[My friend Riza beautifully wrote a thought on her page that features the majestic sunset (or was it sunrise?) at Shambala. She says: “We can always wait for the sunrise and the sunset… for surely they will come. We can hope for the rain during summer… for sometimes they really pour. But how can we wait for something or someone… when we don’t know if they will come at all… We should only WAIT for something with POSSIBILITY but not for those without certainty.” Thank you Riza for enriching this world with your provoking insights.
Here, I offer an alternative (but not necessarily opposing) take that, hopefully, could form part of a bigger gamut with Riza’s challenging thought.]
I - Possibility is DEFINITELY different from uncertainty. The first is positive; the second, negative. But come to think of it, they both form part of a continuum we call life: the first is like a glass seen half-filled, the second a glass seen half-empty. The thirsty worships the liquid in the container like god, the water-filled belly loathes the liquid it feels unnecessary. The same water of life can be seen differently in another milieu: the possibility of abortion could be happiness to some; the uncertainty of abortion is surreal to others.
II - Life is both sunset and sunrise: it is not defined mainly by our resolve but by how we are positioned in the flow of things, and how we are positioned can sometimes be a trap – much like how the earth traps us. No wonder, traps can create great literature! The traps of space, the traps of distance, the traps of feelings, the traps of slavery in the mind, the traps of capitalism and all other -isms, the traps of seeming emptiness, even the traps of over-purposefulness! But imagine if the earth rotates another way, then the sunrise will actually be the sunset of our lives, and all traps are valued as necessities for genuine joy. For now we cannot fathom the opposite of what we have come to accept. But who are we to say that things could not change if and when God wills it?
III - Science hopes to understand the flow of life and un-life, and strives to influence it: at times successful, yet often a failure. But with some sparks in our being – some crazy thoughts and, perhaps, a dash of philosophizing – we get to appreciate the balance of things, we get to discover some amalgamation of meanings of existence: the negative and the positive, the sunset and the sunrise, the uncertainty and the possibility. Possibility is definitely different from uncertainty. But ONLY FOR NOW! For who am I to say that the possible is indeed possible, and the uncertain indeed uncertain? Like what Job realized before his Creator, there is so much that is beyond my measure of things.
IV - There are a few left, though, that could be a subject of my choice. Indeed it is just a limited list of things for which my choice of the things to wait can be applied, for the coming and going of things I cannot even predict with certainty. For me, I am sometimes challenged by not waiting for the sunrise or the sunset, for I easily cognize what to expect and undemanding recall can sometimes bore humans. I am challenged, though, to wait for the moon that disappears one second when it was there full the previous second, then changes colors from silver to magenta without warning or absent any shadow of fear. Sometimes I relish the impossible when it is yet to be fulfilled – like visions incomprehensible to many a sense – yet this only proves my ordinariness and predictability just like most people, for lack of contentment!
V- There is nothing right or wrong in waiting for anything. What I wait for, I do not expect all others to anticipate for the level of appreciation and abhorrence varies from person to person. And it is not my right to judge anyone what he likes if I dislike it. For in the end, it is just a choice which is that to wait for and hope for in this world and beyond – whether it is heaven or hell. And I cannot even blame the others, if they do not wait and hope for anything at all. BECAUSE that is their choice; AND that is their choice.
4 March 2011
2:25 am
Showing posts with label Rolando Dela Cruz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rolando Dela Cruz. Show all posts
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
THE TEACHER AS INTERVIEWEE
It was a great experience to be interviewed by one of the country’s foremost columnists, Ms. Rina Jimenez-David of the Philippine Daily Inquirer last Friday, February 4, 2011.
She was very nice, but very incisive than anything else. She was friendly, but she spoke with solid integrity. I will be a hypocrite if I do not admit that I am big a fan of the writer for decades now, who has become very well known not only because of her columns but also for her appearances on TV shows as panelist or social critic, and for her causes relating to women’s concerns and community development.
Judging from the many columns that she has written which I have read previously, I really thought that her lengthy interview of me will be featured primarily as one of her four- to five-section column. To be interviewed by her was, indeed, honor enough. That she even spoke lengthily about what Darwin International School has been doing in educating the youth, devoting her whole column today on Darwin – its goals, dreams, activities, challenges and results – honors the school, its parents, its personnel and, most especially, its students no end.
To thank Ms. Jimenez-David is in order. But the best way, perhaps, of thanking her is to continue what I love doing, and to do it even more with faith for the youth and passion for educating the nation – teaching Filipino students well, with the solution of current educational problems in mind. And I say this with one objective truth in mind: no school can accomplish its goals in a vacuum. Society, culture, institutions, policies and the whole educational system all enhance or impinge on the effectiveness of a school to contribute to the community. Surely, teaching alone is no guarantee of contributing to social development; it could even aggravate problems if educating people is not seen as a prime tool in social engineering. But engineering social development is something that is easier said than done.
It takes a penetrating writer to delve into the heart of her interviewee. An ordinary writer uses words to ask, write about her topic and make a point. But a good writer uses her heart to feel the pounding of another heart; she uses her mind to talk to society at large. Words are mere slaves of her beliefs; she is the master of her piece. A writer is not just a commentator but a human who is capable of feeling trends and reading social forces. She is a social actor of her milieu. She co-writes with the rest of the people the history of freedom and progress we all hope to attain.
The title Ms. Jimenez-David gave her piece, “The Little School That Could”, speaks precisely of what I have always believed all along: that quality education is not just about big campuses but about big hearts for the learner’s yearnings; that teaching is not about perfect teachers but near-perfect love of teachers for teaching; not just about gargantuan facilities (though, there is nothing wrong with vast facilities per se) but about grand visions for the students’ future. It is not just about the process of working hard but of raising standards and working hard to achieve these for the benefit of the students.
Teaching well is working with disparate resources like musical instruments which, nonetheless, are capable of creating a harmonious melody. I thank Ms. Jimenez-David for giving Darwin a space to sing its song of hope amidst deafening despondency plaguing our nation at this juncture of our history.
8 February 2011
11:50 pm
FRIENDS:
You may follow this link to read the piece written by Ms. Rina Jimenez-David titled “THE LITTLE SCHOOL THAT COULD”.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20110208-319077/The-little-school-that-could
She was very nice, but very incisive than anything else. She was friendly, but she spoke with solid integrity. I will be a hypocrite if I do not admit that I am big a fan of the writer for decades now, who has become very well known not only because of her columns but also for her appearances on TV shows as panelist or social critic, and for her causes relating to women’s concerns and community development.
Judging from the many columns that she has written which I have read previously, I really thought that her lengthy interview of me will be featured primarily as one of her four- to five-section column. To be interviewed by her was, indeed, honor enough. That she even spoke lengthily about what Darwin International School has been doing in educating the youth, devoting her whole column today on Darwin – its goals, dreams, activities, challenges and results – honors the school, its parents, its personnel and, most especially, its students no end.
To thank Ms. Jimenez-David is in order. But the best way, perhaps, of thanking her is to continue what I love doing, and to do it even more with faith for the youth and passion for educating the nation – teaching Filipino students well, with the solution of current educational problems in mind. And I say this with one objective truth in mind: no school can accomplish its goals in a vacuum. Society, culture, institutions, policies and the whole educational system all enhance or impinge on the effectiveness of a school to contribute to the community. Surely, teaching alone is no guarantee of contributing to social development; it could even aggravate problems if educating people is not seen as a prime tool in social engineering. But engineering social development is something that is easier said than done.
It takes a penetrating writer to delve into the heart of her interviewee. An ordinary writer uses words to ask, write about her topic and make a point. But a good writer uses her heart to feel the pounding of another heart; she uses her mind to talk to society at large. Words are mere slaves of her beliefs; she is the master of her piece. A writer is not just a commentator but a human who is capable of feeling trends and reading social forces. She is a social actor of her milieu. She co-writes with the rest of the people the history of freedom and progress we all hope to attain.
The title Ms. Jimenez-David gave her piece, “The Little School That Could”, speaks precisely of what I have always believed all along: that quality education is not just about big campuses but about big hearts for the learner’s yearnings; that teaching is not about perfect teachers but near-perfect love of teachers for teaching; not just about gargantuan facilities (though, there is nothing wrong with vast facilities per se) but about grand visions for the students’ future. It is not just about the process of working hard but of raising standards and working hard to achieve these for the benefit of the students.
Teaching well is working with disparate resources like musical instruments which, nonetheless, are capable of creating a harmonious melody. I thank Ms. Jimenez-David for giving Darwin a space to sing its song of hope amidst deafening despondency plaguing our nation at this juncture of our history.
8 February 2011
11:50 pm
FRIENDS:
You may follow this link to read the piece written by Ms. Rina Jimenez-David titled “THE LITTLE SCHOOL THAT COULD”.
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20110208-319077/The-little-school-that-could
Thursday, September 9, 2010
CELEBRATING CAMBRIDGE: HAPPY TO BE A CANTABRIGIAN
This day marks a day when the world of Cambridge University and its citizens scattered all over the world celebrate the designation of the school as the world's current number one, courtesy of the 2010 QS World University Rankings.
There was a time when Cambridge was only part of a dream in the recesses of my mind. Who would have believed me in my childhood dream to study in Europe, which many had thought as nothing but a make-belief? One day it became real. One day I was just there in the middle of world-changing academic conversations - ecstatically savouring the spiritual reverberations of Newton, Darwin, Keynes, Russell, Watson, Byron, Lewis, Malthus, Babbage, and more.
My days at Cambridge were so precious and intense. It was fun, challenging, memorable time. A moment to be proud of as a Filipino in a great university. I pray that more Filipinos will walk through the ancient streets, buildings, and libraries of the world's number one school. Hopefully, each step they will make there embellishes the story of our nation in some fruitful ways.
Everything I cherish about and learned from Cambridge I offer and dedicate to my past, present and future students at Darwin International School. May the bits and pieces of Cambridge traditions that they are absorbing from Darwin bring them far - enough to reach the shores and inlands of the best lives they deserve.
If and when that happens, then being a Cantabrigian - the Cantabrigiensis Man - in its barest essence has been fulfilled once again.
Prof. Rolando S. Dela Cruz
9 September 2010
5:25 am
Link: CAMBRIDGE TOPS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKING
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2010090802
There was a time when Cambridge was only part of a dream in the recesses of my mind. Who would have believed me in my childhood dream to study in Europe, which many had thought as nothing but a make-belief? One day it became real. One day I was just there in the middle of world-changing academic conversations - ecstatically savouring the spiritual reverberations of Newton, Darwin, Keynes, Russell, Watson, Byron, Lewis, Malthus, Babbage, and more.
My days at Cambridge were so precious and intense. It was fun, challenging, memorable time. A moment to be proud of as a Filipino in a great university. I pray that more Filipinos will walk through the ancient streets, buildings, and libraries of the world's number one school. Hopefully, each step they will make there embellishes the story of our nation in some fruitful ways.
Everything I cherish about and learned from Cambridge I offer and dedicate to my past, present and future students at Darwin International School. May the bits and pieces of Cambridge traditions that they are absorbing from Darwin bring them far - enough to reach the shores and inlands of the best lives they deserve.
If and when that happens, then being a Cantabrigian - the Cantabrigiensis Man - in its barest essence has been fulfilled once again.
Prof. Rolando S. Dela Cruz
9 September 2010
5:25 am
Link: CAMBRIDGE TOPS WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKING
http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/dp/2010090802
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