[Oe List ...] Monday from Jaime

[wangzhimu2031 at aol.com]

Epiphany a day for fruitcakes



 
"We three kings ofOrient are" is a familiar line this day, the first day of Epiphany in theliturgical calendar.  It is the discoveryof an intrusion from outside symbolized by the Magi's visit of the infant Jesus,in Matthew's story.
 
The monk Thomas Mertonexpressed his feeling of epiphany when he wrote: "It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the humanrace … like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake. Ihave the immense joy of being man (sic), a member of a race in which GodHimself became incarnate…. [We] are all walking around shining like thesun" in his Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.
 
The celebration of Christmastide marks an ending of aJesus-turned-Superstar's birthday party and a beginning of a life journey, nowfestively exploding in the gastronomic display of crab cakes at the onset ofthe carnival in New Orleans, to the great fruitcake toss in Colorado whenroyals, jesters, and fools thrust cake projectiles the farthest.
 
Today is a fruitcake celebration in an awakening to the fact that weengage in the universal practice of deception, revealed in our sharedpleasure/disdain of Snowden's exposure of the NSA's massive eavesdropping onour private affairs.
 
Intelligence gatherers are wont to say: if you haven't got anything tohide, you haven't got anything to be afraid of. The truth, of course, is that everyone has something to hide, or, atleast, something we would prefer not to look directly at, if at all!
 
Let me start where I am, in China, a land of indirection by design, andavoidance in practice.  As a firstactivity in my class, I ask students to fill up a profile form.  This invites students to start thinking aboutthemselves, a subject they do not need to read a book about, but is the subjectof their oral English discourse.  Keeping"face" (mianzi) where good appearance is bestowed andmaintained at all cost and by all means is universally observed. To encouragestudents to speak about real things rather than fiction, "Face staysoutside the door" is my class admonition. Giving up mianzi is like pulling teeth but it is one of thelessons students learn by the end of the semester.
 
But we are ahead of our story. After a student writes name, date and place of birth in the form, itasks what their parents do, then ventures into what they like, think, and do;also, what they plan to be in the future. Invariably, a student is brave enough to say: "This information issecret."  Personal accounts in Chinaare private, with mist in haze rather than clarity applied in pompous talklaced with metaphors and abstractions.
 
Movie director Zhang Yimou made a point by indirection in his movie Herowith Jet Li, an assassin tasked to eliminate the Qin Emperor only torealize that the Huangdi was capable of uniting the Warring States.  The assassin gave up his mission. Hero in themovie title refers to the unpopular emperor rather than the well-likedassassin.  
 
Hero came out afterMao died and some officials suggested that, perhaps, it was time to pull thehelmsman down from his pedestal.  Yimou'sresponse, though metaphorically delivered, was clear: say what you will aboutthe Chairman but he united China.  Thesame point was officially made, though in low tones, during Mao's 120th birthanniversary this Dec. 26.
 
Now, what has this got to do with Snowden, the NSA, and the wiretaps onour phones?
 
The reason we do not wish to be "found out" is that we areall guilty of deception.  We do not likewho we really are!  Cosmetics recommendmakeovers so we won't look the way we naturally do.  Advertising convinces us that we are notwhole unless we purchase a good or a commodity. If we don't, we are made to feel less, so we work harder, leaving usanxious and tired most of the time. Then, we buy imitation brands on the cheap, and wear them knowing thatwe are unable to pay for the real thing. 
 
Many foreign workers in Saipan go home to pretend who they arenot!  That's not a critique.  It is an acknowledgement that we all play thegame of pretend!  I wore a pair ofloafers in Honolulu once and my sister was impressed that I could afford a pairof CD shoes.  It was not, however, aChristian Dior but a Chrisdien Deny, with the word monsieur under thelabel.  
 
Society follows escape mechanisms so that we do not face the truth that"life is never the way we want it." The real point of liturgical confession is to acknowledge that we reallydo not wish to live the life we have. Original sin sees the truth of nakedness as shameful, it would ratherdress it up or deny it.  In our evolutionto be human, we have discovered a highly tuned ability to deceive, and to staythat way with ease and comfort.
 
"Fruitcake" is a pejorative term we use of the unpredictablywild and wooly way beyond extremes.  I donot condone nor justify NSA's snooping, but I understand why we reactvehemently over the violation of our privacy. I am glad there are fruitcakes that mirror the truth!  Snowden is a fruitcake.  May there be more like him, today andevermore!


Jaime Vergara
pinoypanda2031 at aol.com

yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!



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