In Search of a Career (Part 3); Twenty Personal Views and Perceptions about Career

In Search of a Career (Part 3); Twenty Personal Views and Perceptions about Career
Self-administered Test
(Please answer opposite each item either YES or NO. Please answer all. Neutral answer is not accepted.)



1. I won't know anything about an occupation until I start working

2 A career counselor can tell me which occupation to pick

3. I can't make a living from my hobby

4. If I don't find my passion, I'll never be happy


5. I should rely on "best careers" lists

6. Earning a lot of money will make me happy

7. Once I figure out what to do I will be stuck doing It forever


8. My skills will go to waste If I decide to change careers

9. My best friend's (or sibling's) dream career will be mine too

10. All I have to do Is choose a career... everything else will fall Into place

11. There is one perfect job for me.

12. My major is going to lead to my career.

13. I will have only one career in my lifetime.

14. Liberal Arts, Humanities and Science majors are usually unemployable after college

15. Most students know their major and career goals when they enter college.

16. If I wait long enough, luck will eventually bring me to the right career.

17. Most people have a solid understanding of careers and the world‐of‐work and if I don't, then I am the only one who is confused!

18. Career assessments will tell me exactly what career is right for me

19. I should choose an occupation based on my strongest skills

20. The best place for me to start looking for an occupation is where employers are doing lots of hiring right now.~


ANSWERS: These are all myths often encountered in the pursuit of a career, therefore, the answer to each item is NO. Go back to the first two parts of this article IN SEARCH OF A CAREER. Read more. Learn more about career. Review, realign, reflect. Above all, be yourself. ~

Re-creating the Green World of my Childhood

"Long had I left my birthplace, the landscape 

that shaped my childhood and my lofty dream,

leaving but memory and imagery I can't escape, 

paint I must the imprints of that lovely realm. ~   

Painting by Miss Rannie Lou Rojas

My Green World in acrylic by Miss Rannie Lou Rojas, January 9, 2018  

There is a place I love and call it my own, 
some hidden nook, a li'l corner of Eden,
deep in the recesses of my mind long sown,
flowing through my fingers in brush and pen.

It's a place seasons come and go with no end;
where the mountains turn from gold to green,
to orange and red in fall, and back to golden,
How I wish my friends had seen this lovely scene.

The world was beautiful wherever you would go,
As pristine as the day the earth was made;
The mountains, lakes, forest and grassy plains too,
in glorious prism of light, hues and shade. 

Lucky were our ancestors in pre-industrial age,
happier they were under the care of Nature;
as they too, cared for her under divine bondage,
all things bound to a benevolent Creator. 

Long had I left my birthplace, the landscape 
that shaped my childhood, and my lofty dream
leaving but memory and imagery I can't escape,
paint I must the imprints of this lovely realm. ~   
   

Miss RL Rojas a visiting balikbayan from Calgary, Alberta, poses with the author, 

her uncle before a wall mural  painted by the latter at his residence in QC.

Mackie's Teacup - A Lesson in Drawing

Mackie's Teacup - A Lesson in Drawing

Drawing by Mackie Rotor Sta Maria 
Poem by r Abe V Rotor 

l

Teacup sans saucer in pentel by Mackie Rotor Sta Maria, 5 December 2017

To a child a teacup is mommy's, or grandma’s, 

       Long kept in a cupboard by the hearth,

Or a gift kept secret 'til the eve of one Christmas:

      “To the most wonderful child on earth.”

Magic the teacup brings: love, care and cheer,

      Good health, good company, best brew;

Gently raised to the air, then laid on its saucer,

      In the cycle of life’s meaning and view.

To a child the teacup is illusion and imagery,

     Flowers like eyes looking in the room;

It's never dull, never at ease, telling a story
    Like an uncaged bird finding it its home.~ 

A Flood of Cheers

Dr Abe V Rotor

Flash flood on Laong Laan St, Manila, 2001

Cheers to the thunderstorm;
Cheers to the standing room;
Cheers to the flooded alley;
Cheers to inconvenience - if any;
Cheers to cheerers on the way;
Cheers to Pavlov and company. ~

Monarch butterfly - most revered of all butterflies

Dr Abe V Rotor

Monarch butterfly at rest; handcrafted giant monarch butterflies amuse tourists at Dr Jose Rizal's ancestral home in Calamba, Laguna.  

Monarch butterfly - most revered of butterflies
by color and design, in ritual and fashion;
they swarm in winter time from north to south
in their annual migration,
guided by the genes of their ancestors
to leave their home and return
in summer across thousands of miles in the sky,
that instinct and bonding govern. ~  

God speaks through Nature

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog 

La Union Botanical Garden on-the-spot painting by AV Rotor. Courtesy of Dr Romualdo M del Rosario

"Indeed, God speaks to us in the little details of nature through the trees and the flowers, in the drip of rain, in the blow of the wind. He speaks to us in all of His Creation." - Rev. Fr. Tamerlane R Lana, OP, former UST Rector.

(From Foreword of In His Presence, Praises by Belen Lorezca-Tangco; Paintings and Photographs by AV Rotor, 2003)

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Is it a sin to cut down a tree?

Is it a sin to cut down a tree?

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog




In a conference-workshop a participant asked me, being the resource speaker on ecology. “Is it a sin to cut down a tree?”

The question is not to be taken literally, or jokingly either. It permeates into something bioethical. It is not the cutting of the tree per se – or similarly, the spewing of CFC in the air, or throwing mercurial waste into the river, that the issue should be examined. It is the destruction of the ecosystem, the disruption of the functioning of natural laws and processes, and therefore the integrity of whole system is the one that is at stake.

The unabated logging of the watershed of the once beautiful city by the sea – Ormoc City in Southern Leyte – resulted into an unprecedented massive mudflow that swept the central part of the community killing thousands of residents, and causing untold sufferings.

There followed after five years another massive landslide that claimed hundreds of lives near Maasin, Southern Leyte, burying a whole school with pupils and teachers conducting their classes at the time of the tragedy.

In Real, Quezon, scores perished in a similar incident, also attributed to the cutting down of trees on the watershed - or logging of the forest itself. These are becoming rampant cases not only in the Philippines but all over the world.

Yet the ethics and morality of these acts of destruction, particularly on the part of the loggers and their accomplices, were never given importance as much as that of the criminal offense committed. I would like to view these tragedies in the realm of theology, that of a paradigm of salvation.

According of Fr. Percy Bacani, it is a sin to harm the environment, because it causes people to suffer. How could it be that the culprits of these tragedies find salvation in the mere act of contrition - even without plowing back their ill-gotten wealth to rebuild the community and help nature regain its former state and stability? This is other than the compensation deserved by the victims.

This paradigm touches deep into the roots of moral philosophy itself and the foundation of ethical principles. It is embodied in the proclamation of the Vatican that destroying the environment constitutes a cardinal sin, one of the seven cardinal sins the church has lately affirmed.

Yes, it is a sin to cut down a tree.

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