San Vicente IS Series: Homecoming - "I am waiting for you, my child"
Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio
738 DZRB AM, 8-9 evening class Monday to Friday
I am
a modern day Prodigal Son. I spent fifty long years searching and searching for
a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, fifty long years of my
youth and in old age – twice longer the fiction character Rip van Winkle did
sleep – and now I am back to the portals of my hometown, to the waiting arms of
my father.
St Vncent Ferrer, Patron saint
The proverbial Lamp I still hold flickers, but it is but a beacon in embers
now, for it had spent its luminance in the darkness of human weakness and
failures, it beamed across the ocean of ignorance and lost hope, it trailed the
path of many adventures and discoveries, and it kept vigil in the night while I
slept.
And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone.
“Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”
San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far
end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements
of time and rough hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting
for you my child. When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with
material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom or the
breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices
or clouded by greenhouse gases – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the
cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism
in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human
endeavor.
“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It
is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feeling is that I am
standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in
peace and trials, in villages and metropolises, in all endeavors and walks of
life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or
remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor
and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey
their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.
The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town arch
to meet the world some fifty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the
famous question “Quo vadis?” -where are you going? I can only give a glimpse
from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in “Future
Shock,” or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. Teachers
as I know, and having been trained as one, see the world as it is lived; they
make careful inferences, and take a bird’s eye view cautiously. They are
conveyors of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication
technology, cannot even qualify as chroniclers, nay less of forecasters. I have
always strived to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can
only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully
witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of
the young.
Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and
developments in the fifty years I was away from home, but on the other side of
midnight, so to speak.
1. The monster that Frankenstein made lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with
scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.
2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the
forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, flooding the
shorelines.
3. One race one nation equals globalization. How we have taken over evolution
in our hands. We are playing God, is Paradise Lost II in the offing?
4. The world is wired, it travels fast on two feet – communication and
transportation. The world has shrunk into but a village. Homogenization is the
death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind.
5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of nature. We
take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs
counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build
or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.
6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our spaceship is
getting overloaded. Man’s needs, more so man’s want, become burgeoning load of
Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our
beloved young ones away from us, as it did in Hamlyn many years ago?
7. Conscience, conscience, where is spirituality that nourishes it. Where have
all the religious teachings gone? Governance – where is the family, the home?
Peace and order – Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan – another Korea, another
Vietnam, only in another place, in another time.
8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces –
the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is
inequity that makes the world poor; we have more than enough food, clothing,
shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world? Capitalism
or socialism? – No, not Terrorism.
As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I
encountered it but to grasp its meaning from the points of view of famous
philosophers and writers. I studied it with the famous lines from William
Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.
To wit.
“To see the world in a grain of
sand;
And a Heaven a wild flower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”
- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
If ever I have ventured into becoming a “redeemer” armed with a pen, I too,
have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its
magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of
the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain
of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.
And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a
flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in
periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of
us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain
time and place” which I believe has a purpose in whatever and however one lives
his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world”
and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty,
experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories
and defeats.
While the world goes round and around . . .
The world like in Aristotle’s time continue to struggle with the preservation
of values; the species will continue to evolve as postulated by Darwin; culture
will express itself more fully since the first painting of early man dwelling
in the caves of Lasceaux in France.
Ancestral home of the author in San Vicente IS
Trade and commerce will continue to progress, reaches a plateau and declines -
a normal curve that goes with the rise and fall of civilizations. Yet leaders
do not see it that way. Not even the Utopia of conquerors like Alexander the
Great whose global economic vision two thousand five hundred years ago is fundamental
to the great powers of today – the United States, European Union.
The great religions will continue to bring man to his knees and look into
heaven amidst knowledge revolution and growing complexity of living, Man’s
infinitesimal mind continues to probe the universe. Never has man been so busy,
so bothered, so confused, yet so determined than ever before, and trying to
fill up God’s seventh day.
As I go on reflecting I came across the book of Pope John Paul II, Crossing the
Threshold of Hope, 1994. He warns us succinctly.
“This
world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man –
which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of
communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations –
this world is not capable of making man happy.
- Pope John Paul II, On
the Threshold of Hope
Now I am home, my father, my hometown. I do only wish for comfort. Thank you for
you have taught me and instilled in me the spirit of virtue and fortitude.
Thank you for making me a Vincentian.~
St Vincent Ferrer - Confessor, Angel of the Last Judgment Confessor, Angel of the Last Judgment
Born 23 January 1350(1350-01-23)
Valencia, Kingdom of Valencia
Died 5 April 1419(1419-04-05) (aged 69)
Vannes, Brittany
Venerated in Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion
Canonized 3 June 1455, Rome by Pope Calixtus III
Major shrine Vannes Cathedral
Feast 5 April
Attributes pulpit; cardinal's hat; trumpet; captives; Bible
Patronage builders, construction workers, plumbers
Vincent
was the second son of William Ferrer (an English immigrant to Spain)
and his wife, Constantia Miguel. Legends surround his birth.
He
would fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and he loved the Passion of Christ
very much. He would help the poor and distribute many alms to them.
Vincent decided to join the Dominicans when his father gave him a choice
whether to enter into secular, ecclesiastical, or a religious state.
University of Santo Tomas Chapel
Ferrer
entered the Dominican Order at the age of eighteen and studied
philosophy and theology. He prayed and practiced penance. For a period
of three years, he read solely Sacred Scripture, and eventually
committed it to memory. He published a treatise on Dialectic Suppositions
after his solemn profession. He eventually became a Master of Sacred
Theology and was commissioned to deliver lectures on philosophy. He was
then sent to Barcelona and eventually to the University of Lleida, where
he earned his doctorate in theology.
Vincent
later claimed that the Great Schism had such a depressing effect on his
mind that it caused him to be seriously ill at the age of forty. He
claimed that God healed him and instructed him to go out and convert
many. For twenty-one years he was said to have traveled to Aragon,
Castile, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Scotland,
preaching the Gospel and converting many. Many biographers believe that
he was endowed with the gift of tongues, as he could speak only Catalan.
Vincent
is said to be responsible for the conversion of many Jews to
Catholicism. One of his converts, a former rabbi by the name of Solomon
ha-Levi, went on to become Bishop of Cartagena and later Archbishop of
Burgos. Vincent is noted to have contributed to anti-Semitism in Spain,
as violence accompanied his visits to towns that had Jewish communities.
One of Vincent's achievement was in converting a synagogue in Toledo,
Spain into the church of Santa María la Blanca.
Vincent
was very loyal to the Avignonese Pope Benedict XIII, better known as
"Papa Luna" in Castile and Aragon, remained in steadfast loyalty to him,
and believed that Benedict XIII was the true Pope. Vincent died on 5
April 1419 at Vannes in Brittany, and was buried in Vannes Cathedral. He
was canonized by Pope Calixtus III on 3 June 1455. His feast day is
celebrated on 5 April. The Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer, a Pontifical religious institute, is named after him.~ (Wikipedia)
Dr Jekyll and My Hyde is a novel written by Robert Louis Stevenson
There are at least three games played by these children: hoola hoop, yoyo and "mix" sipa (foreground). 
A duel of two spiders is a favorite game of children, and also adults. 
It takes skill and practice to walk of a pair of stilt. Tail of a kite can be seen at the at the background.
This
boy wears a slingshot (tirador), a popular plaything for targeting and
hunting birds and fish. The carabao is for work and also for game.
Travel on its back and you can even take a nap on it while it is docile.
Palo sebo is climbing a greased bamboo pole and getting the prize awaiting at on top. 
Skipping
rope, wooden scooter and many other games, are both for boys and
girls. They provide balanced upbringing of children under a normal
social environment.
Note
the double function of the claypot placed on this window tunnel:
ventilation helps cool the water in the claypot, while the claypot cools
air that passes through into your dining room or kitchen (air-conditioning principle)
Valencia, Kingdom of Valencia
Google Earth KML