Reviving the PIGGY BANK to Teach Our Kids the Value of Savings and Austere Living (Article in Progress)

Art Evolution

Reviving the PIGGY BANK to Teach Our Kids

the Value of Savings and Austere Living*

"Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving." — Warren Buffett (American investor and philanthropist

Artworks and Verses by Dr Abe V Rotor

  

Coconut shell bank layered with green mussel shells (tahong), 

and glass marbles from wine bottles enlivens the sala table 

while it serves as a savings bank.  House guests may drop a coin 

akin to a wishing well.  AVR 2026

  Art as a creative personal expression,

of beauty, function and goal;

traditional, modern, and new vision,

    must be harnessed to the full. 

Art evolution must revive tradition,

of simple and frugal living;

for the sake of the new generation

 with the basic art of saving. 

 

Old stainless canister covered with clam shells and pearl-like 

glass marbles serves as table decor and savings bank. 

 

Eighten 12, author's grand-nephew, drops a buena mano coin 

into his new piggy bank given by his Lolo. 

"A penny saved is a penny earned." — Benjamin Franklin

 

Hard rind of calabash or miracle fruit coated with gold paint, 

and topped with an emerald stone exudes a special appearance.  

"The habit of saving is itself an education..." — T.T. Munger

   

Job 8, drops a coin into his savings bank, given by the author,

 his grand-uncle. Top view of his bank on a painted background.  

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." — Epictetus

  

Closeup views of a savings bank made of a liter size can, 

covered with painted paper strips and stones as base.

 

Closeup of local coins ready for deposit.

"Never spend your money before you have it." — Thomas Jefferson

 

Chestnut shell (left), seashell, punched paper pieces, empty can, 

are made into an artwork instead of having them thrown as waste. 

"Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship." — Benjamin Franklin

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* Savings provide financial security, independence, and the ability to handle emergencies without debt. They enable long-term goals like retirement, home ownership, and education, while offering peace of mind and reducing financial stress. Regularly saving helps build wealth through compound interest, often serving as a necessary buffer against inflation. AI Overview/ICICI Prudential Life Insurance

National Pet Day April 11, 2026: Ten-ten-ten - the Dog that Found a Home

National Pet Day Today, April 11, 2026

Ten-ten-ten - the Dog that Found a Home

(October 10,2010 to October 10, 2020)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Gelyn and Ten-ten-ten October 10, 2015

 

                                Jemille and Ten-ten-ten in his later years, Lagro, QC

It was a quiet afternoon and guess who was knocking at the gate?
A starving dog, a mongrel, and what is there in him to gain?
Could you spare me a morsel? His eyes moist and sad, begging,
And food we gave, closed the gate, everything was quiet again.

The sun was setting down. We saw a shadow seeping through the gate,
He is still there, I told the children, and he was knocking again,
Could you spare me a place for the night? His moaning told us so,
Who are you, who is your master? Silence. I felt a little pain.

We took him in. It was a special date on the calendar that comes
But once, and never again, not in a lifetime or generation.
Tenth day, of the tenth month, of the first decade of the millennium
And we named this lost dog, Ten-ten-ten. What a celebration!

Home he found and a happy company with us and the neighborhood,
Call his name, you wish luck and fortune, how easy to remember!
And children tired from school come knocking to play with their friend,
Can we play with Ten-ten(-ten)? Heaven sent a dog to love and share. ~

Postscript: By chance or coincidence, Ten-ten-ten left us, also on a special date - October 10, 2020, old by any dog's age (7:1 ratio to human age), calm and apparently happy. In those 10 years he was with us, my children treated him as a member of the family. He still is, with his lasting memory. avr

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* National Pet Day is celebrated on April 11 each year to show love for pets and raise awareness about animal welfare. Founded by animal welfare advocate Colleen Paige in 2006, the day encourages pet adoption and highlights the need for more homes for homeless animals. It is a time to appreciate the joy pets bring to our lives and to take action to help improve their conditions. Activities to celebrate include adopting a pet, volunteering at shelters, and sharing the joy of pets on social media. The Fact Site/Internet

National Day of Honesty, April 30, 2026. "I am looking for an honest man." - Diogenes

National Day of Honesty, April 30, 2026*

"I am looking for an honest man." 

- Diogenes holding a lamp in midday

(in our midst today).

Researched and Organized by Dr Abe V Rotor

Diogenes used to stroll about in full daylight with a lamp. When asked what he was doing, he would answer, "I am just looking for an honest man." Diogenes looked for a human being but reputedly found nothing but rascals and scoundrels.

Oh, Diogenes, don't despair,

put off your lamp at midday;

save it in the darkest hour,

when people rage than pray,

raise the flag of the trilogy;

Liberte', Egalite', Fraternite'.

and if that dawn be spilled

with crimson, then let it be

in the halls of true justice,

for heads to roll in ignominy;

if so few make any difference

light your lamp again at midday.

- AV Rotor

 

It was in Corinth that a meeting between Alexander the Great and Diogenes is supposed to have taken place. While Diogenes was relaxing in the sunlight in the morning, Alexander, thrilled to meet the famous philosopher, asked if there was any favor he might do for him. Diogenes replied, "Yes, stand out of my sunlight". Alexander then declared, "If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes.", to which Diogenes replied "If I were not Diogenes, I should also wish to be Diogenes." In another account of the conversation, Alexander found the philosopher looking attentively at a pile of human bones. Diogenes explained, "I am searching for the bones of your father but cannot distinguish them from those of a slave.

Diogenes preferred to live a simple life and had no permanent home, but in public places.  Here he lives in a discarded jar, holding the proverbial lamp that made him famous. Pictures from Wikipedia.

10 Quotations of Diogenes 

1. "Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music."

2. "I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give."

3. "Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one."

4. "I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough."

5. "We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less."

6. "The vine bears three kinds of grapes: the first of pleasure, the second of intoxication, the third of disgust."

7. "As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task."

8. "I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."

9. "The foundation of every state is the education of its youth."

10. "When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man."

Photo: Diogenes looking for a man - attributed to JHW Tischbein.jpg; picture of painting from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; quotes from BrainyQuotes Internet

Diogenes of Sinope (also Diogenes the Cynic) was a Greek philosopher and one of the founders of Cynic philosophy. Also known as Diogenes the Cynic, he was born in Sinope, an Ionian colony on the Black Sea, in 412 or 404 BCE and died at Corinth in 323 BCE

* National Honesty Day (often referred to as the International Day of Honesty or simply Honesty Day) is celebrated annually on April 30th. It is a day dedicated to promoting truthfulness, integrity, and open communication in all aspects of life, including personal relationships, politics, and business. Why April 30th? It was specifically chosen to be the opposite of April Fools' Day, aiming to end the month of pranks and lies with a day dedicated to the truth. Internet

Bataan Death March April 9, 1942, and other significant events in history for the month of April

Bataan Death March Remembered 

Araw ng Kagitingan (The Day of Valor in the Philippines) is known as the Day of Valor, marks the greatness of Filipino fighters during World War II.

Compiled by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Reference: The History Place - This Month in History

After the April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March. 

  

April 4, 1949 - Twelve nations signed the treaty creating NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The nations united for common military defense against the threat of expansion by Soviet Russia into Western Europe.

April 4, 1968 - Civil Rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee. As head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he had championed non-violent resistance to end racial oppression and had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He is best remembered for his I Have a Dream speech delivered at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington. That march and King's other efforts helped the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 1986, Congress established the third Monday in January as a national holiday in his honor.

April 6, 1994 - The beginning of genocide in Rwanda as a plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi was shot down. They had been meeting to discuss ways of ending ethnic rivalries between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. After their deaths, Rwanda descended into chaos, resulting in genocidal conflict between the tribes. Over 500,000 persons were killed with two million fleeing the country.

 

April 8th - Among Buddhists, celebrated as the birthday of Buddha (563-483 B.C.). An estimated 350 millions persons currently profess the Buddhist faith. (Photo taken in Thailand by AVR)

April 9, 1865 - After over 500,000 American deaths, the Civil War effectively ended as General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant

April 10, 1942 - During World War II in the Pacific, the Bataan Death March began as American and Filipino prisoners were forced on a six-day march from an airfield on Bataan to a camp near Cabanatuan. Some 76,000 Allied POWs including 12,000 Americans were forced to walk 60 miles under a blazing sun without food or water to the POW camp, resulting in over 5,000 American deaths. 

April 10, 1945 - The Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald was liberated by U.S. troops. Located near Weimar in Germany, Buchenwald was established in July 1937 to hold criminals and was one of the first major concentration camps. It later included Jews and homosexuals and was used as a slave labor center for nearby German companies. Of a total of 238,980 Buchenwald inmates, 56,545 perished.

April 10, 1998 - Politicians in Northern Ireland reached an agreement aimed at ending 30 years of violence which had claimed over 3,400 lives. Under the agreement, Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland would govern together in a new 108-member Belfast assembly, thus ending 26 years of ''direct rule'' from London.

April 11, 1968 - A week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The law prohibited discrimination in housing, protected civil rights workers and expanded the rights of Native Americans.

April 11, 1970 - Apollo 13 was launched from Cape Kennedy at 2:13 p.m. Fifty-six hours into the flight an oxygen tank exploded in the service module. Astronaut John L. Swigert saw a warning light that accompanied the bang and said, "Houston, we've had a problem here." Swigert, James A. Lovell and Fred W. Haise then transferred into the lunar module, using it as a "lifeboat" and began a perilous return trip to Earth, splashing down safely on April 17th.

April 12, 1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly at Warm Springs, Georgia, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He had been President since March 4, 1933, elected to four consecutive terms and had guided America out of the Great Depression and through World War II.

April 12, 1961 - Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. He traveled aboard the Soviet spacecraft Vostok I to an altitude of 187 miles (301 kilometers) above the earth and completed a single orbit in a flight lasting 108 minutes. The spectacular Russian success intensified the already ongoing Space Race between the Russians and Americans. Twenty-three days later, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. This was followed in 1962 by President Kennedy’s open call to land an American on the moon before the decade’s end.

April 14, 1865 - President Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded while watching a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington. He was taken to a nearby house and died the following morning at 7:22 a.m.

April 15, 1912 - In the icy waters off Newfoundland, the luxury liner Titanic with 2,224 persons on board sank at 2:27 a.m. after striking an iceberg just before midnight. Over 1,500 persons drowned while 700 were rescued by the liner Carpathia which arrived about two hours after Titanic went down.

April 19, 1993 - At Waco, Texas, the compound of the Branch Davidian religious cult burned to the ground with 82 persons inside, including 17 children. The fire erupted after federal agents battered buildings in the compound with armored vehicles following a 51-day standoff.

April 19, 1995 - At 9:02 a.m., a massive car-bomb explosion destroyed the entire side of a nine story federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 persons, including 19 children inside a day care center. A decorated Gulf War veteran was later convicted for the attack.

April 20, 1999 - The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history occurred in Littleton, Colorado, as two students armed with guns and explosives stormed into Columbine High School at lunch time then killed 12 classmates and a teacher and wounded more than 20 other persons before killing themselves. (Photo)

Birthday - Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria. As leader of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, he waged a war of expansion in Europe, precipitating the deaths of an estimated 50 million persons through military conflict and through the Holocaust in which the Nazis attempted to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe.

April 23rd - Established by Israel's Knesset as Holocaust Day in remembrance of the estimated six million Jews killed by Nazis.

April 24, 1915 - In Asia Minor during World War I, the first modern-era genocide began with the deportation of Armenian leaders from Constantinople and subsequent massacre by Young Turks. In May, deportations of all Armenians and mass murder by Turks began, resulting in the complete elimination of the Armenians from the Ottoman Empire and all of the historic Armenian homelands. Estimates vary from 800,000 to over 2,000,000 Armenians murdered.

April 26, 1986 - At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, an explosion caused a meltdown of the nuclear fuel and spread a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere, eventually covering most of Europe. A 300-square-mile area around the plant was evacuated. Thirty one persons were reported to have died while an additional thousand cases of cancer from radiation were expected. The plant was then encased in a solid concrete tomb to prevent the release of further radiation.

April 28, 1945 - Twenty-three years of Fascist rule in Italy ended abruptly as Italian partisans shot former Dictator Benito Mussolini. Other leaders of the Fascist Party and friends of Mussolini were also killed along with his mistress, Clara Petacci. Their bodies were then hung upside down and pelted with stones by jeering crowds in Milan.

Acknowledgement:  The History Place - This Month in History (Internet), Internet photos

Ipon and Padas - Ilocano Rare Delicacies - are Ecologically Threatened

 Ipon and Padas - Ilocano Rare Delicacies

- are Ecologically Threatened

 Dr Abe V Rotor

Part 1 - Ipon (dulong, Tag.) is a Rare Delicacy of Ilocanos 

Ipon (dulong Tag) is a Rare Delicacy of Ilocanos. Old folks know exactly when ipon arrives, by the phase of the moon and coolness of the Siberian High. The news spreads like wildfire, and soon people crowd the fishing grounds and market. For ipon is a delicacy of the Ilocanos.

Author displays three recipes of ipon.  Below, fresh ipon.

Ipon (Sycyopterus lachrymosus). It is collectively the fries of anchovies, gobies, including commercial species of fish  Top photo: newly caught ipon (it is eaten raw fresh with onion and ginger).  ipon is cooked dry or with broth (sabaw) spiced with tomato, ginger, onion, and green or bell pepper). Ipon tamales (wrapped with banana leaves) is a popular recipe. So with ipon bagoong. Try ipon torta for breakfast. Juvenile and adult ipon are best cooked in sinigang with liberal amount of tomato and onion, and green pepper - and served piping hot, picnic style. (Note: The fish caught with ipon are susay (Ilk), shallow water dwellers at the estuary.)

Ipon reaches maturity to become one of the many species of freshwater and marine fish, such as these two specimens. When we were kids, we used to catch them with tiny fishhook and throw net (tabukol). Or we use seine net (lambat) across the river, and drag it upstream, trapping the fish in the process.

Local folks have a way of classifying them like ipusan (long tailed) TOP PHOTO, butubot (big bellied), LOWER PHOTO birut (juvenile ipon), and bunog (closely similar to but quite bigger than the specimen in the lower photo). The fry of many more species may be part of the collective migration upstream called ipon-run.

By the time the run is completed - or disrupted - the survivors are on their own, or they form smaller schools, this time of their own kind. I believe that among the survivors are those that become sidingan (spotted), malaga (samaral), banak or purong (mullet), kapiged (relative of the malaga), and others like ar-aro (martiniko), bagsang, gurami, and carp that either go farther upstream or move down to the sea, while others remain at the estuary where freshwater and seawater meet in varying and changing levels according to the tides and river flow.

When I was a kid I used to call ipon fairy fish, because of its similarity with fairy shrimp or alamang. This enigmatic fish when caught measures only half centimeter long, arriving in schools at the mouths of rivers like the mighty Banaoang River in Santa (Ilocos Sur), and Bauang River in La Union. 

Here the natives know exactly when it arrives, by the phase of the moon and coolness of the Siberian High. The news spreads like wildfire, and soon people crowd the fishing grounds and market. For ipon is a delicacy of the Ilocanos.

Dulong or ipon appears as a composite school, mainly fries of anchovies and gobies, Family Engraulidae and Family Gobiidae. There are also different species which later become distinct after some time. But the enigma of the ipon remains.

For example, what trigger spawning and migration? How effective is collective survival? When does weaning take place? Where? Or do members remain in school until they are adults, and continue on to produce to the next generation? Do they occur proportionately with the amount of food in the area?

If this is so, then we may offer some explanation to the annual population explosion of anchovies (dilis or munamon Ilk) along the coast of Peru which is the world's number one supplier of anchovies and fish meal. This area is characterized by upwelling, that is, upward current that brings back to the surface nutrients that was washed to sea. These are mainly guano droppings of migratory birds that feed on the anchovies. Here in the photic zone - the depth sunlight can penetrate the water - plankton abound that trigger the biological engine of food web. It is so powerful that half of the world's fish caught comes from this region. Indeed the Peruvian coast constitutes the highest marine biological density and diversity in the world.

Here the population density is such that when fish kill occurs as a result of warming of the sea surface caused by El Niño phenomenon, the water turns black which navigators in early days called tinta agua. The hull of passing ships become black as if painted with coal tar.

Unlike Peru we do not have rich upwelling for anchovies aggregation. In fact we can hardly trace the dulong-anchovy cycle. If we do, these are in pocket areas where we fish anchovies for local consumption, which is mainly for food.

Principal spawning ground of ipon - Banaoang through which the great Abra river flows out to sea. Painting of the Old Bridge across Banaoang Pass in acrylic (60" x 41") by the author. Courtesy of Dr Laurence (Rencie) Padernal, April 29. 2012

On the first day the newly hatch fish enter the estuary, they are transparent and very tiny. You can hardly count how many individuals make 100 grams. It is at this stage that ipon is best eaten fresh with ginger, tomato and onion (kilawin). Ipon caught on the second day onward is usually made into bagoong, or cooked into torta, tamales (wrapped in banana leaves), or sinigang (broth). Old folks believe that ipon make them healthy and live long. They also believe in its aphrodisiac power, and why not? Spawning stimulates sex and growth hormones.

On the second and third day, as the fish continues to travel upstream and gain in size, they acquire spots, their body turning gray, and eyes and other body parts becoming prominent. By now their number has dwindled as fishing continues, and predators - other fishes, and birds - have their fill, and soon the whole school is thinned out and finally dispersed, with a measly number surviving to maturity. Here there are no longer traces of the ipon or any other species mixed in the school.

But this explanation coming from direct observation and testimonies of old folks is inadequate to tell us what really happens from spawning, migration to dispersal, movement from sea to river and back. We don't know the extent of distribution in the countless river systems in the world, the diversity of species of what generally is called ipon or dulong.

In 1992, a bill was filled in Congress to prohibit the catching of dulong, ipon, or any similar kind. I had the chance to read and comment on it. The rational is that ipon is actually a complex spawn aggregate, which contains the young of commercial species. It is the potential loss of these species the proposed law intends to prevent. It's like the law prohibiting the harvesting, sale and transport of bamboo shoot (labong). One shoot valued at 10 pesos at that time would grow into a mature pole in a year's time with a value of 100 pesos or more.

But ipon fishing is an age long tradition, and tradition is very difficult to break. Even then, it is important to unlock the mystery of this fairy fish so that we can assign it into the ecosystem where it rightfully belongs, before satisfying man's fancy and unending appetite.~ 

Acknowledgement: Internet, Wikimedia

Part 2 - Patronizing Padas is ecologically unfriendly

Ecologically we are destroying the species every time we patronize padas bagoong. One kilo of padas probably amounts to several hundreds of individual fish that potentially mature in six months time reaching up to one kilo apiece. The mature padas is malaga (Ilk) or samaral, one of the tastiest fish in the world.  It is prized by the Chinese in celebration of the Chinese New Year. To Filipinos - and other Asians - serving samaral during Holy Week and fiestas is a status symbol. The price of samaral in the market is twice or thrice that of ordinary fish.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature School on Blog

 

Padas

Padas is the fry of spinefoot or rabbitfish, locally known as Malaga or samaral (right), mainly of the species Siganus canaliculatus and S. concatenates and S corallinus and S. spinus. 

 

                                                              Danggit
The white spotted siganid Siganus canaliculatus (Park, 1797), locally known as “danggit”, is one of the most important and heavily exploited fish species in the country, with adults and juveniles often targeted for boneless production, and post-larvae sizes (padas) for fish paste or bagoong, a popular condiment. Right, dried fish market of danggit, dilis (anchovies), alamang (small shrimps)

Padas is the fry of spinefoot or rabbitfish, locally known as Malaga or samaral. mainly of the species Siganus canaliculatus and S. concatenates and S corallinus and S. spinus. These species occur in schools in coastal areas around rocky and corals feeding on phytoplankton and browsing on seaweeds and seagrasses. They grow up to 280 mm. They tolerate a wide range of salinity that they enter rivers or go down to the open sea.

Spinefoots or rabbit fishes are members of the Siganidae family. There is only a single genus, Siganus with 32 member-species worldwide. They are found in the Indo-Pacific and eastern Mediterranean oceans, living in shallow coastal waters to a depth of 50 meters. They can be recognized based on pelvic fins with 2 spines (one strong inner and one outer spine, with 3 soft rays in between). Spinefoots are diurnal herbivores that feed on benthic algae. They can be found living in pairs or in school of up to 15 members.

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Caution in handling the fish based on the author’s personal experience: The samaral has very sharp and venomous spine on the dorsal, anal and pelvic fins. The spines can cause a very sharp pain, bleed and numbness (especially when the fish is alive), but they are not fatal. Handling of the fish with hand is done by holding the gill covers, or the widespread dorsal fin.  In this way the fish becomes docile and normally does not attempt to struggle.

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When passing through Urdaneta and Villasis towns of Pangasinan you find padas bagoong in bottles sold on the shelf or by peddlers. Sometimes the small fish is beautifully arranged in rows covering the entire bottle. How skillfully and patiently is the art done considering how small the fry is. Those familiar with the product prefer seasoned bagoong  over a newly made one. Like wine, seasoned bagoong is better. They know it if the fish are well settled in the bottle with an appreciable amount of patis appearing as a distinct layer on top. On the other hand, the patis of raw bagoong is at the bottom or middle of the bottle, and if there is too much of it, they know that the product is diluted with water.

Next time a vendor offers padas, think of the tiny fish as the potential tasty malaga or samaral which grows up to a kilo apiece. Harvesting the fry (padas) and its juvenille (danggit) is an opportunity loss for the fish to increase in number and maintain a stable population level, and to grow fully and become affordable to the ordinary consumer. Harvesting of padas and danggit should be regulated, if not banned.  Conservation of this threatened species starts with us.~

Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, Internet; Conlu P V 1986 Fishes: Guide to Philippine Flora and Fauna Series.

April is National Stress Awareness month: Stop Before You Reach DEAD END!*

Stop Before You Reach DEAD END!*

Dr Abe V Rotor

Do you see a face at the center of this painting? 

If yes, stop with what you are doing and read this article.

Light in the Woods, painting in acrylic by AV Rotor, 1994

The road is fine all right and you are running fast because you want to reach your destination – or your goal. Then all of a sudden a signboard appears. Dead End.

Shocking. You are in your prime. You have a happy family, good breeding, good company, and bright future. Good life – oh, the malls, Internet, travel, medals, rubbing elbows with personalities, greetings everywhere you go.

What happened? Were you moving too fast in life because you want more? More money, honor, acquaintances, possessions, or just keeping up ahead? Or you are trying to escape? Escape from criticism, inadequacies? For not being able to cope up with the Joneses? Escape from tradition, because everything today must be modern? Escape from rural life because in the urban lies the golden city?

POM (Peace of Mind) Square

Of course you do not think of these while you are running. Then you start to walk, exhausted, and you look around. You are back to your senses. You realized you have not been a “square”. Your sense of dimension is lost and you did not care what shape you are in. Because you lost the integrated balance of the four pillars of a happy, fulfilled life.

• Intellectual/mental
• Spiritual
• Physical
• Psychological/Emotional

1. Physical – It's your health, body physiology, the machine and prime mover that keeps you going biologically. When was the last time you visited your doctor? Is your food balance? Maybe you are not getting enough exercise. Driving for hours does not constitute an exercise. Are you having difficulty to sleep, even only to rest? Imagine a machine breaking down because of strain.

2. Intellectual or mental – Your thoughts are assigned to two parts – the left for reasoning and the right for creativity. Either you have overtaxed the whole of your brain, or you failed to balance the two hemispheres. That's why it is important to attend to hobbies like painting and music (right brain) to balance the left which you use more often in office and home. As the body is subject to fatigue, so with the brain. A fatigued brain may lead to psychiatric condition that can not be relieved as easy as that of the body. Quite often extreme conditions are irreversible.

3. Psychological or emotional – Our psyche absorbs the impact of stress coming from the body and the mind – and from our spiritual being. Like a funnel the residues are accumulated here. Imagine a man staring at an artificial waterfall at a New York park. How many promising people are ruined by emotional problems? Jungian psychology explains that as we continue to repress our thoughts, our feelings, particularly those that are negative, the more we bury them deeper, storing them in our sub-conscious.

It means two things. First, we thought we have eliminated them. No, they come out in our dreams, they seep out into the unconscious in trickles that spoil many happy thoughts. Second, as we keep filling up the unconscious with more repressed thoughts, there comes a time that the tank so to speak, is likely to burst. There on a couch the potential victim, with the help of a psychiatrist, releases the pressure by withdrawing from the unconscious into the conscious chamber of the brain and flows out to his relief. Such rehabilitation requires rest and expurgation of the negative thoughts and experiences. It is only through this process that the psychiatric symptoms begin to cease.

4. Spiritual – The biblical Seventh Day is one for the spirit, a day of communication with our Creature, with Nature. It is a renewal of relationship between man and God, a re-invigoration of the soul. Emptiness can be easily felt, but quite often, it mingles with the kind of emptiness that is hard to fill. 

Our spiritual life suffers every time we act on something against our conscience. It becomes dull when we fail to do the things we should in accordance with our faith. I have heard of people complaining about the lack of “meaning in life.” For me, the answer lies not in our rationale thoughts, in our physical power or emotional or psychological makeup. In fact I believe that the lack of meaning is in the emptiness of the spirit. I recommend reading of A Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, founder of logotherapy - a field of psychology which helped prisoners in German prison camps in World War II to survive.

As I continue to write this article at Room 3031 at the UST hospital (September 20, 2001) I glimpse upon a Newsweek story about 30,000 Japanese a year have been killing themselves. The title of the article is “Death by Conformity.” It is about an epidemic of young Japanese pulling back from the world."

Take the case of a 29-year old salaryman. He described how he secluded himself for three years after resigning from his company. “I didn’t even know if it was day or night,” he confessed.

Another case is about a “corporate warrior” who became a victim of economic slump affecting his company in the late 1998. He became “spiritually” weakened by an anxiety he couldn’t comprehend. This is how the report pictured the fiftyish company executive.

“At first he couldn’t sleep. Then he grew physically weak each time the train neared the station nearest his office. On several occasions he rode to the end of the line. At one point, speaking on condition that he not be identified, he went to buy a rope, then put it in the trunk of his car to be prepared for the day when he would hang himself. Fortunately the day didn’t come. A doctor helped him from overcoming his depression.”

Hikikomori Syndrome 

Photo of a potential hikikomori victim (internet)

This malady is called in Japan hikikomori or social withdrawal, a debilitating syndrome, which affects as many as 1.2 million young people – 7 out of 10 of them are male.

Symptoms include

• Agoraphobia - Fear of places and situations that might cause panic, helplessness, or embarrassment. It is common, there are 200,000 to 3 million US cases per year

• Paranoia - Paranoia involves feelings of persecution and an exaggerated sense of self-importance. Paranoia occurs in many mental disorders and is rare as an isolated mental illness, persons with paranoia can usually work and function in everyday life, however, their lives may be limited and isolated.

• Aversion to sunlight

• Severe anxiety

• Antisocial

• Fear they are being watched

• Think they are ugly, they smell, etc.

• Loner

• Uncommunicative

• Sullen, sometimes even violent

   

“People who suffer from hikikomori are at the top of a mountain – and that mountain is all of Japan’s problems."  Newsweek August 20, 2001

Hikikomori begins with adolescent trauma that causes the afflicted to “stop growing up.” It is a social phenomenon, not a specific mental-health disorder. A certain Tamaki Saito who runs an outpatient program at Sasaki Hospital in Chiba, blames the problem on Japan’s efficiency first value system, which promotes conformity among workers, and students. So with the company workers who are expected to render efficient performance as Japanese culture has built standards of performance in return to security and compensation.

Hope for the Flowers

Hope for the Flowers has helped people gain the courage to leave jobs, change their lives and explore their love for another human being.

Anyone who has read Trina Paulus’ illustrated book, Hope for the Flowers, is certainly convinced that there is “nothing out there at the top.”

The story goes like this. Caterpillars scrambled up to the top, each outsmarting and climbing over one another, and forming a living pyramid. Each caterpillar wanted to be at the top.

Imagine a whole mass of living, dynamic bodies, writhing, shaking, in the like of the Tower of Babel. At the top each one thought must be beautiful. To be at the top is honor. The higher one goes the more the risk to slide and fall off to its death.

“But there is nothing up there.” The caterpillar, which had reached the top, said. But the others did not believe. A female caterpillar gave up and turned into a pupa hanging peacefully on a branch of a tree. Then one morning she metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly. Meantime her colleague continued on to struggle to the top of the pyramid.

She fluttered her wings in the morning sunshine and whispered something to someone she had met earlier. And the latter withdrew from the crowd, and followed the same thing she did. Then one morning he too, metamorphosed into a beautiful butterfly, while his colleagues were still struggling in the pyramid.

And the two butterflies lived happily ever after.

People are like caterpillars. They are gregarious. They form columns and pyramids. They step on one another just to be at the top. Many are frustrated, many get injured or even killed. Irony is that there is nothing at the top but space far from heaven. ~

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* Reprint on popular requests from Living with Nature in Our Home and Community, by AV Rotor 285pp. Sadiri Publication 2023

Visit avrotor.blogspot.com Living with Nature - School on Blog; Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 738 DZRB AM, evening class 8 to 9, with Ms Grace Velasco August 11, 2015