The Lighter Side of Married Life

The Lighter Side of Married Life 

Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

1. Man is incomplete until he is married. Then he is really finished.

2. When a newly married man looks happy, we know why. But when a ten-year married man looks happy, we wonder why.

3. The five most essential words for a healthy, vital relationship are “I apologize” and “You are right.”

4. Husband: “Why do you keep reading our marriage license?” Wife: “I’m looking for an expiration date.”

5. What are a married man’s two greatest assets? A closed mouth and an open wallet.

Acknowledgement: Quotes and cartoons from the Internet

How aware are you with things happening around?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Time out

Retire the balls, where have all the players gone?
the air is still for an extra mile, a second wind. 

Balloon Frog 

All air, thrice its size;
yet can't take into the air; 
it croaks for attention  
in some deep lair.

Biggest samat leaf (Macaranga tenarius)

Biggest leaf - banana; 

biggest fruit - nangka; 

biggest grass - bamboo;

biggest seed - coconut;

biggest of the biggest

biggest of all - big fish

Cogon

Whose big hands are these? UST

Mackie: A Little Miss

 Meter long stringbean

 Flaming red dress - and rooster's crown 

 Jellyfish lens

 Traveler's Palm fountain 

Hitch hiker Canine 

Panacea from Doctrine of Signatures

Panacea from Doctrine of Signatures

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

"I swear, calling upon Apollo the physician and Asclepius, Hygeia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses as witnesses, that I will fulfill this oath and this contract according to my ability and judgment." -- .Opening of the Hippocratic Oath*

PHOTO: Panacea (center) administering medicine to a baby .
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Panacea (Greek Πανάκεια, Panakeia) in Greek mythology was a goddess of universal remedy who brought about the concept of the panacea in medicine, a substance meant to cure all diseases. Figuratively, the term is also used in solving a huge problem.
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Examples of Panacea medicine laid down the foundation of the Doctrine of Signature which became popular in Medieval Times or the Dark Ages. This is used in folk medicine even today. Snakes will make you aggressive, its poison will shield your body from disease, harm and extreme weather conditions. Cobra is a popular brand of products claimed to restore health. Rhino horn is elixir, it hardens your muscles and extremities. Liverwort (a bryophyte, relative of the moss) cures liver ailment. Ginseng root resembling a nude is aphrodisiac.

I can imagine how lizards and spiders transfer their power to man. I wonder if we get the agility of sharks and eels by eating a lot of them.

Then there is the belief of maternal impressions - pinaglihi-an. We can't explain the origin of looks and abnormalities through maternal impressions as we cannot scientifically attribute well-being to parallelism.

Both Belief in Maternal Impressions and Doctrine of Signatures have long been discarded by modern medicine and science. If however, there are testimonies to the contrary - there are other factors responsible, among them is faith. Faith is the fountain of hope, respect, self-esteem, and reverence to a Higher Principle. ~
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Beware of promo products claiming wide range of healing almost to miracle heights. DOH does not endorse such products - from milk formula to multi-vitamins - as claimed. In fact, many of these are prohibited but are still clandestinely sold.

* Hippocratic Oath is an oath historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards. a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards.

Dried Frog Delicacy

Palakang bukid, signature of rice farming in the tropics, has returned.  

Dr Abe V Rotor

Dried Frog (Rana vitigera) from the ricefield.  The palakang bukid, once threatened - and endangered - is back on the dining table.  There are various recipes, the traditional one is cooking it fresh after dressing with acheute (Bixa orellana), coconut milk (gata) tomato, garlic and onions. Now dried frog is available in the market.  Try fried frog for breakfast. 

The favorite frog signature of rice farming in the tropics is back after decades of threatened existence to the point of being endangered in heavily sprayed ricefields, courtesy of chemical-based agricultural technology.

It is Nature triumph, with farmers reverting to traditional farming - the age-old farming system prior to the so-called Green Revolution. It is indicative of people moving away from high technology that makes their food unsafe, what with all the high residues of pesticides and chemical fertilizers!

How the frog's population declined to almost irreversible level is explained by its predatory nature and aquatic habit.  Insects are its main food.  Poisoned insects accumulate in its body. Poisoned water kills its eggs and tadpoles, even adults.  

Dressed frogs

 
 Dried frogs 

There was a time people avoided frogs as food, yet it has been a favorite viand since agriculture began, together with snail, shrimps, crayfish, tilapia, catfish, dalag, and other freshwater fish similarly decimated by chemicals.

Things are changing.  Call it social equilibrium, when people become enlightened and cease to become a victim of destructive technology and capitalism. This is a new era of people-oriented, environment-friendly change. ~ 

* Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday   

Bring Home the Waterfalls

Bring Home the Waterfalls

Dr Abe V Rotor

            Art Workshop for Children before a wall mural by the author in his family

residence (Living with Nature Center) in San Vicente Ilocos Sur, 2017.

Bring home the waterfalls

to make it cool and green,

and grow ferns and mosses

on the wall like screen.

To deaden the roar of cars

with sweet hissing sound,

break away the stillness

where its water is bound.

Shower the scorched earth

but make the summer longer

for the kids to play around

until the season is over.

Lend beauty to the arts,

in painting, verse and song,

in solace and meditation

from the maddening throng. ~

Guide to a New Year's Resolution: Ways to Attain a More Interesting Lifestyle

Based on an interview with the late Dell H. Grecia
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Dell H Grecia was a veteran journalist writing for newspapers and magazines (columnist of Women's Journal and The Filipino Reporter), and appearing on television with Ka Gerry Geronimo's Ating Alamin. To the end of his life at 87, he continued on discussing with his friends current events, his experiences, tradition and values. And most important, how life should be lived. Thus this article in 2011, reprinted in his memory. 
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Live on the countryside - not in the city.

Here are his suggestions on the ways to attain a more interesting lifestyle. In our conversation Ka Dell cautioned that not all of these suggestions applies to a person. They depend on age, culture, domicile, profession, and the like. In fact this serves more as a checklist rather than rules. One is free to choose, modify or add to the list as he may deem it fit under his situation and needs. What is important, Ka Dell emphasized, is how a person live a life that is happy, healthy, and meaningful.This is his message for the new year.

1. If you can manage, do not live in the city. It’s not a good idea to stay, live and work in Manila. The cost of living here is very high and is very complicated. Why not settle on the countryside?

2. Consider sending your children to schools in the provinces. While Manila is the center of education, there are many good schools in the provinces.

3. For the young, study the course you wish to pursue. Functional courses are becoming more in demand. They prepare you to become practical and opens great opportunities for self-employment.

4. Revive the bayanihan (cooperativism) spirit. For example, pooled transport will help a lot in saving money, gas, effort and labor. Cooperative farming, cleanup, gardening, are examples to apply this Filipino value.

5. Avoid food wastage. It takes a little ingenuity and art to convert leftover foods into new kinds of dish. Plan your menus according to your food budget. Cook at home, prepare the children's baon, and as much as possible, eat with the family.

6. Don't be lavish in everyday meals. Consider the nutritive values of the food served, and its proper distribution to the members of the family.

7. Plant some vegetables on vacant lots or in pots. Include herbals, and orchard trees if feasible. Make a home garden as part of your home.

8. On housing, follow the rules of nature on ventilation, sunlight exposure, and functional design. Your home should be environment-friendly, and "tailored" to enhance the natural landscape.

9. Don’t be too dependent on medicine, specially antibiotics, analgesics, sleeping pills, etc. Instead, take healthful foods and drinks. Don't take junk foods and carbonated drinks. Avoid additives and artificial food like MSG or Monosodium Glutamate (Vetsin), decaffeinated coffee, sugarless sugar (Aspartame, Nutrasweet, saccharin, magic sugar), fatless fat or Olestra .

10. Start an enterprise, proprietorship or family business. Remember the defunct NACIDA (National Cottage Industry Development) in the sixties and seventies that made the Philippines a strong economy. Start with "bottom-up approach." Don't rely on heavy burrowing and high technology.

11. A side line business helps. There are enterprising employees who get extra income through buy-and-sell, while others become agents of goods and services such as life plan and educational plan. Extend your side business with your own products, and those from your community.

12. Limit going to disco houses, fast foods centers, and sauna baths, and to very far places, just for pleasure. Instead, go to the nearest parks in your area and enjoy a weekend or a holiday with your family and friends.

13. Visit museums, painting exhibits, agricultural and industrial fairs, concerts, and the like. Join educational field trips, and continuing education programs.

14. The key to an interesting lifestyle is, “Simplify your lifestyle.” Here are further suggestions.

a. Let’s earn more and spend less. Be simple in everything. Why complicate matters?

b. Sa lahat ng bagay iwasan nating magpabongga. (Avoid ostentatious living.)

c. Learn the art of recycling everything.

d. Let us avoid panic buying. It is useless and self-defeating. Avoid impulse buying. We must study carefully the urgency of all the things we intend to buy.

e. Enjoy the wonders of biking and walking. Spend more time with nature.

f. Give up costly entertainment and celebrations like fiestas, birthdays, baptismal, anniversaries etc.

g. Practice self-discipline especially in spending. Self-control is very important.

h. Don’t rely too much on new technology. Use your creativity and hidden abilities in coming up with simple inventions and innovations, such as building a garden pond to harvest rainwater and raise hito and tilapia.

i. Make use of your talents like teaching children to paint, to play a musical instrument. It is one way of earning money and friends.

j. Give up costly vices, like gambling and smoking; and other cravings.

k. Put yourself in a low profile. Maybe, forget your title and do farming. You will get closer to people and become "at home" in your community.

l. Iwasan natin ang mainggit. Why buy a new model colored TV set when we can’t afford it? What is the point of coming up with the Joneses?

m. Let us forget the “live for today and to hell with tomorrow” attitude.

n. Plant all your vacant lots. There’s nothing impossible in urban food production.

o. For the unemployed, try shifting your gear to an alternative life style. Learn some sacrifices.

Lastly, follow family planning and don’t get married too soon these days.•

10 Definitions of a Museum

10 Definitions of a Museum  

Dr Abe V Rotor

Author and family visit the Museum of Natural History at UPLB Laguna

Museum is where time stands still and the world goes back

into the realm of the past resurrected by fossil and artifact;

Museum is a capsule of time and space that makes a tour

for the busy soul to break away from daily grind and chore;

Museum is where man's instinct yearning to know his origin

as a human being comes to terms with unsettled beginning.

Museum is the showcase of biodiversity, past and present

of the living world - prehistoric, the ancient and the recent;

Museum is a diorama, fashioned by man's hand, aesthetic

and make-believe, his life in harmony, doubt and conflict;

Museum is an arena of knowledge, attracting the scholars

to talk about anything on earth, and beyond the stars;

Museum is a place of reflection where man draws humility

from revelation, embracing both unknown and reality.

Museum is a keyhole of a country's wealth and culture,

a view of awe and beauty, achievements and rapport;

Museum is a center of peace, foreigners and citizens

converging into small United Nations of many friends.

Museum is a place marked with neither beginning nor end,

it simply takes one into a journey of life down the bend. ~

A diorama of a typical island in the tropic, SPU-QC Museum

 

Photography: Tracking a Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse July 22, 2009 10 to 11 AM
Photographs by Abe V Rotor and Marlo R Rotor

It is a cloudy day at Lagro, not far from La Mesa Eco Park.
It's not going to be an easy task. It threatens to rain.

Then the sun peeps through. What a sight. We anticipate the
moon to block the sun (partial eclipse in the Philippines, and
full in New Delhi, India).

The clouds clear after a heavy overcast which
lasted half an hour. The eclipse is advancing.

Use a tripod. The hand shakes at slow shutter speed.
Adjust to the highest ASA or DIN (sensitivity of the camera).
We use a digital SLR camera with a telephoto lens mounted
on a tripod.

Focusing is important, otherwise this is the photo you get. 
Adjust to smallest aperture, and infinity distance.

This photo is clear. We are using heavy filters designed to eliminate sun glare.

The filter used here does not alter the color of the sun.

Green filter is cool; it lends a special effect to an otherwise "hot subject".

Eclipse is associated with superstition. Can you name some local superstitious beliefs?
Cite historical and religious events influenced by eclipse. When will be the next solar eclipse? Specify location (latitude and longitude) and trace the path of the eclipse's shadow. Does solar eclipse occur as frequent as lunar eclipse?

Living with Nature, Volume 3. All Rights Reserved.

Living Carpet on a Rock Face

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living Carpet in acrylic, by AVR 2014

The rock face is no more, now wears a living veil;

its essence of giving life as it dies, fulfilled; 

when once proud and unyielding, unafraid to fail; 

to life after death, to creation must yield.

Puppy - world's most lovable baby animal

Puppy - world's most lovable baby animal 

 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog
Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8-9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Little Mackie lulled to sleep under her watchful puppy. 

Puppy, puppy everywhere, during the day for hours a play mate, at night a companion in bed, a sentinel by the crib, always awake, always faithful, always young; 

Puppy, puppy, the first word of a baby, akin to poppy; a father smiles at their similarity, often a reminder to be home early to spend time in the nursery;    

Puppy, puppy, it comes with a dozen siblings, weaned out and seldom joined again, each an orphan were it not for a new guardian – quite often a child master;

Puppy, puppy, the young Rin-tin-tin, retriever, hound, terrier, German shepherd, Saint Bernard on the Alps, Police dog and the like, in children's adventure stories; 

Puppy, puppy, in comic strips and cartoon - the young Snoopy, Scoobydoo, Toto, Argo, Nikki, Scud, Nana, Mutt, Wonder Dog and Talking Dog, in the land of fantasy;

Puppy, puppy, object of art in varied forms, from paintings to fashion, symbol on coats of arms, banners and badges, trademarks and ads, to shows and exhibitions;  

Puppy, puppy, innocent and coy, yet its ancient wild gene prevails when threatened, when hungry, when subdued; lonely and sad when abandoned, uncared;     

Puppy, puppy, snuggles in comfort and peace, sleeps calmly on the lap like a child, yelps in joy and anxiety, and laps the face with warm tongue and cold nose;

Puppy, puppy, sweet call, music to the ear, universally beautiful, joyous sound that releases now and then the world from roar and moan, to peace and harmony;      

Puppy, puppy, living specimen of love, care and compassion, a faithful companion of a child growing up to be a man; ~

Nature's Recyclers

Nature's Recyclers

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM Band, 8-9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Foliose lichen grows and breaks down the lignin of wood.
Parks and Wildlife Nature Center, QC

Moss builds soil from rock, an example of biological weathering.
Calaruega Retreat Center, Alfonso, Cavite

Termites eat wood with the aid of protozoa that live in
their stomach, an ideal example of symbiosis.

Termite mound covers a tree stump. Parks and Wildlife
Nature Center, Quezon City.

Mushrooms grow on plant residues, and convert them into
humus which fertilizes the crop. Antipolo, Rizal

Shelf mushrooms grow on dead wood, eventually converting
it into soil that piles up on the forest floor. Mt. Makiling, Laguna

Rot fungi blanket the dead limb of Ficus tree.

UST Manila.

A host of soil insects, principally crickets and grubs, was
responsible in toppling this tree. Caliraya Lake, Laguna.
Rhizobium bacteria convert atmospheric Nitrogen into nitrate
for the use of plants. Note tubercles in lower photo where the
beneficial bacteria reside.

Old Waterfall

Painting and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor

Old Waterfall in acrylic by AVR ca. 1980

Drip, drip, drip, may be music

to the ear in the park;

But not behind walls

or under a forgotten arch.

  

Superstition and folklore

bear no truth but fancy,

yet we care with passing ear

that takes us to fantasy. ~

Welcome to Old Spanish Vigan

UNESCO World Heritage - This is how Vigan, the oldest Spanish settlement in the Philippines, after Cebu and Manila, looked like - day and night - way back in the 16th century. Today Vigan is the top tourists' attraction in the whole of the Ilocos Region. Photos by Matthew Marlo Rotor who hails from the place. (Vigan is 400 km north of Manila, reached in 6 hours on first class buses. Check flight schedule to Vigan, or Laoag. From Laoag, it's 90 km by land down to Vigan.) 

Tambuli

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Tambuli shell

Behold! I capture what the gun cannot,

     nor the eye, ear, the deepest feeling,

by a drop of water from Heaven frozen

     into a lens for man's soul searching

for those with fang, claw and horn, 

     buried in sand, in the ocean deep ,

images unearthly - real or fantasy 

     that the Creator has in His keep.

Behold! I capture the essence of life -

     fleeting and flowing in unity; 

before its demise in the archives stored,

     in ignominy and history. ~

Reversibility of Evolution

Providence defied, the whole process reverts to protomass, back into nothingness. 

Painting and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor 

Life Primeval in acrylic (12.7" x 24") by AVR 2014

Creation and evolution of Oparin and Darwin,
the beginning and continuity of life traced;

Lamarck's theory on living architecture
by law of use and disuse questioned;

Leeuwenhoek's invisible world revealed,
a realm of deeper mystery sprang instead;

E O Wilson's model of sociobiology,
of instinct and rationality lacked the spirit;

Einstein’s E=mc2 unleashed the atom’s power
through the Bomb, Armageddon’s lament.

Mendel's laws on the continuity of genes,
precursor of today's genetic engineering;

Providence defied, the whole process reverts
to protomass, back into nothingness. ~

Glowing Caterpillars

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

Glowing Caterpillars in acrylic on mounted canvas (21.5” x 22”) AVR 2014

Wondered I as a child seeing you glow in the dark,

     passing  the day in slumber with your host;

your fire is myth, but what philosophy does it make,  

     of your presence exacting a heavy cost?

As I grew up, I learned phosphorescence everywhere:

      plankton of endless number and variety;

the woods and fields studded with watchful eyes,          

      and you, you make a glowing crown of a tree.

I’ve seen wild mushrooms, jellyfish in the deep, glow,

      sulfur bacteria in boiling caldera shining;

and in old age a myriad fireflies mingling with the stars,

     that link us all to a Supreme Being. ~       

Maestro

 Maestro
Dr Abe V Rotor

Painting of Jacques-Louis David, "The Death of Socrates",

the great teacher (maestro)

Hemlock mangted panaginana,

Ballegi! Kappia!

Death brings rest, victory and peace. (Referring to the Greek philosopher Socrates, who was sentenced to die by drinking poison from hemlock.)

Gandhi, Bolivar, Rizal;
Tao ti agturay.
These great leaders fought for people's rule - democracy.

Awan puot panaglakay;
Rip Van Winkle. Ay!
Sleeping makes one unconscious of getting old. (Rip van Winkle slept for twenty long years in Washington Irving's famous short story of the same title.)

Gabriel ken Evangeline
"Biag ko!" "Biag ko!"

My love! My love! (These lovers separated by war, finally found each other in old age at Gabriel's deathbed. Longfellow's masterpiece, Evangeline, a romantic epic.)

Ania't ayat a pudpudno -
Freud wenno Plato?
Which love is true - Freudian or Platonic?

Tubwan iti ru-ot ni laglagip
Didiay Austerlitz.

Nothing but grass now covers this former Nazi concentration camp.

"I'm the grass. I cover all."

Sinardengan ni Solomon

dagiti kuton,
King Solomon halted his army to let the ants pass.

Makapurar ti puro
Nga balitok.
It's pure gold that truly glitters.

‘Toy aw-awitek’ a Krus -
Pangipanak kadi?

This Cross that I carry, where shall I put it?

(Carry your cross and follow Me.")

Home, Sweet Home with Nature, AVR