Reverence for Life: Communion with Nature

 Reverence for Life: Communion with Nature

"By having a reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life we become good, deep, and alive." - Albert Schweitzer

Dr Abe V Rotor

Parakeets,  Safari World, Thailand

Lovely, friendly - kindest words ever be,

whereas their kin are wild and free;

lucky in man's judgment these pair may be -

if only we understand their plea

for freedom to the wild, to their ancestry

and away from the artificial tree.

Sunken Pier, Puerto, Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur (NOTE: Never try this unless you know your biology. Jellyfish are generally poisonous; they may have hidden poison stings.) 

Behold! a jellyfish as looking glass

unfolds a third world scene:

half terrestrial, half aquatic,

solid and liquid in between,

third matter in colloidal form -

strange the world is ever seen. 

Baby sitting: angora rabbit at home 

Here is seeing the world in dreams;

half awake, half asleep,

on two planes - fantasy and reality,

rather than counting sheep,

unload life's burden at the end of day

with a heaven sent li'l rabbit.

Tamboili shells, former St. Paul Museum

I'm standing on the narrowest isthmus,

among archives and fossils of history,

and hold the Pacific and the Atlantic

oceans half the world apart and free; 

I cross the time and distance barrier

with these chroniclers singing to me

the unending roars of the tides,

tides on the street, tides of the sea. 

Rare walking stick insects, Museum of Natural History, UPLB Laguna

Dragons in fairy tales and religious fictions -

they are fierce, enemies of mankind;

in fossils and movies they scare the children;

little do we think friendly and kind,

devouring pests, singing lullaby in dull air;

misjudged, they are rare to find.

Baby orangutan, Avilon Zoo, San Mateo, Rizal

Monkey on my back, that's what people say

when what we say logic we lack;

genes may vary, yet the same to this day,

indeed, a monkey on our back.

Viewing telescope, Mall of Asia, Pasay Metro Manila

Creatures, 'cept man, are getting fewer, farther apart;

the old game now the art of glass and steel;

where you can't get near, you can't touch and feel,

technology comes to fill, yet empty still. ~

Two Worlds of Mackie, 6

Two Worlds of Mackie, 6
 Dr Abe V Rotor

It's like any orchid we know,

but this Cymbidium is a jewel 

to a  young girl's own view

that she alone can tell.

                                                  

Transforms challenge the young mind

to complete what its makers wanted:

tower, bridge, building, or some kind;

why can't she make her own instead?

"Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" - Memories of War

Flow Gently, Sweet Afton - Memories of War

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

Music piece from the Internet. written for a choir or simply acapella. 
I play the melody on the violin, shifting two octaves to capture the
 scenic and romantic ambiance. A popular version is that by Jo 
Stafford, the same singer of No Other Love (from Chopin)

It was in the last year of the Japanese occupation that memories of World War II became vivid to me. In desperation the enemy killed anyone at sight in exchange for its apparent defeat. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were soon to be erased virtually from the map. I was then four years old. According to psychologists, at this age impressions become lasting memory.

Vigilance was the game. Far ahead of time one should be able to detect the enemy. Fear gripped the neighborhood and the whole town. We hid in a dugout shelter made of solid narra slabs several meters away from our house. Trees and banana plants hid it from view. At one time, I wanted to get fresh air, but my auntie-yaya, Basang prevented me to do so. Japanese soldiers were around the place. I heard them chase our geese and chicken. Then I heard my favorite goose, Purao, pleading - then it fell silent. Instinctively I rushed out of our hideout, but Basang pulled me back just in the nick of time.

Before this incident Japanese soldiers entered and ransacked our house. Two confronted Basang who was then wearing thick shawl and holding me tight in her arms. In trembling voice, she was saying repeatedly, “Malaria, malaria,” and begging the soldiers to take anything they wanted and leave us. One took all our eggs and started eating them raw, pitching the shell at us. One hit me straight on the face and I squirmed. Basang apologized. The soldier shouted. Then the other came back with a stuffed pillow case and signaled the other to leave, but before leaving he gave me a hard look.

It is a face I still see today, cold as steel, lips pursed into a threat, brows drawn down like curtain over sultry and flashy eyes. How I reacted on the wicked face, I don't remember. I must have just stared coldly. But deep in me grew a resolved never to be afraid of the Japanese or any enemy for that matter.

Images of planes in dogfight are still vivid in my memory. Toward the east is the Cordillera range that looked blue in the distance. The view was clear from our house, and hideout. Even if the old San Vicente church got across our view, we saw now and then warplanes passing above. It was also the first and only time I saw a double body aircraft flying. There was at least one occasion warplanes fought just overhead, a plane simply bursts into flame and dark smoke not far from our place. My dad prodded us to go back to our underground hideout.

When I was in high school I had a teacher in literature, Mrs. Socorro Villamor. She was the widow of war hero, Col. Jesus Villamor, one of the greatest Filipino pilots in WWII. He downed two Japanese fighter planes in one encounter, for which he was given the highest award by the US government. He led sensitive nd dangerous missions thereafter to the end of WW2.  

My classmate and I wondered why Mrs. Villamor was always wearing black. At one time she recited in class, Flow Gently Sweet Afton by Robert Burns, a famous 18th century English poet. She even sang it, then came to a halt sobbing. We were all very quiet until she recovered. The poem made us weep, too, more in sympathy to our teacher.

This is the first stanza, and most moving part of the poem, which is repeated in the sixth and last stanza.

"Flow gently , sweet Afton, among thy green braes;
Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise!
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream -
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream."

"Sweet Afton" is thoroughly romantic in the use of natural objects as a background for human emotions, which in this case is symbolic of a sad experience that permeates into the heart and soul of a grieving person. The melody has a refrain after each lyric-stanza, slowly rising and falling within the standard octave, so that it can be sang with little effort, and in ones own cadence. It can be sang and recited in an alternate fashion taking liberty to pause now and then.

I treasure the poem to this day. Whenever I read the poem or sing its plaintive melody, I see in my mind a great warrior in the sky, and a strong willed teacher telling us to go on with life, like a stream, gently flowing, gently flowing.

NOTE: For his bravery as a pilot and ingenuity as an intelligence officer, President Ramon Magsaysay awarded posthumously Lieutenant Colonel Jesus Antonio Villamor the Medal of Valor on January 21, 1954. As a further tribute to one of the Air Force's greatest heroes, the PAF's principal facility in Metro Manila has been named Col. Jesus Villamor Air Base. ~

What Habagat (Monsoon Season) means in different ways to different people.

What Habagat (Monsoon Season) means in different ways to different people.
Life emerges and multiplies in all forms - protists, plants and animals. It is the start of life cycles of living things. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

  Rampage (Flash Flood in May) painting by the author, circa 2011

Here is a continuing list of what the rainy season (habagat) means to the lives of people, coming from our radio audience on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid, and students in natural science, UST Graduate School. I invite others to share their own impressions and experiences.

Habagat is ...
1. Respite from a long hot summer, and finally putting it to rest.
2. Greening of fields and mountains.
3. New life and new cycle of living things.
4. Time to plow and plant the fields.
5. Children running in the rain with gay and abandon.
 
6. A chorus of frogs.
7. Fields are joined together into one big lake.
8. Murmuring streams and roaring rivers.
9. Children go to school in raincoats and umbrellas.
10. The sky is split by lighting and the earth shudders with it.
 
11. Aestivating fish, snails and crustaceans wake up from slumber.
12. Season of floods 
13. Dust turns to mud, sticky with the feet and shoes.
14. Herons arrive by flock - white and gray and other kinds.
15. Migrating birds return home from the south northward.
 
16. Leaking roof, and you have to do a lot of repair.
17. Being worried when the children aren't a home yet and it's raining cats and dogs.
18. Gusty winds upturn umbrellas and loose skirts.
19. Beach resorts are virtually empty.
20. Off season to tourism, so with many festivities.


Signs of stormy weather during the habagat 
21. Cooler nights and good sleep.
22. Time to go fishing in rivers and lakes with hook and line.
23. Angling frogs in ricefields, a pastime of old women.
24. Fishing along flowing rivers with bamboo traps (bubo), salakab and cast nets (tabukol).
25. A shot or two whiskey or gin or vodka to counter the cold, and soothe tired nerves and muscles.
 
26. Floating garbage along rivers and shorelines specially those near cities and towns.
27. Pasig river swells and flows freely, regurgitating garbage and waste, and breaking from summer lethargy. So with other rivers.
28. Erosion of bald hills and mountains, cutbank erosion of river banks and shorelines.
29. Formation of delta, mudflats, deposition of silt in mangroves, siltation of dams.
30. Season of typhoons ripping houses and trees along their path.
 

31. Season of water-borne diseases like leptospirosis, typhoid and diarrhea
32. Life emerges and multiplies in all forms - protists, plants and animals.
Braving the floods in Metro Manila. 
33. Singing Magtanim Hindi Biro (Planting Rice is Never Fun) with guitar accompaniment, so with Tinikling, Bahay Kubo, and the like.
34. Animals have their fill on the pasture, wildlife reaches high population density and diversity.
35. Season of landslides, especially along mountain passes.
 

36. Double time and effort in controlling weeds in the garden.
37. Sinigang na hito, pesang dalag, "jumping salad" (shrimps served fresh with calamansi and salt).
38. Impassable rivers, swelling lake (remember Typhoons Ondoy, Peping, and Pablo?).
39. Downed electric post, cut off roads, felled trees, mud flows, landslides, evacuation centers.
40. Rainbows, sometimes double, sign of good weather yet herald a coming rain.
 
41. Siyam-siyam or nep-nep (Ilk) which means nine days and another nine days of rainfall with a brief period of rest in between.
42. no kite flying, old folks warn, waiting till the end of the monsoon, otherwise harvest will be poor.
43. Detecting low pressure area and plotting its development into typhoon.
44. Molds grow on leather, wood and clothes.
45. Rainy season fashion from waterproof boots to trendy jackets and raincoats.
 Harvesting rainwater at home.
46. End of kite flying season.
47. Singing in the Rain movie, Mickey Roony's best performance.
48. Creeks cascade, stream roars like rivers.
49. Overflowing dams, lakes, ponds.
50. Harvesting rainwater for the dry season.

There are 1001 more. Add your own experiences to this list. ~

Heroes for Mother Earth

 Heroes for Mother Earth

Today, rather than defending himself against nature, man has realized that he needed to defend nature against himself.

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Living with Nature School on Blog

Man throughout evolution struggled to survive the harsh environment. This reminds us of the gargantuan task of building of the Panama and Suez canals where man was pitted against wilderness. Remember the days of the pioneers, the travails of Albert Schweitzer in penetrating the heart of Africa. Three thousand years ago, Alexander the Great died of malaria on the banks of Tigris-Euphrates rivers.

Endangered Earth in acrylic by the author

Then in the past century man began to dominate nature and soon attempted to overrun the planet. It was a 360 degrees turn. Today, rather than defending himself against nature, he has realized that he needed to defend nature against himself.

This is the beginning of a new environmental movement. Leaders of this movement are acclaimed protectors of our home – our only home, Planet Earth. They are regarded as the new breed of heroes. Now, who are these heroes? As we go through these names and analyze their contributions we hope to be able to understand this new concept of heroism.

Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to as Teddy or TR, was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th President of the United States, from 1901 to 1909.

• Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was the first president to make conservation as a national policy.

• Ernest Schumacher (1911-1977) did not believe in endless growth, mega-companies and endless consumption, His book Small is Beautiful became a best seller. 

Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher was an internationally influential economic thinker, statistician and economist in Britain, serving as Chief Economic Advisor to the UK National Coal Board for two decades. Wikipedia

• Barbara Ward (1914-1981) is the author of Only One Earth which shaped the UN environmental conference.

• E.O. Wilson (1929- ) founded sociobiology in the 70s, saying that such human behvior as sexuality, aggression and altruism had a genetic basis. Recently he articulated the importance of bio-diversity in keeping the Earth healthy.

Edward Osborne "E. O." Wilson FMLS is an American biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants, on which he is considered to be the world's leading expert. Wikipedia

• Paul Crutzen (1933- ), F. Sherwood Rowland (1927- ) and Mario Molina (1943- ) showed that man-made chemicals, the major culprit chloro-fluoro-carbons or CFC, destroys the ozone layer. The 1987 Montreal Protocol phased out CFC. Nobel prizes were given to the three scientists.

• Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1995? ) Oceanographer and showman, espoused the need to arrest the declining health of the oceans.

• Rachel Carson (1009-1964) Mother of modern environmentalism, wrote Silent Spring documenting the deadly carnage of wrought by pesticides.

Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement.

• Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) advocated the total protection of certain wilderness areas, established the land ethic which is summed up, “anything that harms an ecosystem is ethically and aesthetically wrong.”

• Barry Commoner (1917- ) Paul Revere in ecology, one of the first scientist to worry about the deteriorating environment, organized the eco-based Citizens’ Party ticket which paved a new political movement.
  Barry Commoner was an American biologist, college professor, and politician. He was a leading ecologist and among the founders of the modern environmental movement.

• Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

• Wangari Maathai (1940- ) activist, organized the Green Belt Movement against reckless development in Kenya, stopped construction of a 69-storey office tower in a vital public space.
•  Robert Hunter (1941- ) and Paul Watson (1950- ) pioneers of Greenpeace, then founder a more radical eco-organization, Sea Shepherd Conservation, and latest, Greenspeak and Frankenfood which are against genetically modified foods.

• Medha Patkar (1954- ) activist, forced WB to withdraw support Sardar Sarovar Dam along India’s Narmada River, saving half a million villagers from being displaced.

• Chico Mendes (1944-1988) Brazil environmental conscience, formed human barriers whenever chain saws and bulldozers threatened the rainforest, cut down by ranchers’ bullets.

There are many other Heroes for the Planet Earth, unknown and unsung. On the part of the church, St. Francis of Assisi is regarded as the patron saint of ecology. In ancient times, Aristotle was the first naturalist of global significance, and whose works are still relevant today.

Among the philosophers, Henry David Thoreau is known for his discourse on human liberty and survival in “Walden Pond” which still stirs imagination on how one man can live alone in the wilderness yet retains his rationality. 





When Mac-liing was gunned down by unknown assailants for openly protesting the government’s Upper Chico River dam project his image was that of a rebel rather than one who was fighting for the preservation of the ancestral lands of the Kalingas. Thousands of hectares were to disappear under water when the dam is completed, a case similar to Pantabangan dam which forever submerged a whole town, vast farmlands and forests.

We have our own national hero Dr. Jose Rizal as an environmentalist in exile at Dapitan, and a naturalist even when he was a boy.

Philippine national hero Jose Rizal as a student

What to do with Old Tires (101 Uses)

What to do with Old Tires
Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Decorative and functional uses of old and discarded tires of various kinds, from those of the bicycle to the  tractor, are virtually limitless to the fertile imagination.  These are just an ample presentation from the Internet, which may serve as reference for the enthusiast as well as the entrepreneur.  Other than the aesthetic significance, recycling old tires is good business, and environmentally valuable.  

                     

        

              The presentation above is based on the result of a classroom exercise 

on  environment. Because the answers are already given - and there are other

 uses applicable in your place or country - you might as well use this exercise 

            to conduct a similar one, preferably with an actual demonstration, workshop style.

Initiate a project in your home and community using these models, better yet your own original design.  Share your experience and work in school and social media. I am including this lesson in a forthcoming worship on human development with emphasis on integrated art. Why don't you organize a similar workshop in your area, perhaps with the kids in the neighborhood? 

Acknowledgement: Internet photos
Reference: The Living with Nature Handbook, AVRotor 2003 UST Publishing House, Manila 

Scarecrow – Endangered Native Art

Scarecrow – Endangered Native Art
Dr Abe V Rotor

 Love that scarecrow (banbanti Ilk.). It is folk art on the farm. In the middle of the field it feigns scary to birds, what with those outstretched arms and that mysterious face hidden beneath a wide brim hat. There it stands tall amid maturing grains, keeping finches or maya birds (Lonchura Malacca jagori and L. m. formosana) at bay.

Finches are widely distributed in Asia and the Pacific feeding on rice grains, and alternately on weed seeds, but now and then they also steal from the haystack (mandala) and poultry houses. They are recognized for their chestnut colored compact bodies, and sturdy triangular beak designed for grain picking and husking. The scarecrow also guards against the house sparrow, mayan costa (billit China Ilk.), including the lovable turtle dove or bato-bato (Streptopelia bitorquata dursummieri), all grain feeders.

Evolution of the scarecrow with contemporary fashion
  A scarecrow is usually made of rice hay shaped like a human body wrapped around a T-frame. It is simply dressed up with old shirt and hat. The idea is to make it look like the farmer that the birds fear.  There is one problem though. Birds, like the experimental dog of Pavlov (principle of conditional learning), soon discover the hoax and before the farmer knows it a whole flock of maya is feasting on his ready-to-harvest ricefield. It is not uncommon to see maya birds bantering around – and even roasting on the scarecrow itself!

Today the scarecrow is an endangered tool and art. In its place farmers hang plastic bags, or tie old cassette and video tape along dikes and across the fields. These create rustling or hissing sound as the wind blows, scaring the birds. Others use firecrackers and pellet guns. At one time I saw a lone scarecrow in the middle of a field. On examining it closely, I found out that it was made of a mannequin dressed the way the fashion world does. It reminded me of the boy who discovered the statue of Venus de Milo in a remote pasture in Greece. On another occasion I saw balloons and Styrofoam balls hanging in poultry and piggery houses, bearing the faces of Jollibee, Power Puff Girls, Batman, Popeye, Mr. Bean and a host of movie and cartoon characters. Interestingly I noticed that the birds were nowhere to be found.

When I told my friend, an entomologist, that these new versions of the scarecrow seem to be effective, he wryly replied, “Maybe there are no more birds left.” Suddenly I remembered Silent Spring, a prize winning book by Rachel Carson. The birds that herald spring had died of pesticide poisoning.

x x x

Reference: Living with Folk Wisdom, by AV Rotor, UST Publishing House, Manila

Beauty and the Hornbills

Beauty and the Hornbills 
Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Beauty and the Hornbills, detail of a wall mural by the author.  Miss Riza Fenis poses with a pair of hornbills painted on a wall at  the Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, 2019.

Likened to The Beauty and the Beast,

 a  living story in our midst;

 a ghost of our folly like the Genie  

 tamed no less by beauty; 

But, could it be man the real enemy?  
ask the endangered specie(s).

The hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family of bird found in the Philippines, and other parts of tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly colored and sometimes has a casque (helmet) on the upper mandible. Locally known as kalaw this bird is classified under the list of threatened species as forests reserves continue to dwindle due to logging and kaingin (swiden farming).

Meditation on Modern Art and Living

Meditation on Modern Art and Living

Dr Abe V Rotor

 National Food Authority Manager Leny O Senedrin takes a break from office work
in silence and meditation at the Living with Nature Center, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 2019 

Before the day takes its toll from tension and stress, 
take heed of the natural clock, the cycle of living;
listen to the birds returning to their roost in the trees,
the fiddling music of crickets, gentle breeze passing.

Before the sun turns golden, crimson in its final hour,
footsteps grow louder and louder, and deafening
with riotous noise that deadens the bell from the tower;
Angelus, but how many would care about praying?

Our way of living is governed by a noosphere beyond
our control; our will defeated into submission;
globalization encompassing, individualism long gone;  
cybergod changing the concept of man and nation. 

Postmodernism is "living today tomorrow" a quagmire;
gone is our freedom  to keep track of our dream,
keep our privacy, live in peace and harmony as we desire;
if this is the prize of progress, then it is but its cream.

Change - chartless, drifting, accelerating - sans destiny;
hold on Something of Value, Hope for the Flowers;
novelists Ruark and Paulus tell us to live and be happy,
in silence and song, in tears that bring in the showers.
  
Meditate on modern art, put back the pieces together,  
from the Lascaux cave to abstract of today's artists; 
roll back the time as you would trace the road back home;     
and you'll experience a deep sense of catharsis.

Before the day takes its toll from tension and stress, 
take heed of the natural clock, the cycle of living;
listen to the birds returning to their roost in the trees,
the fiddling music of crickets, gentle breeze passing. ~