Festival possible.
Suddenly I hear the festive tolling of the melodious Church Bells. I am awakened from an amazingly pleasant dream.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
POST FIESTA LAMENTATIONS
POST FIESTA LAMENTATIONS
Suddenly, for a moment, the whole town is so quiet. Everybody seems to be extremely tired as indeed it is true. Some are shouting invectives address “To Whom it May Concern” about mountains of garbage and mounds of trash at many corners complete with the accompanying smell of rotting things. Women, mostly tired housewives talk with hoarse voices and staggering walk showing signs of tiredness after many busy days.
Most kitchens are yet poorly attended and still showing remnants of the day that was. Cabinets are mostly teaming with unsorted left over being heated and reheated for the “altares”, whatever it really means.
Sad sighs about the incurred expenses and debts to be paid while thinking of the coming school opening. Finger-pointing about problems and misunderstanding during the rush in attending to the fiesta revelry.
There are lamentations here and there in deep emotions but that is not the end of it as new problems and new challenges are sprouting left and right even before the coming of the rains and the typhoons.
It is good to look forward to the colorful Mayflower festival coming soon with all its grandeur full of fresh flowers and beautiful ladies parading with their handsome escorts all intended to honor Our Lady of the Mayflowers.
Let us look at the fiesta lamentations as just a prelude to another interesting festival during this merry, merry month of May.
Suddenly, for a moment, the whole town is so quiet. Everybody seems to be extremely tired as indeed it is true. Some are shouting invectives address “To Whom it May Concern” about mountains of garbage and mounds of trash at many corners complete with the accompanying smell of rotting things. Women, mostly tired housewives talk with hoarse voices and staggering walk showing signs of tiredness after many busy days.
Most kitchens are yet poorly attended and still showing remnants of the day that was. Cabinets are mostly teaming with unsorted left over being heated and reheated for the “altares”, whatever it really means.
Sad sighs about the incurred expenses and debts to be paid while thinking of the coming school opening. Finger-pointing about problems and misunderstanding during the rush in attending to the fiesta revelry.
There are lamentations here and there in deep emotions but that is not the end of it as new problems and new challenges are sprouting left and right even before the coming of the rains and the typhoons.
It is good to look forward to the colorful Mayflower festival coming soon with all its grandeur full of fresh flowers and beautiful ladies parading with their handsome escorts all intended to honor Our Lady of the Mayflowers.
Let us look at the fiesta lamentations as just a prelude to another interesting festival during this merry, merry month of May.
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