Symbiosis of Drynaria Fern and Acacia Tree - More than Commensalism

Trees for Peace 

Symbiosis of Drynaria Fern and Acacia Tree - More than Commensalism

Dr Abe V Rotor

Drynaria fern covers the limbs of an acacia tree. Tagudin, Ilocos Sur

Photo by the author.

I like the Drynaria

I like Drynaria for her feathery foliage in the distance like the proud peacock and the turkey trotting to win favors of their flock;

I like Drynaria for her sturdiness in the wind, cooling the summer air and keeping the coolness of the Amihan in December;

I like Drynaria for her resiliency, bending with the limbs and branches, turning upside down and up again the next season;

I like Drynaria for sleeping through the dry months while her host takes the show, verdant green, robust and free;

I like Drynaria for resurrecting from a state of torpor, as if she defies death and perpetuates life while others simply die;

I like Drynaria for her economy in sustenance, living on captured dirt and rain, yet discreet of such austere living;

I like Drynaria for touching the clouds with her host taming it to fall as rain and shared by all creatures around;

I like Drynaria for her ability to multiply fast through invisible spores, in one sweep of the wind are sown in far places;

I like Drynaria for its benevolence to many creatures, tenant and transient, keeping their brood in her bosom;

I like Drynaria giving the martines birds a home, where it sings in joy and praise and thanksgiving for a beautiful world;

I like Drynaria for keeping company to passersby, to tired souls in the shadow with her host, in dark and unlikely hours;

I like Drynaria for giving off oxygen and taking in carbon that poisons the earth and living things, among them no less than I;

I like Drynaria, for caring its host and vice versa through symbiosis - a perfect bond that humans have yet to learn someday. ~

Martines birds, long thought to be extinct locally, find shelter

                             and home with the Drynaria, and the host acacia tree. 

                                                    Photo by the author.

The Lighter Side of Human Nature. Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy.

The Lighter Side of Human Nature 

Marriage is the only war where one sleeps 

with the enemy.

Lesson: How to handle your wife/husband and keep your marriage. 

Sayings from great and famous men about wife and marriage

Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy.

Researched and Complied by Dr Abe V Rotor

1. After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can't face each other, but still they stay together.

- Al Gore

2. My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met.

- Alec Baldwin

3. A good wife always forgives her husband when she's wrong.

- Barack Obama

4. By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

- Socrates

5. I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.

- Bill Clinton

6. "Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing. She goes Tuesdays, I go Fridays."

- George W. Bush

7. "I don't worry about terrorism. I was married for two years."

- Rudy Giuliani

8. "There's a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking. It's called marriage." Michael Jordan

9. "I've had bad luck with all my wives. The first one left me and the second one didn’t.” The third gave me more children! 

- Donald Trump

10. Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming
1. Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
2. Whenever you're right, shut up.

- Shaquille O’Neal

11. The most effective way to remember your wife's birthday is to forget it once...

- Kobe Bryant

12. You know what I did before I married? Anything I wanted to.

- David Hasselhoff

13. Marriage is the only war where one sleeps with the enemy.

- Tommy Lee

14. A man inserted an 'ad' in the classifieds: "Wife wanted". Next day he received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: "You can have mine."

- Brad Pitt

15. First Guy (proudly): "My wife's an angel!"
Second Guy: "You're lucky, mine's still alive." Jimmy Kimmel

16. “Honey, what happened to ‘ladies first’?” Husband replies, “That’s the reason why the world’s a mess today, because a lady went first!”

- David Letterman

17. Marriage is a public confession of a private intention.

- Pete Benzon

18. Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.

- Mike Tyson

19. The great question... which I have not been able to answer... is, "What does a woman want? "

- George Clooney

20. “First there’s the promise ring, then the engagement ring, then the wedding ring....soon after......comes Suffer...ing! - Jay Leno ~

Mysterious Faces and Figures in the Woods. Jungian archetypes come alive.

Mysterious Faces and Figures in the Woods

Jungian archetypes come alive

I sat down and looked at the painting for the last time. It evoked a mysterious feeling, as I touched the trees, the running stream, the rocks, and finally, the image. His eyes were moist, so with mine. I said, "Goodbye." He just looked at me. For a long time. I took a photo of the icon, and whispered, "Thank you," and left, never to see the old museum again.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Faculty-in-charge, former SPU-QC Museum

Light in the Woods AVR, 1994 acrylic Painting, 36" x 48” by AV Rotor, 

former St. Paul University Museum, QC

After the old St Paul museum (SPUQC) was phased out to give way to a "modern" one last year, some mysterious events - real or imaginary - have been observed on the murals, paintings and other artifacts that were the original centerpieces of the legendary museum established in 1994.

Among them is the appearance of mysterious faces and figures, such as this case: Mysterious Faces and Figures in the Woods.

The original story - The Face of Christ - Image or Illusion was written in 1995, the year when school guests discovered a figure on a painting appearing as the face of Christ. (Please see reprint below.)

This painting was the first item to grace the newly opened museum to mark the celebration of the tricentennial of St Paul of Chartres or SPC, the congregation of the Paulinian sisters who run the school. It inspired me to write a book, Light in the Woods, using the painting's photo for its cover. The book was dedicated to Pope John Paul II on his visit 1n 1995 on the occasion of World Youth Day. Cardinal Jaime Sin, Fr James B Reuter and Sister Teresita Bayona, then college president, endorsed the book, and presented it to the Holy Father.

Published by Megabooks, 1995, dedicated to Pope John Paul II,

on his visit to the Philippines, in celebration of World Youth Day.

For fifteen years the painting, popularly known to the Paulinian community as The Face of Christ, found a permanent place in the museum until 2011, when the museum was totally renovated. The painting lost its original home. So with seven murals, and other items, which were transferred to other places on the campus. I had just left SPUQ then, due to old age and poor health - after fifteen years as professor and caretaker of the museum.

I sat down and looked at the painting for the last time. It evoked a mysterious feeling, as I touched the trees, the running stream, the rocks, and finally, the image. His eyes were moist, so with mine. I said, "Goodbye." He just looked at me. For a long time. I took a photo of the icon, and whispered, "Thank you," and left, never to see the old museum again.

I compared the photo I took last with previous photos. Why, the painting has not changed at all! Until ... on closer examination I was surprised to see hidden images other than those I saw before. Perhaps, I have grown old to see images the young is not so keen to observe. Perhaps, my perception is more of parting than welcome, memories rather than action. Memories are best preserved with tranquility, humility and peace. It is easy to settle down by the fireplace.

But the painting, I realized, has a message to our troubled world as can be seen from these mysterious figures. It's more than a face, it is more than a piece of art, it is more than the museum and the school community. The depth of these message is a measure of man's awareness of his relationship with his Creator, of his obedience and devotion, his concern for his fellowmen and the deteriorating environment. It is a test of man, the human being.

Uppermost pair of eyes in the painting, biggest of the three pairs

 

Left pair of eyes, most prominent and pathetic.  All three pairs of eyes have a common expression of sadness. There is something strange in them after a longer look - compassionate.

Cross lying on the ground, as if it is broken and abandoned

Man and a woman emerging from the thicket toward the source of light

Reclining lady (center) beside a tree on the rocks (facing right),

with other figures around.

Standing human figure with outstretched arms, facing right.

Note light flooding his face and body.

Profile of a well-dressed human figure, facing right

Human figure stripped and tied to a tree, facing left.

There is a similar figure on the other tree.

Original Story 1994
          The Face of Christ - Image or Illusion?

“It inspired a soul to write a book

 That touches the eye and heart;

 This little light in a hidden nook

 Shines where good and evil part.”

- 

                          A.V. Rotor, Nymphaea: Beauty in the Morning, 1996

“Did you see the face of Christ?”

“Where?”

"On a painting.”

"What is this they are talking about, " I asked Sel.

We went to the Audio-Visual Room, spent a moment of silence as we searched for the Face on the 36" x 24" landscape painting. It was painted and a month ago, and presented it in a seminar-workshop at then St. Paul College QC. The theme signifies unity and cooperation among faculty and staff members.

"Can you see it?” I asked.

Sel traced the outline, his finger touching the rough canvas.

"Can you see it?” He threw back the question.

"I see a different one,” I countered and traced the figure differently.

Silence fell again. We exchanged notes and soon enough we were looking at the same face.

Were we seeing The Thing, or only imagining it?

I recalled a story, Images of Illusion. A man was viewing an antique painting and saw himself as one of the torturers of Christ.

“Impossible,” he raged. How could it be possible for the painter to have composed a scenery combining a biblical event and a future character? He demanded the art gallery an explanation.

What is illusion?

In metaphysics, the workings of the human mind have been the subject of research and discourse from the time of Plato who coined “psyche” or mind or soul, to Kant whose theory of Existentialism remains as the binding force of man and his Creator which is a fundamental doctrine of major religions. Lately, Jung's primary idea of a person as a whole, and not as assemblage of parts, gave rise to the modern concept of holistic personality. Jung’s work as a psychoanalyst was to recover the lost wholeness of personality, and to strengthen the psyche through the process of psycho-analysis and psycho-synthesis.

What Jung was saying is that the mind is made up of three levels: the consciousness, the only part of the mind that is known directly by the individual; the personal unconscious which is the level of the mind that adjoins the ego: and the collective unconscious which he inherited from his ancestral past. All three levels are always in a dynamic state. They are never static like a rock or a tree.

When one is afraid of the dark he is expressing the collective unconscious. If he is afraid of the dark because he may be kidnapped, he is expressing the personal unconscious level, an experience which may have been created by distraught thoughts or brought about by personal conflict or raised a moral issue before. In the dark he may be "seeing” a would-be kidnapper at the slightest suggestion.

Now where does the first level come in? His conscious awareness is put to test in such a situation. He then makes to fullest use his four mental functions, which Jung called thinking, feeling, sensing and intuiting. Depending on the development of these faculties from the time of his birth to his present age, the individual tries to overcome - or enhance - the other two leve1s of the mind which at that moment has caused in him fear.

What I am saying is that a mental image may arise from the interplay of the three levels of the mind. First, there is the “model” or an archetype from which the consciousness makes something out of it. This, in turn, is pictured or deleted in the mind through consciousness.

When Sel and I stood before the painting searching we had different archetypes in our mind. But people who have been raised in the same environment and had undergone similar training have many common archetypes from which images can be similarly patterned.

Suppose one does not readily take from the mind's bank a suitable archetype?

“I don't see anything.”

“Face of Christ, you said?”

"What are you talking about? I can only see trees and a stream flowing through them.”

"I still cannot figure it out.”

These observers, based on Jungian psychology, did not have the archetype at the moment to suite the picture they are looking for.

Quite often discussions may ensue while viewing the piece with someone taking the role of a teacher, or one insisting of seeing another thing.

Again, according to Jung, archetypes can be enlarged or reinforced so that they can surface with the help of the consciousness. However, this may not always work.

“I can see it now.”

“Yes, there it is. There is a bigger one beside it. No, actually there are three faces.”

“There is Blessed Virgin Mary at the center.”

“But it looks like a resurrected Christ.”

“See the trunk at the right? Scourging at the pillar.”

"My God! There's a devil clinging on Christ's nose.”

Now, now, the painting is getting overloaded,

As the painter I wanted to put it back to its real and down-to-earth perspective. It is a forest landscape, all right. The trees are the symbol of strength and unity; the flowing stream is life; the rocks are the obstacles we encounter in life; the light rays penetrating through the forest is hope and guidance; the forest itself characterizes the present world we live in; and the central perspective of the painting leads us to the attainment of a common vision and goal.

As I was about to leave, a very young boy came along with his mother. His eyes were bright and his face radiated the innocence of a child.

"Do you see the little cross, mama?” He was pointing at a orange figure, an empty cross laid upon a rock. Then he scanned the whole piece and quickly pointed at things none of us had earlier seen.

“Here is the Holy Family. Here is baby Jesus. There you see angels. You can count them, 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6..."

“There are thirty-three trees, I was told," interrupted his mother.

"Those are children playing, mama - there under the trees and on the rocks."

I stood beside, speechless. I realized I only read Plato, Kant and Jung. l did not consult the Greatest of them all. ~

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NOTE; Dr. Abercio Valdez Rotor and Dr. Anselmo S Cabigan were classmates and co-workers in the government, and academe. They have known each other for the last 50 years. The painting was made possible from a poem composed by Dr Cabigan, “Into Your Light” which Dr. Rotor interpreted using acrylic paint on canvas. The painting was presented to faculty members who attended a seminar workshop in 1995. The original painting has been transferred from the former St. Paul University Museum, QC for security reasons and better access to pilgrims.
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References: Light from the Old Arch, by AVR, UST Publishing House 2000; Nymphaea: Beauty in the Morning, AVR, Giraffe Books 1996;Light in the Woods, AVR, Megabooks, Megabooks 1995.

Saga and Fate of Three Trees

Trees for Peace

Saga and Fate of Three Trees

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Living with Nature School on Blog

Three big trees growing together reached the prime of their lives.  They belong to different species and families but fate brought them to one place. 

 Three Trees in acrylic by AVR 

·    One is the biggest legume of earth. Leguminous plants are known for their high food value.

The second is the source of the best wood on earth, sending the oak to the back seat.

The third has the most popular medicine for common ailments in the world, especially colds.

How lucky we are! They said in a chorus, singing with the passing wind and chirping of birds and sound of busy feet below and around them.                                                               

For half a century or so, they stood through seasons and events, in favorable weather and force majeure.  They have many common things they share to humans and the environment.  They …

   Provide shade to passersby

· Cool the surroundings day and night
· Buffer loud noise and unpleasant sound
· Tame strong wind into breeze
· Catch the rain and store it in the ground
· Filter dusts and particulates
· Shields radiation from sun and space, fallout and radioactive materials
· Capture low-lying clouds with the water vapor they transpire causing it to fall as rain
· Condense fog and mist into dewdrops
· Provide food and shelter to many organisms
· Produce Oxygen, byproduct of photosynthesis
· Fertilize the soil, make litter of compost
· Provide a wildlife sanctuary
· Create artistic theme and subject
· Harbor in the imagination myths and legends

Individually, they started comparing themselves. Well, self-centeredness is a not only among humans, but trees and other organisms as well. The Acacia (Samanea saman) was the first to talk about itself. It…

· Harbors Rhizobium bacteria in its roots that convert Nitrogen into Nitrate
· Nitrate makes it self-fertilizing, and benefactor of this life-giving substance 

  to other plants
· Being deciduous, forms a litter of leaves to become compost and food 

  of decomposers
· Produces sugar-rich pods for goats and other animals
· Blooms in summer and breaks the dull and dry view of the landscape
· Provides home to many tenant organisms, and inn to transient one
· Harbors on its spongy limbs orchids, ferns, lichen and mosses
· Produces materials for many kinds of wooden crafts
· Is used by the faithful on Lenten Season in preparing the stations of the cross.

The Narra (Pterocarpus indicus) talked with a sense of pride being the country’s national tree.  It is indigenous, unlike the acacia whose origin is Mexico, and the Eucalyptus from Australia where the Koala Bear resides.  It…

· Has a majestic baroque profile, singly or collectively few trees can match
· Forms whole forest called Dipterocarp Forest, adopted from its 

  family Dipterocarpaceae
· Gives the best wood in the world for furniture, construction and wood crafts
· Has a substance in its bark that cures diabetes and other diseases
· Blooms profusely in summer with golden flowers falling into confetti with the wind
· Gives a feeling of affluence to owners of finished products from its wood
· Is the most protected by law, but still carries the old fear that destroyed its.

  forebears and kin 

Century-old acacia, Tagudin, Ilocos Sur

The Eucalyptus (common and genus name) may look lanky and frail with flimsy crown, but is an Eiffel tower to most trees. Its branches droop like on a cloth line, and sway with the wind in cantabile. It …

· Produces in its leaves volatile oil rich in menthol
· Fills in the immediate surroundings with pleasant 

  fresh smell
· Is Nature’s aroma therapy, it serves as bronco-

  dilator
· Wakes up the unconscious, relieves vertigo
· Drives away flies and mosquitoes
· Smudges fruit trees, inducing them to flower and set fruits
· Home to the Koala and other organisms
· Provides good lumber for construction and furniture

So the three trees continued to live on for many more years.  They could reach a hundred years.  Their relatives in the forest could live longer. Soon they grew so big they became apple (and gold) to the eye of the logger. 

Just as they feared, the fearsome chainsaw broke the still morning air. ~ 

The Green House (SVWorld Series)

Trees for Peace

 The Green House 

 Dr Abe V Rotor

"A home far away from the city,
where the mind and heart are free." avr

It's a fort of green trees around,
that buffer against noise and wind,
filter dusts and glare of the sun,
residence* for austere living



Simple and balance are its view,
white and green a perfect duo.
a home far away from the city,
where the mind and heart are free.

Botanical Garden is a living gene bank of the locality,

a collection of indigenous plants, and sanctuary

of other living things too, in their natural setting 

through the seasons and through the years.

"Murals, murals, everywhere,
 not a space left to write on,
but the art of Nature."

 Green House wedged by heritage trees, 
 three- or four generation-trees-

They are living monuments of the family,
 the community and history. 

 

An illusion of a fort, 

created by murals 

and versatile lens. 

Gallery of paintings tracing the movements of art; 
stair leading to a family library and museum.

* Rotor Family Residence in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

"One candle you light, you light the world."

"One candle you light, you light the world."

Dr Abe V Rotor.

Former Faculty Curator

  
Murals, Ruins of Colonialism 8 ft x 8 ft by AVR; wall mural, Arrival of First St Paul
of Chartres (SPC) Mission to the Philippines in Dumaguete. Painted by
Dr AVRotor and children - Marlo, Anna, and Leo

Goodbye, Saint Paul Museum, Goodbye

Faithful you've been for fifteen years to guests and spirits,
the dead in their memory and honor, in their resting place;
their sanctuary to mingle with the living and community,
reliving events of history, art, culture - pride of our race.

Good bye, Saint Paul museum, you have done your part,
For I shall walk to where the sun sets, to a common end,
Farewell to the beauty, ephemeral to a hard and cold heart
where art is a passing glance and light fading at the bend.

How little can we bid our patrons and friends with gratitude,
young and old, their gentle ways, whispers, and wide eyes,
the place sacred, sanctuary of tradition, keyhole of history,
telling to the world nowhere else exists beyond any price?

I miss the grass owl, the lemur, the violins, the murals exiled,
the scriptures I saved from fire, trophies I picked from the bin;
broken jars I mended, shells and wares I cleaned into artefacts,
dioramas by small hands I guided, each depicting a scene.

Where is Michelangelo now, Rembrandt, stories in the bible?
paintings and writings made by the young in joy and pain?
amateurs - I never called those less in the art but full in heart,
I must bid them too, wishing their work shall not die in vain.

Under your roof I found stories to write, poems to compose,
canvas to paint, guiding hands I lent to the young and old;
under the eyes of my greatest apostle – these I’m blessed,
opening the gate of wisdom and humbling me from bold.~

Parting isn't easy but time heals. But alas! I found my saint
in the dark, on bare wall, where day and night are unkind,
deep moan and sigh I hear, I can shed but a drop of tear;
what mystery should history repeat itself with time in bind?

Let me cloak you as I did when I painted you years ago,
return the glow in your eyes, freshen the red in your breast;
together with murals of your kind – in your travel and trial,
as my strength drains with the sunset, before my final rest.

Goodbye St Paul; one candle you light, you light the world,
where air is thin, footsteps heavy, ignorance and silence one;
where for a decade and half, you and I together stood
in a museum we built, and I your humble disciple and son. ~

Happy Expressions of Home

                Happy Expressions of Home

    "Life takes you to unexpected places, love brings you home.”

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School on Air): Home has as many expressions as people's thoughts and feelings about it. Let's take a glance at what respondents say.

 

 Top: Bahay Kubo in oil by AVR patterned after the song of the same title; 

Lower photos: western bungalow cottage; typical bamboo and nipa house. 

1. For a home beauty and function are one, in the same way as in biology – morphology and physiology.

2. Aesthetics is an art – it is both natural and man-made; it is a harmonious combination of the two.

3. Sanctuary is a home, simulated from the natural habitat of an organism or group of organisms. Sanctuary implies values of kindness, care, respect and understanding.

4. Generally, there are two parts of our garden to landscape – the public area and the private area, which are self explanatory.

 

Restored 18th century ancestral home 

5. Home is a call, ancient craving, in fact, biological like the salmon and the dove. It is the same homing instinct of the balikbayan.

6. Home is a fortress and a lighthouse.

7. Home is made by man and perfected by his hopes and dreams. We can reach the state of perfection, if only we do the best we can.

8. These are great Filipino artists whose works contributed to having our happy home of today: Nicanor Abelardo (music), Fernando Amorsolo (painting).

Light through the kapis window brings in warmth and nostalgia in this old home.

9. These are great Filipino scientists whose works are worthy as well in building an integrated home: Nemesio Mendiola (agriculture/gardening); Deogracias Villadolid (freshwater fishery), Leon Ma Guerrero (medicinal plants), Angel Arguelles (organic farming).

10. Other great Filipino women whose works likewise contributed to the making of a happy home: Fe del Mundo (health, specially children’s healthcare),  Maria Y Orosa (home economics/food art).

11. Even how inadequate may be our home – even if it is located along the railway - it comes to full bloom when Christmas time comes.

12. A home is a movable feast, referring to Ernest Hemingway’s early novel The Movable Feast.

Home is a workshop. It is a place to discover and develop talents.

13. A home must be efficient in protecting the dwellers from ultraviolet rays that causes skin cancer, unburnt carbon and acid rain that cause allergy and other ailments.

14. A home is surrounded by trees. Trees buffer disturbing noise from traffic, but they are good resonators of music and conversation.

15. A 20-year old acacia tree gives a cooling effect in its shade the equivalence of 10-window type air conditioner 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, virtually without any direct cost.

16. Have plants in and around your home. Plants give off O2 as a by-product of photosynthesis. It is good to health.

17. The best model for a garden is the Filipino style, because it is patterned after the structure of a tropical rain forest.

18. A home garden simulates a tropical rain forest which is basically made up of four stories just like a tall building: ground plants, shrubs, bushes and small trees, canopy layer, and emergents.

19. The most common canopy trees are most fruit trees, like santol, avocado, mango, while the most common emergent is the coconut.

Home is a greenery

20. A home is compared to a bird's nest. After the chicks have grown up and have learned to fly, they leave the nest. The difference from that of the bird's nest is that, the home is not abandoned. Now and then. the children visit their parents (and grandparents).

21. Life and love emanate, reside and grow in the home.

Home Art Gallery 

22. Home is “heaven on earth.”

23. Home is a rocking chair with long arms.

24. Home can be missed sorely like Heidi in Sipyri’s novel, about an orphan girl who was separated from her grandfather in the Alps mountain. Only when she was able to go back to her home with his grandfather that she found her world complete gain.

Country farm house, Peñablanca, Pampanga 

25. A broken home is the most difficult to bear – broken by divorce, misunderstanding, quarrel, by early death, by prolonged absence – and most especially, by apparent lovelessness. If you belong to this kind of home there are two things you can do. Rebuild it, pick up the pieces and mend them together. The other is to make a new home yourself, and make it the ideal home of your dreams, the ideal home which is the highest expression of our worthiness on earth, and worthiness in heaven. ~

 

Traditional Thai House, Bangkok; Wigwam - dwelling of aboriginal 

Indians in Manitoba, Canada; Eskimo igloo, Alaska