[Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd Wednesday

Sat Dec 1 21:50:17 PST 2012

What an exciting English class to be in.    Indeed a profound journey of
choice and creativity.  Thank you for sharing your work in China.
Lynda  

  _____  

From: oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net
[mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Jaime R Vergara
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2012 11:10 PM
To: oe at lists.wedgeblade.net; oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd Wednesday

Someone asked about popular preaching not too long ago. 

I am sharing this article for the Saipan Tribune that I also shared with
colleagues of the Realistic Living Symposium.

The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend!

j'aime la vie 

Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all,
Celebrate!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031 at aol.com>
To: jrvergarajr2031 <jrvergarajr2031 at aol.com>
Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 12:00 pm
Subject: Fwd: OpEd Wednesday

My secular articulation of transcendence, immanence, and transparency;
metaphorical translation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

  <http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031>  j'aime la vie 

Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate.  In all,
Celebrate!

-----Original Message-----
From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031 at aol.com>
To: jayvee_vallejera <jayvee_vallejera at saipantribune.com>; mark_rabago
<mark_rabago at saipantribune.com>; editor <editor at saipantribune.com>
Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 11:55 am
Subject: OpEd Wednesday

HERE I STAND

The oft-quote, "Here I stand, I can do no other," is attributed to the
German monk Martin Luther when asked to recant his Wittenberg 95-thesis at
the imperial Diet of Worms.  The phrase now considered an editorial
insertion is nevertheless "faithful" to the religious reforms of the 1500.

We do not draw a dividing line in our class context though we start our
16-week journey with an exposition of three perspectives, used thoroughly
and throughout the whole term of our Oral English classes.  (We taught the
same using a different set of metaphors in Saipan not too long ago.)

"Life, real life, is the subject of what we can talk about in oral English,"
we begin.  "Of this life, we view it from three perspectives."  We then draw
a couple of two-inch-wide circles, two feet apart, on the board.

The first circle is the microscopic perspective.  On individual lives, it is
the small picture.  It begins at the hour of conception when 200 million
sperms attempt to fertilize an egg.  One sperm makes it and given the odds,
is clearly a winner.  On the other hand, the egg does not just allow the
first arrival to penetrate her crust.  An element of free choice is
involved.  Two cells then join to create in a nine-month period a very
sophisticated bio-organism complete with digestive and respiratory systems,
muscle and skeletal structures, a neural nexus and a reproductive
capability.  Not yet born, it is already a winsome, free, and creative
marvel.  One is some body!

The second circle is the telescopic perspective.  On the level of an
individual student's life, we telescope from one among 20k population at the
University, a unit out of 8 million in Shenyang, a creature out of 1.395
billion in China, and a human being among more than 7 billion in the planet.
The planet is but the third rock from the sun, which is a minor star in the
Milky Way, careening in a space of a billion universes, our own speculated
to be 14 billion years old.  We are not even a pixel in the HDTV of life!
One is, quite literally, a no body nobody!

By then, the part of the class who tends to be apologetic about their lives
and their humble beginnings hear that it is their birthright to be somebody.
On the other hand, those who are prone to air balloon their somebody-ness
might hear the emptiness of their valued significance.  In the big picture,
we are just a bunch of nobodies.  

By this time, one may feel a silent awe-filled and awe-some current in the
air.

Stealthily, we return to our board work and mark an X on the center,
equidistant to the two circles.  There is a third perspective, we declare.
This one knows itself not absolutely a somebody, nor eternally a nobody.  It
knows itself to be temporal but is full of moments, historical but not
altogether fleeting.  It knows itself as one, unique, unrepeatable gift of
life into human history.  There has never been like it before, and there
will never be another one like it ever again.  

With all the drama I can muster, I solemnly declare: "I am this one,"
pointing to the X, and after a long pause, "and so are you!"  The invitation
to decisional confidence is laid bare.

Letting the last line drop, we draw a large circle around the two small ones
with the X in the middle, and add a horizontal "S" intersecting with the X.
The result is a horizontal taiji, the figure of the yin-yang on the board.
We are in China.  The taiji was banned as a religious symbol in 1949,
surreptitiously revived as a cultural oddity in the 80's.

"A group of people", we continue, "have chosen to call themselves the people
of the middle, Zhongguoren."  We translate Zhongguoren as "Chinese" in
English, from Zhongguo, aka "China", the term the Persians called the Qin in
the Silk Road, "Sina" by Rome, "Chine" to Marco Polo, and "China" by
England.  While adopting the appellation of "China" in English, in Zhongwen
and Putunghua, Chinese call themselves privately and internally in China as
Zhongguoren, the people of the middle.

Though limited in their English, by now, through the board drawings, and our
body language, the members of our audience catches on to something
significantly personal and meaningful being uttered.  We conclude:

"Face" is important in China.  The face you wear so far shall be left
outside the door of the classroom door.  It will still be there when you
leave the class.  You can decide if you wish to continue wearing it.

The language you are about to start using insists on getting as close to the
"real" as possible.  It will want you to objectively narrate what you see,
hear, smell, taste, and touch.  It will encourage you to reflect and express
your feelings, and articulate and interpret your thoughts.  It will ask that
you rehearse in terms understandable to your peers the direction, plans,
decisions of your life.  In short, we shall speak with authority on what is
real and authentic to us.  That created face is what we want to see and
hear.  T'is temporal, t'is historical.  That is the face we want to create
in Oral English.

By then, the students realize they had not come to a standard academic
class.  Thus, commences a 16-week series of encounters, a journey of choice
and creativity in eight classes at Shenyang Aerospace University. 

It is, indeed, a season to be jolly.  With the global gaze of human academé,
and the cosmic grace of the spheres, I encounter students who call
themselves Zhongguoren, and with them, I say: here we stand!  In English!
My Muslim colleague down the hall says, Amen!

  <http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031>  j'aime la vie 

Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate.  In all,
Celebrate!
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20121202/8cee1578/attachment.html>