UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
For the past 20 years or so, we haven’t joined the mad rush during Holy Week when people drive or fly out of Metro Manila like lemmings jumping off a cliff. What’s the point of going to Baguio for a change when you’ll encounter the same gang of folks from the city anyway? The airports are so crowded that you’ll need the rest of your vacation to destress from that experience.
Instead, I decided to do “spring” cleaning, except that it’s in the sweltering heat of summer in the tropics. We all accumulate junk every day. We set aside stuff that we think we’ll get to use some other time, so things pile up and before you know it, you have to tiptoe around piles of things that we never get around to use.
It’s best to dispose of unnecessary clutter. As Marie Kondo said, “If it doesn’t bring you joy, dispose of it,” or something to that effect. In our case, our house staff is a real pack rat. We throw everything from old newspapers, egg cartons, boxes, leftover paint and so much more that I discovered yesterday in our bodega.
It doesn’t help that I also have plenty of materials I use for my gardening, including coconut husks, cubes and dust, charcoal, as well as pots of various sizes, shade netting, plastic covers and other materials, which my assistant gardener (me the chief gardener), tossed in as well.
My son who’s a car buff managed to buy several sets of car covers which were also in the humongous pile there. So, with gritted teeth, I ploughed into the mess and started throwing out the obvious junk. The other stuff I categorized and see if I can use them (gardening stuff, definitely!) or what my son wants retained before resorting to offering items to neighbors or the subdivision management.
It was a satisfying exercise, physically and mentally. Speaking of which we should all do this to our intellect too. We hold all sorts of beliefs that conflict in one way or another with each other, leading to intellectual discordance. Let’s clean out our minds as well.
A prime example is the aversion to drug addiction to the point of advocating or condoning random killings of “drug addicts.” If you are a right-thinking Christian, you should also think about those killed who are also human beings with their rights, dreams and aspirations in life. The horrific death toll of the past administration’s drug war was the result. It wasn’t just one or a few men in government who are to blame. Those who abetted, cheered and condoned it have their share of guilt as well.
The same single-issue mentality was seen in the recent US elections when Christian evangelists, Filipino Catholics and other religious denominations supported one candidate over the other based just on the abortion issue, which in my observation, never figured strongly during the campaign period. Well, now everyone is reaping the whirlwind that is going on, affecting practically all Americans.
A deeper introspection into the entire spectrum of issues surrounding one’s beliefs is necessary to deep clean our bodega (conscience) and be an entire person whose beliefs are consistent with each other. Otherwise, we end up schizophrenic with conflicting principles that ultimately serves no purpose other than inflicting harm on ourselves and fellow human beings.
This reminds of a story, a parable if you will, about the carrot, the egg and the coffee bean. All three are boiled in separate pots, after which the carrot ends up being mush, the egg hard boiled and the coffee bean infusing its flavor into the water. The boiling water symbolizes adversity and the three items reacted differently. You may have been strong at first but will become weak and soft as the carrot. Or you may be as delicate as an egg but end up becoming hard and unyielding. Or you may be the coffee bean that instead of being changed, actually changed the water itself. Which one are you?
Let me quote from it as it should resonate with all.
“May you have enough happiness to keep you kind, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to keep you going.”
“Remember, happy people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they make the best of everything they have.”
“The brightest future comes from letting go of the past. You can’t move forward while clinging to old pain.”
“And in the end, live your life so that when the time comes, you are the one smiling while the world around you mourns your absence.”
Be the coffee bean!
Time for your “spring” cleaning!
Have a blessed Easter!