Light the fire

There are always great causes to follow, or even just good, simple advocacies that benefit the prejudiced in their respective societies. If, truly, a person wants to contribute to making the world a better place, there will be limitless opportunities.

At the same time, our passion for our chosen advocacy can make us totally invest our energy, our emotions, even our resources, with great risks of not achieving our goals. When that is the case, there comes a time when both body and spirit tire. Physical and emotional exhaustion can weaken our resolve and make us question if all had been worth it.

The practice of reflection, or the mere stepping back from the fray, so to speak, is a most critical requirement. Without reflection, we maintain a relentless pace and further heighten our emotions – even if they are heavy and negative. Until we break, until we make fatal mistakes, or until circumstances force us to submission or utter failure; sometimes, headlong into tragedy.

Three years of the pandemic and now struggling to discover what our new normal will be like, into the second year of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that sent shockwaves, oil and gas disruptions, and inflation rates that made many economies plunge can sap the collective human energy. We are inside a global pressure cooker. Weaker countries, including the Philippines, will be more impacted.

Weaker countries are those whose levels of dependency for external and artificial support are high, whose people are unable to be self-sufficient in their essential needs. The Philippines and Filipinos belong there. The present disruptive global atmosphere is not going away soon. It is not only climate that is volatile but tempers as well. Violence is either in our midst or imminently threatens us. There is urgent reason to be better prepared, to be more productive, to be less dependent even as we are forced to take care of the weakest among us.

I have engaged in political exercises for several decades. It had been less for the fun of it, or for the profit of it. There is so much rot and pollution in the material and emotional dimensions. Yet, we cannot disengage with so much need among our majority marginalized people, or the laylayan. Finding ways to dismantle their cursed inheritance still seems so important to me. Along the way, one loses friends, even relatives, when as political partisanship poisons everything. Like many others, I need quiet and reflection time, to gather my thoughts and my strength.

Inevitably, I do fall back on the wisdom of others. I seldom remember their names but clearly remember their messages. I appreciate all the wisdom shared through words creatively layered as veritable art forms. There are many of these nuggets that I stumble on, always with perfect timing for their perfect content. Let me share some and the names of the authors from whom I borrow them.

Author and philosopher Howard Thurman wrote, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

This one is more famous, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”

Funny, the wise men never asked who the president is, or was. They never asked who won or lost the elections. What one common thread is with the statements above, and many, many more that you and I have admired, is that wise men and women see life beyond oneself, and beyond one lifetime.

Thurman says that we need to find what makes us come alive – because the world needs people who have come alive. He starts with us as individuals, because we as individuals necessarily impact others and may become their inspiration.

Emerson highlights our usefulness our honor, our compassion, because these individual virtues make a difference. And without saying so, having lived, having lived well, and having made a difference, happiness may simply be the natural reward.

Having stepped back and reflected with the aid of the wisdom of others, there is now impetus in me to rise above my disappointment and exhaustion to look for what makes me feel alive, to begin anew the rigorous path towards usefulness, honor, and compassion. I look to the needs of others but I need to again come alive. I still want to make a difference, to be useful, but, hopefully, always with honor and compassion.

There are liars and thieves out there who encourage, by their examples and the kind of fame and wealth they generate, to motivate others to lie and steal as well. I believe they will always be there and will multiply in number unless a strong counterforce of helpful, honest, and inspiring role models multiply even faster.

What is crucial for our individual and collective nature is that virtue more than vice dominates our character, that productivity takes over from dependency and mendicancy, and that bayanihan, the spirit of community and sharing, rises over greed. The many ways that we can take this path and create a new trajectory for our national life depends on our resolve to do what is right, and do what we can do well. If we have the commitment, life itself will show us the way day by day.

Every year from today up to the next three decades will see the median age of Filipinos grow younger and younger. Yes, they will be younger, and we must help them grow their productive capacities. Most of all, we must show them many consistent good examples of how they can grow their character.

I will keep repeating the three fundamental national virtues highlighted in the last elections; namely: responsibility (ambag), accountability (resibo), and heroism (abonado). May they one day define the Filipino people and nation.