Not of this world

THERE IS something curious about time. It allows all things to begin just to let them end. It permits life to spring just to let it wither. It consents to the dawn breaking just to let it be encumbered by the dark.

Nothing stays the same in this world. Permanence is merely rhetoric. Notice how fast cars cram busy highways and leave them free and open after a while? Or how your favorite perfume, once heady, quickly evaporates? Change is our world’s reality. It’s the fundamental rule upon which the material universe rests.

We are individuals bound to meet the changes of time. We are made to live the day, to let go of it as the night arrives, and brace ourselves again as it dawns anew. This may sound mechanical, but this is one of life’s truths. And perhaps it is our neglect of such truth that make us so attached to the things we have at hand that we forget that life goes on.

We are souls living in corporeal bodies. We exist with the world because our body is physical but our soul doesn’t because it’s ethereal. We know of memories and dreams. The things our senses feed us, the possessions we take to our care, are not everything that consist us. We go beyond what is substantial and there can be no greater insult to our being than to believe that we can become only what the world can offer us.

Time and the presence of our soul are implying to us one important notion: that we should be unattached. We should be in this world but not of this world. Unfortunately, this isn’t so common knowledge; if it were, we wouldn’t have let ourselves become so dependent on technologies, power and money that we die every time we lose them.

The passing of time unfortunately reduces us to reliant morons. Whatever happened to our will and reason that once made us above everything! We still use them, though, but only to turn the tide against our favor.

We overconsume and destroy nature, leaving it barely breathing. Thus, we suffer with global warming and experience fatal catastrophe. We unleash breakthroughs in the fields of science and engineering but our stupidity makes us fall into a delusion that these innovations alone can make our lives better and more comfortable.

Our youth, the supposed hope of the motherland, are growing up to be hollow persons. They are so glued to smartphones and their images can hardly be removed from social media sites because they think these are all what life is about. They involve themselves too quickly in inane, carnal relationships then cut these off so easily, breaking themselves into pieces in the end.

We live in homes where the connection is the Internet and the stories we share are borne out of the TV series we follow. We forget about praying and dining together as a family and checking out on each other before hitting the hay. We have lost our identity as human beings and have forgotten what we are truly made of.

Nevertheless, there is hope to hold on to. For as long as time exists and change is possible, we can always revamp our mediocrity and refresh our long-sunken wisdom. We are not mere bodies but souls meant to transcend physical limits. We can always detach from what is material and go beyond ourselves.

Our Earth is a beautiful place to live in, for everyone, if we only let it. In our confusion and disregard of our true selves, we have our will notwithstanding. All it takes is for us to wake up from our stupid illusions, shake ourselves free of our lame excuses, and finally realize that we are not of this world.

Sarah Mae D. Consolacion, 22, is a public high school teacher in General Santos City and a law student at Mindanao State University-Marawi.