Punctuality

Punctuality - is -

respect of self and others.

T'is a well regard!

We hold it as truth

that time is something we share -

and love it as such.

Time: yours, mine,

ours - always.

---<--@

Punctuality is being on time, all the time.

The Academy

The Academy.

Thou cradle of leadership,

O school of the brave!

Thou home of heroes!

Guardian of martial virtues -

O flame that inspire!

My desire

rests in thee.

---<--@

Courage that defends.

Integrity that inspires.

Loyalty that preserves.

The Hero of Tirad Pass

Remember,

O noble Filipino soul -

you gallant keepers of the peace,

the virtues that keep thee steadfast

in the spirit of the defense.

Love of God,

love of Country,

love of Sacred Life

- even to the point of giving it -

in the midst of the nation in thy selves

and the assembly of the nations before God

- freely and with joy -

with courage and honor intact

for that same cause.

Remember our own

General Gregorio del Pilar,

the Hero of Tirad Pass!

---<--@

Faithful Keeper

I am yours only through desire now.

Life has led me down another path.

I was never so clear in my youth -

many things kept me from myself.

But the inspiration thou gave to me,

O Academy, I have kept as a trust.

And from this trust I have gained,

for thou taught me from a distance.

From thee I learned many things,

for thou has truly kept my desire.

And in the darkest times of my life,

thou was to me a light upon my way.

O Academy! Let all questions be -

How then can I not honor thee!

---<--@

Vision 2020

The purpose of peace
is the triumph of nations.
Clarity is this!

Knowledge of wisdom
gained through sacred remembrance -
Vision is made clear.

Let's press on
to safety!
---<--@

Vision 2020 is the vision of the national success.

It is a decisive clarity we derive from the completeness of our sacred remembrances -

That all nationhood is a gift.

As such, our particular nationhood belongs to all Filipinos.

It is something every present generation must choose to receive from the Providence of God.

It is not something random, obscure, fleeting, or beyond our control.

It is something every present generation inherits from the merits of all generations past.

It is not something evil or evil-inspired.

Corrupting Spirit

The spirit of War

is a corrupting spirit -

deceiving nations!

Each nation subdued

is its own mem'ry forgot -

scattered to the winds!

Dividing!

Shattering!

---<--@

The Blitz

Battle of Manila

Battle of Manila

Dresden

Hiroshima

War is a form of national insanity.

It seems right only in its own context and in its own time. But for all nations without exception it is an historic fact that it is always painful to have to eventually wake up to its aftermath.

And ultimately, all nations that must succeed must wake up.

War serves no nation...

The Banality of Evil

Our long march begins...

- selah -

Night has descended,

evil has stolen our dreams -

darkness is spreading.

Eden is faded,

faded forever it seems -

daylight is fading.

Exile dusk.

Starlight dawn.

---<--@

I have often reflected about the dangerous tendency for evil to become commonplace in a society which is the essence of the phrase, "banality of evil".

A deepening darkness has pervaded our world since the long march of our nations was begun out of the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden.

This darkness is a climate of the spirit; that unseen element of the visible universe which is our human habitation. It is a darkness of distance; the distance of our exile.

Within this deepening darkness lurks a corrupting spirit, the spirit of War.

We experience this darkness as a kind of forgetfulness in ourselves that the common religion of Man is peace.

Because human community is present in all our hearts and this is opposed by the darkness of our exile.

This original peace is the common trust of all nations.

And it is this particular trust at the heart of all our kindred nations that the spirit of War seeks to corrupt.

- selah -

We are upon this world laboring as nations to subdue the spirit of War - in spite of the darkness - through our remembrances of the peace that begot us and of the God Who has forever loved us.

And if we look at the night sky full of stars - we are the stars - and the darkness is the darkness.

To me, this is the banality of evil - the darkness and the corrupting spirit of War.

Which is why I have a special place of honor in my heart for people like Anton Schmidt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Wilhelm Canaris, Claus von Stauffenberg, and other such German citizens known or known to God alone who for every right reason opposed the Nazis.

Indeed, they are included among the stars.

For the Nazi ideology is a corrupting spirit and it has never escaped me that the first nation that the Nazis subdued was Germany and Germany was also its final victim.

---<--@

"The Banality of Evil" is a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.

A very good read.

The Source

I once had a source -

it promised me happiness

and gave me sadness.

This source is a lie;

that lie once told in Eden

and reversed by Christ.

I now have

a new Source.

---<--@

Materialism

Numbers, they become

meaningless... Number so large,

it confounds, senseless...

Numbers so massive

it preoccupies spirits;

hardening the heart.

Life becomes

dead as things!

---<--@

On Materialism

Materialism is of the spirit of the world. It afflicts all classes of people. It is also indiscriminate in its desire to destroy the wealth of our nations.

Being rich and being materialistic have nothing to do with each other. It is not wrong to have a lot of material wealth.

Too less money is actually a form of physical evil. It's called poverty. Materialism when it is left to exploit this evil turns it into an organic indigence that in a nation creates division within our communities.

In many ways, it is desirable to be able to handle one's own temporal affairs.

Virtuous entrepreneurship require the vigilant exercise of prudence and prudence as a virtue is averse to either selfishness or recklessness in financial affairs.

Joseph of Arimathea is a good example.

Money in and of itself is not evil. It is the inordinate attachment to it that makes it so. It is these sinful attachments to the evil in all evil things that produce injustices in the distribution of the goods of the earth.

The possession of money and all its various material extensions is not immoral as long as it does not create distance between people and between people and God.

Because wealth is much more than these...

---<--@

The ascent of Country -

A Republic and her Liberty

can afford to be very forbearing - in her hope -

but materialism, once it becomes rampant,

is never a healthy pursuit for a city or for a nation

and shall soon imperil the well-being

of any egalitarian democracy.

- selah -

We must understand - that -

the happiness that is universally sought

by the heart of the children of Mankind

is not a material kind of happiness.

---<--@

The telling of names -

It takes about 5 straight months to say 1 million names with attention. Indeed these numbers, they matter.

These names, seemingly hollow now and empty of their substance, they matter.

These names now sought in silence, seemingly dead to the earth, they matter.

In the timeless realms of the spirit where all our names belong under one heaven before God, they matter.

For with voices clear as a bell these names resound as a chorus - imploring the timeless justice of thy own heart before the Throne of the LORD in Eternity to listen now to the telling of those numbers thou must never choose to ignore...

Indeed, these numbers - they matter!

And they matter more than the matter that serves the cause of every human life.

- selah -

In thy every pursuit of happiness in this world, may you never be found by God to have placed your love at the feet of Mammon.

For you will be made to account for the desire you have invested in every cent, every penny, you have ever held in your hand - all the material riches to the last atom that the LORD had cause to let pass through your own life - for your own sake, may those desires be good.

My Miyang, our Margot, and countless other human beings starved while across the fence there was an excess of bread.

Simplicity

Our firmament - is -

as vast as the dreaming - that -

gives it form and shape.

Each life is a piece

of this heaven from within;

one star in the sky.

And you work to gain

from the LORD above - a piece -

of heaven on earth.

So you dream a dream

in the midst of all these dreams...

a star among stars.

And you set a course

to bridge thy heaven and earth

to make thy dream true.

Adrift in the sky

- you gaze at a million suns -

all of them not yours.

And in the darkness

- set afire by thy hunger -

you find yourself lost.

Life is a big place!

It is easy to get lost.

And to get lost fast...

Simplicity - is -

A return to thy own truth.

It is thy anchor.

"A piece of my dream -

it does not have to be big...

somewhere to return."

It guards thee

from excess.

---<--@

Simplicity is giving my Anne the most expensive bar of dark chocolate I can find - in the whole of the universe. Because seeing my Miyang happy is a significant piece of my own sky.

This thought gives me a very real sense of joy. It is a treasure I know I'll always have.

I am familiar with it, it is familiar with me.

So when life gets too complicated for me, I use these as my anchor. For I have more than one.

And it never fails to leads me back to my own better, clearer, truer self.

Alleluia, God is good!

The First Cause -

What causes the motion of all things (and the mystery in all things) in the visible universe IS the longing that lives within ourselves.

Each of us is a dreaming that exists within the greater dreaming of God.

Indeed, the motion of the stars and the galaxies mirror the motion of our love; for everything here is engaged in a vast and inescapable journey of return -

everything here is like - life longing for God,

everything here is like - love longing for Itself.

---<--@

Rogue Consumerism

Assuage your hunger,

O heart of Man, fill your love -

fill it with product!

Amass the whole world,

divide the spoils, betray it.

Buy and sell friendships.

Pursue happiness

chained to the weight of the earth.

Forsaking all things...

Do not trust to it!

Break thee thy shackles today.

Work, reap, and be wise.

Liberate your heart -

love thee thy relationships,

release thee thy hold.

Alas, should these chains

cause thee to fly, you believe:

Make a god of it.

Beware then, O Man,

lest you reap dust and ashes:

Love God - Love Country.

Make the earth thy home.

But do not make it thy own.

Sow in love and live.

Value things,

make them good.

---<--@

The Sixth Day -

God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed—the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31)

- selah -

There could be great desolation

even in the midst of great wealth, Starshine.

For in the heart of Man, Beloved of God,

- there is an emptiness -

that can not be filled with the things of the earth.

Remember thee, O heart,

God made the one habitation of Man

- all the visible universe - first.

Then God made you, darling Starshine.

It is you who make these things very good.

The Real Value of Things -

The real value of things

- arise from the value of things -

that are not things.

Think about it.

---<--@

Beauty and Industry

Starshine, dearest Starshine,
the labor of our heart - must -
always preceed the work of our hands.

So if you shall desire happiness
you must first know in your heart
what it is that you seek
even before you shall desire it.

For desire in and of itself offers
neither sight to thy heart
nor light to thy understanding
which you must require,

Beloved of God,
to know thy own truth by heart.

And seeking it not by sight
but through the eye of thy love
that in thy seeking believes

with conviction of faith
you will come to know thy happiness

by the grace of God
even before desire bears thee away
to where thy feet must follow.

For you work hard, dear Starshine,
you deserve to profit from thy labors.
But yet many are the times
that you fail to find thy love
which reduce thy labors into tears
and deprive thy heart of life's purpose.
Yet while there is yet longing in our life
precious Starshine, believe -
there is nothing in this world
that can ever undo
in thy heart of hearts
what Love for thee has already done.

So return again to thy longing
but know also to trust this time
in the Love that longs for thee back
and work hard, dear Starshine,
knowing to be happy with every hope
striving to always be free
to find thy peace and to prosper,
far into yonder horizons,

our beautiful forever.
---<--@

Herding Cats

As luck would have it -

I will elude prediction.

This is decided:

I am my own mind -

the meaning inside the word.

You can not know me.

Find your own

sense of self.

---<--@

Mindless Claptrap -

Have you ever noticed that when you're a cat, you are immediately associated by those who are inclined to do so as somehow, somewho, opposed to dogs.

Yes, the cat - the enemy of the dog!

The dog, the enemy of the cat!

It's all humbug, of course. Things between cats and dogs are actually more complicated than these over-hyped stereotypes loudly proclaim.

But it sells exactly because it is mindless.

So start thinking for yourself!

---<--@

Finally, scenes we'd like to see -

"The Value of Weakness"

This is exactly how Captain America began, kitten.

Trust me. Go on, show these pups some skill!

=^.^=

London in Flames

Not since the Blitz have we seen London in flames.

What is a city

that it should be treated - as -

a mere convenience?

That its peace should be

trampled and honor impugned?

Is this not yours too?

What you burned

you gave up.

---<--@

What's in a city?

I consider a city to be the basic functional whole of human community within a nation. In the Philippines, cities are also classified as an LGU or Local Government Unit.

But a city is more than its mere political structure. It is far richer and more complex than that!

I could say many things about it but simply put, a city is an expression - a common statement.

It is here where the air we breathe become one, the ground that we walk become familiar, and where everything about us become one "under the sun".

It is here where "the rubber meets the road" in terms of human community; the entrance way into the heart of the nation (and through the nation, all of creation).

Indeed, if you can not embrace the experience of the peace of a city, any human city, you'll find it hard embracing the peace of the greater wholes.

London is a pretty place to be - an old and proven city supported by the strength of an experienced Country; the capital expression of British community.

Having said that, the recent rioting in London is terrible. What happened over there is a condemnable instance provoked by nothing more than empty criminality, pure and simple. Indeed, I am glad and I pray thanks to God it has now abated. It could have gotten worse.

As a city rises, so must its roots deepen. If there is tension there, it must be something deep or even profound. Because in a city as old as London it can not be something superficial.

Obviouly, the rioters are so closed up in on themselves, they no longer appreciate that any city in the world is an end that if utilized becomes a means in itself - a means to achieve a measure of happiness in this world.

So you breathe the air, you walk the ground, you eat the food, you drink the beer, you enjoy the peace, you dream the dreams, and you still forget...

Buddy, you must be dreaming the wrong dream.

=^.^=

Go London 2012!

Noni

You were my old crush.

A soothing dream during my

awkward teenage years.

After Saks Fifth - you -

pleaded the fifth for so long...

What happened to you?

Let's go dream

a new dream!

---<--@

So you did something silly, you cat.

I'm not judging you though... how can I?

I'm prone to silliness myself <smile>.

You learn, you laugh, you move on...

Real Stars

Some stars are fake, some are real -

of the fake ones, the heart can feel,

because of the real ones,

when one can tell -

it's their nearness to our earth

that makes it sell.

Real stars shine with a warmth

that often reaches us

and are full of genuine concern

but fake ones really don't connect

as much as we would like,

their light is not as warm and comforting

as far as the heart can tell

they could be as far from our earth

as heaven is to hell.

=^.^=

OUR Dragonboat Team

You guys are first class!

Let me just say that - flat out -

you guys represent!

Our Dragonboat Team.

Gold. World-Class. Skill. But not here?

Now ask yourself why.

I really

feel ashamed.

---<--@

It's all about the "politics" -

I always hear the word "politics" being used like it were a salve meant to relieve the shame that most Filipinos feel about our own Country's refusal to recognize our victorious Dragonboat Team.

It's like there's something out there in our national politics that escapes the understanding of us, common folk; something completely out of our control, something beyond the people, something dirty...

I certainly feel this sense of national shame. But I can see clear through the "something". Politics is not a dirty word, you know. Politics is a means. It is a channel. It is a polarity. It is a tool.

The problem is when politics fall into the wrong hands. And a lot of that have been happening of late, and not just in this nation, mind you.

Politics is the preserve of the Responsible State. (You may review the relationships between the three elements of Country on Citizenship with Fidelity.)

It is therefore, a means (not an end) employed by the servants of the nation to carry out and complete the mandate entrusted to them by we, the people.

When the politics of our Republic (meant to prosper and ennoble the people and advance our Country in its ages in time) become hi-jacked by puny, fractious, selfish ambitions and the hard-won ideals of proven popular governance become soiled by the narrow interests of the few, OUR politics become "something".

We feel ashamed because we are a part of it...

Hey, we're not so helpless after all.