40 Ways to Spend Summer - a Checklist

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Details of murals by AVR

Beating summer heat, San Juan, Ilocos Sur

Summer is here. Generally, it is a season synonymous to vacation. To others a time of reflection, extra work, make-up for lost time, an opportunity. It is coming home; it is reunion. It is respite for body and soul. Make this summer a fruitful and memorable one.

Here is a list of responses of participants of Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (School-on-Air, 738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday with Abe V Rotor and Melly C Tenorio)

Summer in 40 ways. Check those that apply to you. 

1. Putting on cool clothes, comfortable field shoes, accessories against sun.

2. Enrolling in summer classes, back or advance subjects.

3. Having a digital camera and taking photos and arranging them in an album, or in the computer.

4. Not wasting the season watching TV and playing with the computer every day.

5. Getting into some classes in craft, art, sports, dance, driving, and the like.

6. Going on vacation to the province, pay respects to old folks. It is reunion with family and relatives, and friends - and having new acquaintances.

7. Going abroad, staying with relatives and friends there, seeing places, meeting people. To be in other countries expand our consciousness about different cultures, and discovering how beautiful our country is. It can make one really feel homesick.

8. Homecoming with former classmates. It is attending to a friend's wedding, or seeing one before leaving to live in another place, welcoming new neighbors and members of your organization.

9. Working on your body at a local gym, play badminton, volleyball, pingpong, other sports.

10. A walk in the park, on the beach, walk with nature – nature trail.

11. Learning to market, to cook and prepare the table – specially for girls.

12. Renting a beach house for the whole family and building a campfire.

13. Having an inflatable swimming pool on the garden, for kids - and adults, too.

14. Planting tree seedlings at the onset of rain, and preparing the home garden as well.

15. Putting up a lemonade stand and going into business. Selling halo-halo, gulaman, buko juice,

16. Relaxing at the beach watching the ocean – meditating and recharging energy.

17. Creative writing – poetry, short story, essay, feature.

18. Writing in your journal – The Story of my Life

19. Giving more chance for the body to recovery faster from ailment and infirmity.

20. Seeing the family doctor, scheduling a thorough checkup – and getting a clean bill of health.

21. Making a family video of an occasion, better still a documentary. It is organizing family photos, report cards, birthday cards, artwork, concert programs and other keepsakes from the past year into a scrapbook.

22. Remembering the departed, offering candles and prayers in their memory; above all a whisper or act of gratitude for all the goodness they did for us.

23. Bonding with pets, making them happy and healthy - and teaching your dog new tricks.

24. Learning a new language. The best way is to go to a place where the language you wish to learn is the only language.

25. Improving your English - speaking and writing. And reviving the art of handwriting.

26. Learning to play a musical instrument. Music enhances the mind in many ways. Studies have shown that children who study music at an early age do better in school than those who don’t. Aside from that, it is also just plain fun.

27. Learning to sew, making and mending clothes. Older and more skilled children can even make their own clothes for the coming school year.

28. Taking a special computer class - but make it fun. Learn to type properly, use a spreadsheet or database, design websites, make presentations, etc. Most jobs these days involve computer use, so knowing as much as you can about computers might help you get a higher salary.

29. Sorting through your stuff . Go through your clothes and things and prune out those you no longer want or need. You could donate the things you no longer need or hold a garage or yard sale and make some money to put into your college or retirement savings.

30. Getting a summer job, “earning to learn,” specially for working students.

31. Indexing your books, other references, documents with the computer or the conventional way.

32. Cleaning out your computer. If there are programs you don’t use, uninstall them. If there are files that you no longer need, delete them. Keeping your hard drive from getting too full will extend its life.

33. Mall Walking - Walking in an indoor, air-conditioned mall is a great way to get exercise away from the heat and smog, and you can also save on sunscreen. You can even window-shop during your walks, but if you think you might get too tempted, leave your money and credit card at home.

34. Learning to swim. Swimming is another low-impact exercise (safer than running) which increases endurance, muscle and cardiovascular strength. Try to swim in an indoor pool whenever possible or wait until early evening to avoid sunburn.

35. Joining prayer rallies, healthy religious activities, bible studies.

36. Making sweet, jams, jellies, for hobby and money. Summer is fruit season.

37. Joining community projects like Clean and Green, supporting environmental campaign such as beach cleaning, prevention of brush fire.

38. Reviving traditional games like kite flying, sipa, spinning top, yoyo – make, don’t buy.

39. Repair, repair, repair. Name it and it needs repair (toys, house, figurine, kitchen wares, china, garden tools, books, etc)

40. Fiestas, celebrations, festivities. It is also a time of retreat and reflection.

From these responses, it is good to keep always in mind this guide.

• Be frugal and simple,
• Be productive,
• Have fun, and
• Share with others.

NOTE: This is an open ended list. Please share your experiences and add them to the list. ~

A Day at the Museum of Natural History - Defining what a Museum is

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog

Field Trip of public school teachers from UST Graduate School under an enhancement program, UPLB Laguna.


Skeleton of a tamaraw (Anoa mindorensis), now an endangered species. It is endemic to the Mindoro Island


Wall. wall, who is the most informed of all?


History in a glass case


Whale, dead and alive - and threatened.


Kids' world in a natural world through arts


Public high school teachers in Metro Manila pose before the UPLB Museum of Natural History


Author leads group in a field lecture

Museum is...

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. ~
--------------

Photos taken at the Museum of Natural History at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, Laguna.
LESSON: Former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio; 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Tropical Rainforest comes alive on a wall mural

If by imagination alone, the forest would be a fairyland; by biological measure, it is science; by art, it is romantic, realistic, abstract - all combined. And where is its soul, the source of its eternal spring that keeps it living, whole and balance, self regenerating, self regulating?

Composed and painted by Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog

 

Morning sun peeps through a pristine watershed  that feeds this forest stream, 

habitat of resident and migratory birds such as the white heron and mallard duck.  
                       

How little an artist I am to be able to bring home nature, in utmost humility, a little part of creation, the rainforest, the richest of all biomes on earth;

Little do I know the interior of a forest, the throbbing heart of this oldest ecosystem, abode of man before he rose from his humanoid ancestors; 

If by imagination alone, the forest would be a fairyland, by biological measure, it is science; by art, it is romantic, realistic, abstract - all combined; 

And where is its soul, the source of its eternal spring that keeps it living, whole and  balance, self regenerating, self regulating, that I tried to paint;

But poorly my eyes can see, poorly I hear the true song of the creatures, much less their language, poorly I smell the fragrance of earth and flower;

How little, how uncertain I am in capturing the wholeness of my subject, but to compensate it with awe and respect as I paint it on a blank wall;

And if this is prayer, then I would spend hours and hours, without let-up, without boredom, inexhaustible I let flow colors and lines and hues;   

Until the forest takes shape, rising to heaven in many layers and niches, season after season, until it becomes a happy home of a myriad of creatures;

From the lowly to the lofty, the invisible to the giant, the meek to the proud, the weak to the strong, sessile to the mobile - all living in a state of oneness;

It is a mystery: where there is diversity there is union; where there is disagreement there is understanding; where there is discord there is unity;  

The forest is an epitome of such kingdom, a little kingdom in man's standard, wild and rough in his own rules of kindness and beauty, and judgment;

It is a little kingdom on a little wall I found myself painting, my grandchild Marchus by my side, still too young yet pure and free from the bias of man;  

Courage I told myself, a brush on hand, steady now, looked up and an unseen hand took my hand; clearly it is the hand of the Greatest Artist of all  

   

     

     

     

Details of A Tropical Rainforest Wall Mural (3.5 ft x 15 ft) in acrylic by Dr Abe V Rotor at his residence in Lagro, Block 61 61, Lot 55 (corner Kudyapi St and Lam-ang St)  2015.  The mural is an integral part (3rd panel) of a larger mural (7 ft x 30 ft).   

The mural is made up of  three sections as shown in the above photos: 

• Emergent trees and their tenants (top);
• Exploring a forest stream (middle),
• Food web and energy flow (lowermost)

    

Among the countless creatures of the tropical rainforest that comprise its rich biodversity are: a rat, giant among its kind in the lowland, lives in a hollow of a tree; boa constrictor adapted to arboreal life, transient gulls adapted to both sea and forest life; tree iguana that branched out of marine igunas, and those that live in dry conditions; chamelion the master of camouflage and mimicry; sloth, mother and young, clinging on a tree motionless and sleeping most of its life.  

 

My grandson, Marchus Andrei, 6 months old and Nanny Gelyn Gabao.

Children in a make-believe setting: cool, fresh water flows down a waterfall onto a stream and flaccid pond of lotus and Nymphaea, habitat of freshwater fish, reptiles  and amphibians. 

A bird call echoes through this  thick stand of old trees and saplings

 at the edge of a forest.

Lesson: 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

Life in a Passing Review

"Life’s a journey but once in time and space." avr

Painting and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor

 Scenery of a happy life acrylic on canvas

(58” x 34”) by Dr Abe V Rotor, 2019

Life’s in the seasons passing and returning;

How familiar when we are young, how we miss

When old we grow, leave the place for another.

Oh, how we love the seasons like passing breeze.

Life’s in the sea, unfathomed and mysterious;

How familiar the changing tides and beaches,

The waves rolling incessantly with our dreams.

Oh, how we love the sea the life it teaches.

  

Life’s in the rocks rising from the ocean deep;

How familiar their shapes, their majestic height,

Deep within the secret of life’s origin.     

Oh, how we love the mountains in pure delight.

Life’s in the endless sky, deep blue or in gloom,

How familiar faces and figures in shroud,

The sun’s chariot takes us to Mount Olympus;

Oh, how we love the sky, praise we sing aloud.      

Life’s a journey but once in time and space;   

How familiar our goal likened to a mirth

In a scene imagined, redeemed from the Fall.

                           Oh, how we love to re-create life on earth. ~     

Part 4: GMO Medicine and Cloning

Dr Abe V Rotor

GMO and Medicine

 .With the Human Genome - the genetic map of the 46 chromosomes and their gene components - about to be completed, a new field of medicine – gene therapy – is being  unveiled.

Here a “defective” gene that is the cause of a disease, say diabetes or cancer, can be repaired, even before these diseases are expressed by the patient. It is also true that addiction such as alcoholism can also be cured in this manner. In the future diagnosis will be done by reading the genome map of the person. Insurance companies, employers, banks, schools, etc. will rely greatly on the genome map.

But before gene therapy will be available in hospitals, there will be drug-carrying GMOs. Eating broccoli for example, will deliver drugs that stave off infectious diseases or treat various chronic ailments, not because broccoli is rich in vitamins and minerals, but because it carries a gene that is specific in curing a particular disease.

DNA Helix model of Crick and Watson 

GM potatoes and tomatoes with therapeutic DNA material may someday be used for immunization. Instead of getting the shot one will simply eat these GM food. For Third World countries, plant-based vaccines appear practical. The villagers simply grow these plants and eat them a few to several times and year, thus activating the antibodies which protect body against particular diseases in the process.

The process may be useful for conditions such as Type I diabetes. For diabetics, eating insulin-bearing tubers could eventually train the body’s defenses to stop reacting to insulin as if it were a foreign material.

GMO and Cloning

Cloning is at the extreme end of biotechnology – the creation of a whole organism that carries the exact replica of its parent, the organism from which the clone was derived. Candidate for cloning are lined up in the list of endangered species. The first successful clone under Noah project (named after Noah in the Old Testament is the gaur, a relative of the cow found in India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia. The first cloned endangered animal is about to be born. Among the important candidates are the giant Panda, White Rhinoceros and the Bactrian Deer.

It is not far that the next candidate is man himself. Scientists believe that if this happens it will be the greatest mistake of science, because the human species is pushed nearly to extinction, which is worse than his banishment from Eden. ~

Living with Nature in Our Times, UST-AVR

Part 3: GMOs That Went Wrong

GM-free movement is gaining worldwide support. 
Dr Abe V Rotor
Monster in the sky - GMO looms.

1. Genetically engineered dairy cows – With rBGH in their genes, the production of milk tremendously increased. They are virtually walking milk factories. But these cows require high antibiotics sustenance to prevent udder infection, with risk 30 times higher than man. Result: When we drink the milk residual antibiotics get into our system and trigger the bacteria in the digestive system to mutate and become resistant.

2. Genetically engineered tomatoes - With a resistant gene that allows ripening without rotting, this same gene confers resistance to the antibiotics kanamycin. The resistance may be picked up by bacteria in our stomach and intestines that mutate into resistant strains.

3. Genetically engineered peanut – Like the other GMO, it carries transferred genes from another plant, animal or microbe. In this particular case, the transferred genes contain instructions for making proteins. But some of these proteins cause allergic reactions that affect humans and other consumers, such as animals that feed on peanut meal and hay.

4. Bt Corn and Bt Cotton – Widespread planting of these crops will spur Bt resistance among crop pests. There are also reports on the decline in the population of insect pollinators such as the adorable Monarch butterfly.

The Case of the Suicide Seeds

Monsanto, a leading biotech company in the US had always a way for its farmer-cooperators not to plant the seeds they bought from the company for a premium. Violation would mean breach of contract. But farmers are farmers, especially marginal farmers.

So to enforce the policy, the company came up with a solution. Through biotechnology, the company inserted a terminator gene to protect its intellectual-property rights. This seed sterilizing technology however has taken a far damaging consequence. The pollen of the terminator plants could drift far and wide on the wind like a toxic cloud, and pollinate ordinary crops or wild plants, and spread from species to species. In the process scientists fear that flora all around the world become unexpectedly and irreversibly sterilized.
This brings us to a fundamental question, “Who owns biotechnology? Who controls the seeds of life?”

Genetically modified soybean and corn, which have been approved in many countries including the US, Canada, Australia, and the European Union, are very likely incorporated into various food preparations.”

Dr. Lee Sing Kong, Chairman GMAC Sub-Committee on Public Awareness
_____________________________________________________________

The Birth of Anti- GM Movement

Because of the Monsanto case, activist groups like Rural Advancement Foundation International are using the Net to rally Terminator opponents, urging them to flood the USDA with letters of protests. Immediately 4000 people from 62 countries have responded.

Actually it was not Monsanto that created the Terminator. USDA and a seed company known as Delta and Land developed the technology. Mosanto brought the patent from Delta with $1 billion - plus offer to buy Delta. (Time, January 2001)

Opponents did not care who created Terminator. To them the idea is Frankenstenian on its face.

GM-Free, a consumers’ advocacy group in UK have listed down the following products that contain GM ingredients:

1. GM soya from UK can be found in bread, biscuits, baby milk, baby foods, breakfast cereals, margarine, soups, pasta, pizza, instant meals, meat products, flours, sweets, ice cream, crisps, chocolate, soy sauce, veggie-burgers, tofu, soya milk, and pet foods.

2. GM corn from US can be present in processed foods such as instant meals, soups, sauces, cake mixes, crisps, snacks, sweets and chewing gums.

Continued...

Part 1: Genetic Engineering: Today’s Green Revolution

“Will Frankenfood feed the World?” 

Dr Abe V Rotor

A general impression about seminars and conferences on Genetic Engineering is to find out if one agrees with the issue or not. One may be asked, “Are you in favor of genetically modified organisms (GMO) and genetically modified food (GMF)? Outside of the hall one may be asked casually of the same question.

Photo Acknowledgement: Time Magazine

It is hard to expect clear yes or no answers. Here is the story to make us understand why – and to help us take side intelligibly on the issue.

We in the older generation have witnessed three revolutions in food production. The first green revolution was the opening of new frontiers, such as the development of Mindanao, the land of promise. The second green revolution was brought about by the so-called miracle varieties, or the introduction and breeding of high yielding crops. In both cases production tremendously increased – horizontally with new lands placed under cultivation, and vertically with higher productivity obtained. The third, which we are experiencing today, is biotechnology, which highlights the radical approach of genetic engineering.

The first Green Revolution pushed production frontiers up to the mountains and down to the sea. Slope agriculture and aquaculture were born. When agronomy succeeded in pushing plants and animals to yield to maximum, we began tinkering with their genes through conventional breeding and atomic radiation. The world proved Malthus to be wrong up to this point.

Today with more than 7 billion people populating the earth and with their geometric increase unabated, the biggest challenge of mankind is how to meet the tremendous increasing demand for food. By year 2050, the world’s population will be 9 billion. Proponents of genetic engineering believe that only by applying the vast potentials of this scientific breakthrough can the world’s burgeoning population be saved from the Malthusian apocalypse.

By-Products of Green Revolution

The main drawback of the Green Revolution I - that of pushing the frontiers of production - has been the irreversible loss of natural environments and species. For GR II, we spoiled our lands, lakes, rivers and seas with pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals exacerbated by industrial wastes. For GR III – biotechnology – what is causing a lot of fear is Frankenstein-like, a kind of Genie released from the confines of super intellect.

Some even branded GMF as Frankenfood named after Frankenstein, title of a novel written in 1818 by Mary Shelly. It is a story about a brilliant medical student, Victor Frankenstein, who created a monster that terrified the world and at the end turned against his own creator. It is not difficult to associate the concept of genetically altering organisms to Frankenstein syndrome. The story is perhaps the first serious warning on the use of high technology in man’s ambition to play God. GMO is the most controversial issue today that touches all aspects of our life - environmental, health, safety and ethical questions. It is claimed to be anti-God and anti-nature.

The Promise of GMO
“Will Frankenfood feed the World?” is an article written by Bill Gates for Time, Visions of our 21st Century Technology. The multi-billionaire stirs the world on two fronts: GMF has met fierce opposition among the well-fed, but it is the poor and the hungry who need it most.

He admits that even before the warning came – in spite of the information highway – the world was not well informed before hand. There was no global consultation. But GMF is already a part of life of Americans and Europeans. Here are some proofs.

1. A third of the corn and more than half of the soybeans and cotton grown in the US is the product of biotechnology.

2. Since 1992, a total of 70 genetically modified crop plants have been released commercially worldwide. This means that many people have been eating genetically modified food without their knowledge.

3. Only one country in Asia – Malaysia that has not introduced GMO. On the other hand Singapore imports food in bulk from the US and Europe and therefore Singaporeans are likely eating GMF.

4. In the Philippines the most likely GMF we are eating without knowing or being informed about it are those served at fast food stores and PX goods coming from Europe and the US.

But the debate about biotech is tempered by the fact that there is apparent desperate need to feed fast-growing and underfed populations. According to the UN 800 million people around the world are undernourished.

While we cannot rely on conventional agriculture, ironically too, arable land has declined steadily since 1960 and will decrease by half over the next 50 years, according to the International Service for Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA).

_______________________________________________________________

One area of heated debate is in the aspect of ecology. Because the products of Genetic Engineering are new and untested, their effects as they pass through the food chain must be thoroughly investigated. Admittedly very little study has been done on this aspect.
_______________________________________________________

Continued...

Part 2: Genetic Engineering - Tinkering with the Book of Life

Dr Abe V Rotor

Conventional agriculture can improve crops to this extent - giant balimbing (Averrhoa carambola) - basically by means of selection and hybridization. Should we resort to genetic engineering to produce more and bigger crops? Should we tinker with the genes, transferring them from one species to another, and creating new "life forms" in effect?

After we have perfected the model of the DNA which is the code of heredity, we have succeeded in cracking the code itself, which is the code of life.

This feat was preceded by the cracking the atom which brought out the first genie, the atomic bomb.

What would this second genie look like?

Let us create scenarios based on scientific papers in the light of many inquiries.

1. Does GMO cause cancer and other diseases? Evidences do not point out directly that it does. But cancer is too complex for us to have full understanding. Something – and that something that triggers the disease - may not be determined immediately, not until we can accurately read it in the human genome map. It is as puzzling as such questions like, Where did prion (infective principle of mad cow disease) come from? How does it cause Bovine Spongioform Encephalopathy (BSE), and the human Crueztfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD) with which the mad cow disease is associated? Other than cancer why are there more and more young people contacting diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s? We do not know. We can not blame these to GMO either. It is too early to say.

2. GMO and the Terminator. Here the genie is a multinational that placed in its hands the fate of the farmer. This is worst than the hybrid corn seeds which farmers must renew their seed stock every time they plant their fields. The Terminator is a GM corn that carries genes that automatically kill the embryo after the crop is harvested so that farmers have to buy new seeds from the company. The creator, Monsanto, got the ire of many people. It projected a bad image of biotechnology.

3. Processed Food from GMO. Seemingly you do not see this kind of genie. We do not know but we are eating GMF how much we are trying to avoid it. There was no referendum conducted or public consultation before GMF was put to market. Today GM soybean is processed into cooking oil, soy sauce, TVP, taho, tokwa, etc. GM potato finds its way through fast food chains. GM cows in steaks, burgers, corned beef and milk. Whose accountability can we seek refuge?

4. GMO touches the fiber of culture, beliefs and religion. People are generally sensitive to many things, cultural, religious, personal. Protest may be felt even in their silence. It could be that their silence is in the lack of food and absence of other alternatives. Beggars are no chooser, so goes a saying.

5. The Capitalist Syndrome. Who’s afraid of the big, big wolf? Ask not George Orwell. Remember his book, “1984”? He has another definition of big brother. I also refer to the book of Susan George, “How the Other Half Dies”. The world is without sufficient food, it is because the other half has simply too much. Well, capitalism is not perfect; it has also excesses as well as weaknesses. But what guarantee then has GMO not to fall into the control of the capitalist? Monsanto gave the early signals. Who control (owns) the gene banks of CIMMYT and IRRI?

Perhaps we have to look also at the humanitarian angle of capitalism in the absence of a better alternative.

a. GMO, medicine and health. Remember that a genie can be obliging, too. Genetic engineering is as young as dawn. As light breaks we take a glimpse before the sun is up.

b. Genetic engineering is perhaps the key to the pest and disease control, such as malaria and dengue. Entomologists have isolated parasite-suppressing genes in mosquitoes.

c. GE in medicine as stated in Dr. Saturnina Halos’s paper, such as insulin production, has expanded into the production of more potent antibiotics, hormones, etc. The incorporation of vitamins in food could reduce infant mortality, blindness, and other associated defects.

Frankenstein

It is inevitable that a time will come – and soon - when genetic engineering will be applied in human cloning. Today, we have so far applied human biotechnology mostly to helping childless couples bear children. But with results in animal cloning, a technique is being developed to clone the human being without encountering the problems encountered in Dolly the sheep – premature aging. This could be the biggest monster science will ever make. But it could be another Tower of Babel in the making. ~

Optimism - the future is much better than the past and present.

Optimism - the future is much better than the past and present. 

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”– Winston Churchill

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

   Future scientist - setting a dream come true.

How optimistic are you? Here is a self-examination. Use the Likert scale: 1 low, 2 fair, 3 high, 4 very high, 5 outstanding.  Please see rating at the end of the article.  Share your experience in this lesson with your family and friends.   
  
1. When in your loneliness see dark clouds hovering, their edges glistening with silver lining, you wish rain to fall and turn the brown hills and parched fields into verdant green.

2. When tired, you take a deep breath of sigh and relief, and up in the sky you see migrating birds in V-formation, a collective strategy in long travel to the South.

3. When walking aimlessly, you take time out to watch the flowers of Nymphaea and Lotus emerging from a nearby pond as they open gracefully with the morning sun.

4. When you worry about global warming, its growing menace, you take measures in your capacity in curving its effect for the protection of the present and future generations.    

5. When feeling stressed and worn out because of too much work and very little time for rest, you stop, look and listen to an inner voice longing to be heard and to be loved.

6. When you think you have poor memory, you must admit the fact that memory paves the way for renewal and preparation for the future with a clean slate, so to speak.          

7. When you see little chance for the economy to grow, you still go into business, small as it may be, with the belief in the "bottom-up" approach to economic  growth.  

8. When you lack pep and interest in your work, and you have a family to support, aiming at a comfortable retirement and bright future of your children, take heart, enliven the spirit.       

9. When going out of the house and see a black cat, a crow perched on a tree, and the first person you meet is an old woman, don't let superstition bar your way and spoil your day.    

10. When saddened by the destruction of the environment, you plant trees even at an old age, even if you will not reap the reward yourself - it is your humble contribution to the world. 

11. When you are in grief because a loved one has passed away, you accept the inevitability of such loss and find comfort and strength in facing life from the memory of the departed.   

12. When you are disheartened by news about conflicts, graft and corruption, disaster, etc., you consider these as challenge for reform and test of values to which you are a part. 

13. When the things you longed for in life have not been realized, and you are aware that time is running out, and no one but you can help, believe that life begins at forty - or sixty.  

14. When you contemplate defeat and heartache, you rise above pain and regret, and focus rather on how these can be avoided, and more than that - to become victorious.

15. When you are in the lowest ebb of life literally holding a piece of rope, you remember sometime you were asked if you wish to live you life all over again, and you said, yes.    

"Optimists work longer hours and tend to earn more.  They even save more." Time

"Without a neural mechanism that generates unrealistic optimism, all humans would be mildly depressed." Time 

"Awareness of mortality on its own would have led evolution to a dead end. The despair would have have interfered with our daily function, bringing the activities needed for survival to a stop... Knowledge of death had to emerge side by side with the persistent ability to picture a bright future." Ajit Varkl, University of California (Time, June 2011)            

 Thomas Edison, great American inventor, he is best known for inventing the incandescent lamp which lighted homes and cities and forever changed the night landscape.

 Charles Darwin, proponent of the most controversial issue on evolution through natural selection;  Mao Tse Tung, China's greatest leader; below, Alexander the Great, first proponent of a "United Nations" concept of world peace. 
 

Rating: 61 - 75 You are a model of Optimism.  Share it. Teach others.  
             45 - 60  You are happy and hopeful, you see a bright future.  
             44 and below - Read about the saga of great men and women. 

Visual and Auditory Art (Painting and Music) - A Magnificent Duo

Visual and Auditory Art (Painting and Music) - A Magnificent Duo

Hush! Look and listen. 

Where words fail, music and paintings speak. avr

Dr Abe V Rotor

Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.  Plato

Vivaldi brought the four seasons altogether in one sitting;

Beethoven composed unspoiled Nature to heal life's scars;

Mozart brought therapy to the forlorn, the sick and dying; 

Abelardo gave life to a river, and brought down the stars. avr

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures. Vincent Van Gogh

I saw dark clouds like curtain parting into view

a landscape so beautiful, so pristine;

I wondered where heaven is - isn’t it on earth? 

this scene in my whole life I hadn’t seen. 

Only when the inner you sees beyond the wall;

“What’s essential is invisible to the eye,” 

Exupery’ wrote in The Little Prince, the pilot 

lost in the desert and about to die. avr

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, 
which means never losing your enthusiasm. Aldous Huxley

Rise up from your hammock, the hearth can wait;

and don't face a blank sky or wall;

Growing old is living in the golden rays of sunset, 

where art grows mellow and beautiful. avr

A visit to the author's home (LIVING WITH NATURE CENTER) San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, Feb 11, 2019. Ms Noemi Garcia, Ms Librada Garcia, Ms Magdalena Garcia, Miss Jonah T Garcia and Mr Blandino Tipon.

A Child Builds a City

A Child Builds a City .
Dr Abe V Rotor

Mackie 6, builds a city - power of imagination and organization. 

What a child can make out of building blocks -

a prototype of a city;

What innocence brings forth to our world today  

rebirth from human frailty. ~