<font color='black' size='3' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><span style="font-size: 16px; ">So</span><font size="3">meone asked about popular preaching not too long ago.</font>
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<div><font size="3">I am sharing this article for the Saipan Tribune that I also shared with colleagues of the Realistic Living Symposium.</font></div>
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<div><font size="3">The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend!<br>
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<div style="font-size: 16px; clear: both; ">j'aime la vie
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<div><i style="background-color: white; "><font color="#000080"><b>Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!</b></font></i></div>
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<div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: helvetica, arial; color: black; ">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031@aol.com><br>
To: jrvergarajr2031 <jrvergarajr2031@aol.com><br>
Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 12:00 pm<br>
Subject: Fwd: OpEd Wednesday<br>
<br>
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_5fa297c2-ab57-485a-bee4-cd18417dbf73">
<font color="black" size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><font size="4">My secular articulation of transcendence, immanence, and transparency; metaphorical translation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.</font><br>
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<div style="font-size: 18px; clear: both; "><a style="font:lighter 10px Verdana, Arial;color:#000000;"><img align="absmiddle" border="0" src="http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031"></a> <font color="black" size="2" face="arial">j'aime la vie
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<div><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ff0000"><b>Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, </b></font></i><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ff0000"><b>Celebrate!</b></font></i></div>
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<div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: helvetica, arial; color: black; ">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Jaime R Vergara <<a href="mailto:jrvergarajr2031@aol.com">jrvergarajr2031@aol.com</a>><br>
To: jayvee_vallejera <<a href="mailto:jayvee_vallejera@saipantribune.com">jayvee_vallejera@saipantribune.com</a>>; mark_rabago <<a href="mailto:mark_rabago@saipantribune.com">mark_rabago@saipantribune.com</a>>; editor <<a href="mailto:editor@saipantribune.com">editor@saipantribune.com</a>><br>
Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 11:55 am<br>
Subject: OpEd Wednesday<br>
<br>
<div id="AOLMsgPart_1_156f4509-ee05-4732-8ce0-3f4186990210">
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">HERE I
STAND</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">"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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">By this time, one may feel a silent awe-filled and
awe-some current in the air.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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 <i>taiji, </i>the figure of the <i>yin-yang </i>on the board. We are in China. The <i>taiji
</i>was banned as a religious symbol in 1949, surreptitiously revived as a
cultural oddity in the 80's.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">"A group of people", we continue, "have
chosen to call themselves the <i>people of
the middle, Zhongguoren</i>." We
translate <i>Zhongguoren </i>as
"Chinese" in English, from <i>Zhongguo,
aka</i> "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 <i>Zhongwen
</i>and <i>Putunghua, </i>Chinese call
themselves privately and internally in China as <i>Zhongguoren, </i>the people of the middle.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">"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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; "> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">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 <i>Zhongguoren, </i>and with them, I say: here
we stand! In English! My Muslim colleague down the hall says, <i>Amen!</i></span></div>
<br>
<div style="clear:both"><a style="font:lighter 10px Verdana, Arial;color:#000000;"><img align="absmiddle" border="0" src="http://presence.mail.aol.com/mailsig/?sn=jrvergarajr2031"></a> <font color="black" size="2" face="arial">j'aime la vie
<div><br>
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<div><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ff0000"><b>Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, </b></font></i><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#ff0000"><b>Celebrate!</b></font></i></div>
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