The Gentry Home - Cradle of Career and Skilled Citizens (SVWorld Series)

PUL-OY (Breeze)

San Vicente Ilocos Sur RP to the World Series

The Gentry Home

- Cradle of Career and Skilled Citizens

 

                                   Mural painting and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Painted from memory and inspired by the artist’s townmates of San  Vicente,

 Ilocos Sur* Painting, courtesy of the family of the late Mr and Mrs Sixto Rojas.

The Gentry Home 

Traditional and modern are at a crossroad of confidence, knowing where one came from and where the other is going - because it is a gentry home;  

The past and present are kept in unity and harmony, preserving the foundations of a temple strong and committed - because it is a gentry home;

Where knowledge is honed into skill, skill into livelihood, living into joy and contentment in simplicity - because it is a gentry home; 

Seasons come and go with ease, at kind and rough times, in good and poor harvest, celebration to life itself matters most - because it is a gentry home;

Three generations live under one roof in an era of "grands" - grandparents and grandchildren, and strong shoulders between them - because it is a gentry home;  

Culture is as old and strong as the molave, as practical as the mandala, as efficient as the caleza, as romantic as the alug and stream - because it is a gentry home;

Laughter is pure, tears dry fast, curse unheard, then how are differences settled? Hush, hush - and the sun is up again - because it is a gentry home;    

Time and space are patient, there's no sense of hurry when the mind can think in peace and quiet, so with the heart - because it is a gentry home; 

Culture shines in music and fine arts, in a Cleopatra's sofa, tidbits of Spanish, footsteps stop in observance of  Angelus - because it is a gentry home; 

Tenants deliver the landlord's share in grain, sugar, fish - all that nature provides, keeping the bond of trust alive - because it is a gentry home;   

Too spacious the sala and rooms are, or as empty as the length of school year, and when it's vacation time the atmosphere is alive again - because it is a gentry home;  

Time flies like passing wind, the kite now an airplane, the caleza a car, dwelling an apartment - and condominium - yet it stands there, the gentry home; 

Changing of the guards, diplomas hang side by side with memorable portraits, moods happy and sad called nostalgia - here in the gentry home;  

Infinity, thou art boundless, eternity fleeting, permanence crumbling: yet life couldn't have been spent better - were it not in the gentry home;

From up, down to earth a tired angel comes,  through the smog, finds the city a jungle; it's eerie dark - save a beacon seeping through a gentry home. ~   

*San Vicente IIocos Sur is known for carpentry, sculpture and carving,  painting, music, zarzuela and comedia,  (stage plays), that the town was once dubbed " Little Florence" of Renaissance Europe.  The town later became known for diversified farming of high value temperate crops from cabbage, onions to cauliflower and Virginia tobacco, for which the town also gained the name "Taiwan of the North,"  after pre-industrial Taiwan. 

But the most important contribution of the town is the premium it places on the education of the children. The home is recognized as a cradle and a workshop for growing up, which is the basic unit of society. The modelling of a gentry home is based on this philosophy.  It is this home that gave to the world many career and skilled citizens this small town proudly produced and continue to produce.~