Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Part 2: Humanities weaves a beautiful tapestry of humanity

Dr Abe V Rotor

Humanities holds the greatest treasure of mankind." - AVR

"Humanities accompanies you through a valley of grandeur and beauty to a kingdom of no return - a singular experience in a lifetime." (AVR) Wall Mural, St Paul University QC

6. Humanities is guardian of change, of movements and schools

Propagandism and license are perhaps the greatest enemy of Humanities. The world was shattered by two global wars, and while recovering, laid in coma for half a century of cold war - the polarization into opposite ideologies that froze mankind at the brink of Armageddon. Humanities sought recourse through peace and understanding.

And as in the Renaissance, Humanities centered on rebirth and renewal of man’s faith in his destiny. Peace reigned the longest in contemporary times in spite of pockets of conflicts. And for a century or so Humanities blossomed into wide popularity and acclaim, and rich diversity which we know today, dominating media, commerce, industry and in practically all aspects of life, which often venture on the boundaries of humanities itself, through pornography, religious extrememism, aculturation, liberalism, among others.

7. Humanities is custodian and pioneer of the arts

Humanities gave the world the finest of human achievements and it continues to do so - timeless classics from novel to cinema, painting to photography, colonial design to high rise structures, stage play to TV and Internet show.

Man’s glory is akin to humanities - Venus de Milo, Taj Mahal, Borobodor, Eiffel Tower, Hallelujah, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, The Little Prince. to name a few. Name the wonders of the world, and those in a longer list, and humanities is there. It is there in the crowning glory civilizations and cultures.

Humanities discovered superstars like Elvis Priestley and Michael Jackson, and our own local sensations, Leah Salonga and Charisse Pempengco. It uncovers the genius of man in the past, bringing it to life, spanning the gaps of knowledge and history.

8. Humanities faces challenge of the cyber age

But arts also plunged into a deep and unknown global pool bringing across the world cultures heretofore unknown and untested, and riding on postmodernism into the chartless world of cyberspace. Which leads us to a puzzle, Quo vadis, Humanus?

9. Humanities elevates man’s reverence for life and Nature

And yet humanities is anchored on a strong foundation, none other than the place of his birth and his ascension into Homo sapiens - Nature. Reverence to Nature is reverence for life, the highest expression of man through humanities. From this relationship he finds inspiration in his arts and technology, in seeking knowledge and wisdom, and in enhancing the unity and harmony of creation, and among mankind into a living network.

10. Humanities is the keeper of the network of humanitiy

We are the World, the song that united the world by the compassion it created for the dying is perhaps the greatest humanitarian movement in recent times, originally USA to Africa in the eighties, and was repeated during the Haiti disaster twenty years later. Translated by different races, beliefs, ideologies into a common call, it brought consciousness to the whole world, that humanity is a network, a closely knit fabric beautifully expressed in the lyrics of the song -

There comes a time
When we heed a certain call,
When the world must come together as one.
There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life,
The greatest gift of all

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me .

It is a most fitting tribute to mankind through this song, that no man is an island, that when somebody dies, a part inside each of us also dies, and for every man’s victory, we too, feel triumphant. Humanity is a beautiful tapestry, and Humanities is Arachne on the loom.~.

Humanities

- weaves a beautiful tapestry of humanity
- brings out the sense of awe and wonder
- builds on the framework of truth and values
- brings out the human spirit
- brings tranquility in crisis
- is guardian of movements and schools
- aims at goodness and peace
- is custodian and pioneer of the arts
- faces challenge of the cyber age
- elevates man’s reverence for life and Nature
- is the keeper of the network of humanitiy ~

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