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LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 18 November 2007 Issue

As a branch of knowledge particularly in the field of linguistics, semantics has reference to the study of meaning.

Human expression is unique because communication is effectively done in the form of spoken and written words called language. Other living creatures merely rely on non-verbal expressions, gestures or even instincts which of course are also subsumed as other modes of human expression.

Like the human beings that they serve, languages live, die, move from place to place and change with time. Of these languages, English is perhaps the most dominant, extensive and widely-used globally.

This article attempts to look at the context of the English words home, love, politics, and happiness as they reflect or affect rightly or wrongly the Filipino thought.

A line in a popular song says that a “house is not a home”.  True enough because a home goes beyond the physical structure where people are sheltered. A home indicates ties, kinship or some degree of relationship. Thus, it is unacceptable, if not awkward, to say ‘go (to) house early’ in lieu of ‘go home early’. But when what is involved is severance of ties, the expression ‘get out of the home’ is never used. A house is not a home because they represent different polarities especially in the context of the Filipino culture where a family is deemed as an inviolable social institution.

Filipinos love to love. But many times they simply ‘fall in love’, inadvertently forgetting that there is a better option, to ‘grow in love’. Love is supposedly an affair of both the heart and the mind, for one without the other could be annihilating. The pursuit of love could understandably entail some personal sacrifice, burden or pain. For many Filipinos though, these tragedies define the unwarranted measure whether love is pure and true. But love should evoke a beautiful thought and a wonderful feeling. And perhaps the only way to do it is to make love evolve and develop as bits and pieces of cherished moments until it bears the fruit it rightly deserves. Growing in love requires a serious, conscious and mutual effort to make the relationship work. Falling in love accepts unilateral desperation as a matter of fact. No wonder, there seems to be so much bickering and strained relationships nowadays in Philippine society because Filipinos love to fall in love.

Criticisms in public governance are always viewed as “playing politics”.  Many Filipinos and observes view politics as the root cause of the country’s political, social and economic maladies.  But politics is not an evil.  As a concept, the word could either refer to the social relationship of the governed and those in power, or the study of political structures of the state, or the profession devoted to governance and political affairs, or the opinion the public holds with respect to political questions. Thus, politics intends to bridge and harmonize the gap between the government and the people towards the attainment of state goals and principles. Perhaps, the country needs more politics that it has now for public servants or functionaries to serve their constituency well without being insensitive to public opinion.

Some say that Filipinos are among the happiest people in the world despite the crisis and the difficulties that befall them.  In a sense this could be true because “to be happy” is not really dependent on material possessions or physical conditions. Happiness is a state or condition of mind. An individual could be among the poorest of the poor, or the most uneducated, or even terminally ill and still be happy. Happiness only demands acceptance and contentment at the barest level. Happiness should not be mistaken with pleasure normally represented by the usual trappings of life. The latter is temporary while the former is more or less permanent.

The whole point is for individuals to mean exactly what they think and say in what they do for verbal human expression to serve its purpose.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 16 September 2007 Issue

Life on earth is admittedly complicated and difficult especially with the rat race and the myriad of tasks of daily living one has to endure. Every man’s quest for his ne plus ultra is almost an impossible dream because perhaps the world was never meant by its Creator to be a paradise.

Consciously or unconsciously, different people exist and live in this world for different reasons. And at the end of one’s lifetime, practically none of those which every man pursues and tangibly acquires while here on earth he or she could bring with him or her in the next realm.

But surely, every man would leave behind some memories of him or her, good or bad.  Some would chose to forget while others would choose to remember whatever moments were left behind by the person. Fortunately, a person can always choose how he or she wants to be remembered during his or her lifetime.

One of the most important faculties of the human mind is its ability to remember.

It is a great source of wonder what this world would be if human beings have no memory of their immediate past. Perhaps, life would be peaceful because every frustration, antagonism and troubles would be buried immediately after they occur. When everything is forward looking, there is absolutely nothing to keep, no ax to grind, and no excess baggage to worry about.

It sounds utopian but without any memory life also loses outright its meaning and significance. What people think, see, hear or feel would also not matter.

During one’s lifetime, people spend much time recording the past. Development of better tools and technology to perpetuate and preserve human events and interaction is a never ending quest. When people look back, it gives them their sense of being, their sense of belonging, and their sense of humanity.

It is the natural gift of mental and emotional faculties that makes human beings human and provides the real attribute that distinguishes them from other creations. And the human memory rightly serves this purpose.

Inevitably, one’s entire journey in life is his or her building block of memories in this world, for others or those who were left behind to keep after that lifetime on earth is up. 

In the end, it is not so much whether the person lived a life in misery or a life of fortune, a life of constant struggle or a life of ease, or a life of helplessness or a life of strength. It is when people constantly capture a vivid imagination of the person at whim just to remember how he or she made a good difference during his or her lifetime that really matters. 

It is in this sense that the people of the world remember and revere heroes, saints, champions, great men and women, and even ordinary individuals who lived momentous lives, even long after they were gone. Human memory would always preserve and carry on its memory of other human beings.

The purpose of living therefore is all about building good memories. In doing so, it is essential that people should aspire to make others happy and thrive. People should avoid antagonizing and taking advantage of others simply to perpetuate personal ends and selfish motives. In short, people should constantly strive to live for others starting with his or her immediate family.

And the best thing about building wonderful memories is it does not require special skills or talents or possessions. The only thing needed is a sincere heart to love and to take care of others to make sure that those memories are kept in mind till the end of time.

A person who left behind memories worth keeping, worth remembering and worth celebrating certainly led and lived a meaningful life, even if he or she left nothing tangible in this world.

For as long as we breathe, we will never be spared of human difficulties, troubles and pains along the way. Life is a constant struggle.

Some of our problems are innate, while others just occur without any rational explanation as if we are doomed by fate. But many of our predicaments are actually the result of our erroneous disposition, miscalculations and human frailties.

Some take even the slightest difficulty with a very heavy heart as if it’s the end of the world. Others who are put in a graver and more serious situation take them with a pittance. Ironically, many times our own reaction to our personal difficulties becomes the root of even bigger and deeper difficulties.

During our trying times, it is always best to accept things or situations as they are, first and foremost. If the solution to our problems is within our control, by all means, let’s do our best and put consistent efforts to resolve them. Otherwise or if our best is not enough, let us not forget to live in the thought that nature or fate have always the means of resolving them sooner or later.

Don’t despair. Instead, let us always appreciate what we have and not, what we do not have. Let us count our blessings and be thankful for them because I am pretty sure that there will always be another person whose situation is much more pitiful, unbearable and unfortunate than us, and yet continues to have the fortitude and faith to move on with life. Think about them. Gain inspiration and derive strength from them.

Take every problem as challenge to our human existence because this is what makes life beautiful and meaningful, especially when it is time for us, or others, to reminisce, or even laugh at, what we have been through. But if we opt to fall into the trap and the attitude of defeat and surrender, it is almost certain that we will be buried in oblivion as we dig our own graves.

Our Creator did not promise us a rose garden on earth. All He has given us are our options.

There will always be a better person than each one of us and this truth we must accept. Someone will always run faster, climb faster, and reach their goals earlier than the rest.  But this is not a valid excuse not to reach the destination we have set for ourselves. If others made it, there’s no reason why we can’t.

The achievement of others should serve as an encouragement, inspiration and motivation for all of us to move on. But if for some reasons, we failed to join the finishers at the finish line, don’t despair.

I believe that life is not a race but a journey. It is not a matter of who finishes first. It is not even a matter of whether you finished your own race or not. At the end of the day, it is not really so much about who is good, better or best, particularly if you make others fall just to win. They say that it is lonely to be at the top.  But should it be?

Since life is not a race but a journey, we have to make a good difference in the lives of those people who travel with us. Life is meaningful because we helped others succeed, not if we make others fail to achieve our own success. The success of a person is measured, not when he tells other people that he did, but when other people say he does.

Making a good difference in the lives of others means taking care of those people who are with us in our journey. In the process, we also let these people to take care of us. We don’t feel envious or the angst when others succeed because we know in our hearts that we are a part of that success.  In the same vein, other people feel good of our success because they know that they are part of it. And there is no reason to be lonely at the top in either case.

If we have to treat life then as a race, let it be a contest of how we can make others succeed.

Heroes and champions are never born, they are made — by the unsung heroes and the unknown champions who lived and traveled with them in the course of their lives because they too felt that their heroes and champions also took care of them along the way.

Making a good difference in the lives of others also means making a good difference in our own life.

In the course of my journey in life, I find it almost meaningless to reach my destination but leave behind all those who should have been with me in the first place.  And I am talking about our personal priorities.

We live in a very complicated world under a myriad of human activities that we have to take care of a lot of things. But which and how much of the things that we do day in and day out really matter at the end of our day? Some activities that others find trivial may be important to others and vice-versa.

Understandably, no one else would be able to define what our priorities in life are, except ourselves. Some people would set their priorities according to urgency. Others would act on the basis of relationships. Some would react according to duty while some would on the basis of the things that please them most.  

But regardless how one sets his or her priorities in life, I find it ironical, if not cynical, for some people to strive for fortune at the risk of their own lives or by bringing about the misfortune of others, or seek fame and recognition from others when they could not even command the honor and respect of their own children. Many people engage in charity when charity has not even began in their own homes. Many people make it appear to show so much love for others when it truth and in fact they are only meant to satisfy, or even cover up their own desire for, self-affection.

Some suggests that of the things we do in life, the order of precedence should be for God, country and people. But I do not believe that we should define our priorities in life in this order. On the contrary, we have to measure every decision we make or any action we take whether or not it satisfies what is good for God, country and humanity, concurrently and not successively. Anything less is unacceptable because it brings about a rift in the world we live in.

In the end, I believe that we should take our respective families, especially our progenies, at the center of our priorities in life. Personal success is nothing if we are all alone to relish it; what is worse is when our own family curses us for the neglect they suffer as a consequence. We say that the family is the basic unit of society and so whatever is good for them is also good for the country.  If we all raise our children well, we can rest assured of a better breed of the human race and I am sure our God would be pleased. I believe that we exist to make this world a better place to live in and the easier route to achieve this purpose is to make our own family our own disciple by following our own example.

There is nothing wrong with drive, determination, and ambition to realize our dreams and expectations. But make sure to bring with you your family in your journey. Do not leave them behind. We have to realize that in times of grief, solitude, heavy trials and tribulation, sickness, or even death, no one else would be there to comfort or be with us the way our own family would.

Whether you accept it or not, I strongly believe that as we travel through life our family should always define, set and be the underlying basis of our personal priorities. If we do so, I am almost certain that we will not leave this earth for another life in vain, even if we do not achieve what we please for ourselves.