<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">The Forty-Day Fast</font></b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Today begins a 40-day
fast. Since I am back in Saipan, I shall
use the metaphor of a majority of island residents. Forty is a whole number to Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. It is a number
of completion, one generation in biblical reckoning. Forty years in the wilderness, and forty days
in the desert are examples.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">The fast points to the
other side of feast in life’s reality.
As we celebrate annually birthdays, some folks stop counting at 39. That’s because the ascent ceases and the
descent begins, in the pyramidal language of social stratification that fits
nicely our hierarchical sense of nature.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">This is different in
other cultures where being creative means standing at the cutting edge of
movemental reality. Creation, change,
innovation are the language of our island context shared with us by Spain,
Germany, Japan, and the United States. I
include Japan in there because the militaristic Japan that attempted a
Co-prosperity scheme when they occupied the Marianas was patterned after
England by the Meiji restoration, thereby, hierarchical with Nippon on top.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">An older ethos from
China has this saying: Life is a circle
so what’s the hurry. It is standing in
the middle that is the goal of life, not at the edge. Stillness lingering like a downcast hovering
over a terrain is more valued than the speed of moving forward. Fast is the standing still in space as the
winds of change roams over the landscape of time. Accomplishment is not achieving the
impossible; it is attaining the tranquil and serene quietude. The Great Wall kept the invaders at bay, and
when they did march through the breach, they did not conquer but were
assimilated like the Mongols and the Manchus.
And when Zhang He the adventurous admiral spread its armada’s sails all
the way to the shores of Africa, the Ming Emperor turned on the elegy of the
river and went the opposite direction of cleaning the house and the inner yard
so that peace may abide. </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">While both the feast
and the fast are nothing but different sides of the same reality, the mind
often requires reminders like rites and rituals to embrace its limits and not
just its possibilities. That’s why I
fast.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Admittedly, the
practice also addresses the two extra inches of belt space in our current girth
that was not there when we started slurping the <i>chow mien</i> (noodles) and wolfing the <i>jiao zi</i> (dumplings) in our current residence in <i>Dong Bei.
</i>But it is exactly bumping into the limits that we live on the
reality of what is given.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">We keep harping that
ours is a journey that may have parts, phases, and counted years, but is
essentially one, in our case, 86 years.
In the scheme of things, from before my time and after, I am a minuscule
part of reality. I am nothing. But within the 86 years, with all its intrigues
and surprises, its speed bumps and the foot on the pedal, with every morsel of
its awake hours subject to the molding of choice, I am somebody. What applies to me also applies to everyone.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align:baseline"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">We are the feast and
the fast of our existence.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">In the Christian
story, excusing for the moment its historical bigotries and addiction to the
archaic, fast is observed for 40 days until a glorious moment when death in its
stillness is transformed into a glorious resurrection. Let me put a little twist on the traditional
story. The Jesus whose story is
paradigmatic of the Christian rite, gleaned from my theological clarity of the
barefoot Jesus of Nazareth, simply means that we had been saved from our sinful
dependence on a busybody G-O-D. “Are you
waiting for a Messiah,” is the cry from the Cross. The answer in the early morn of the empty
tomb was, “You need not wait any longer.”
We can pick up our lives and head for the Galilee of our vocation! We fast so that we understand the gift of the
feast.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Heresy, heresy, the
guardians of the cathedral gates and the holy book will say. Not so. Read your Church history again. Read your Bible again and listen to the
reality it is pointing to, not the belief and dogmas we inherited from those
who used their metaphors in their time.
The infallibility of the mother Church and the Papal office is
conferred, built on the trust that the truth is being told in a manner that
illumines our life realities. When it no
longer did in the nascent selfhood of Germany, a Luther was born. He posted his thesis on a cathedral door to
invite the princes of the realm to repent and fast from their illusions.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Fast is not about
abstaining from meat but in knowing that life allows one to easily drown in the gentle current at Micro beach. Fast is not
about keeping the male and female separate during the day, and quietly modest
at night. Rather, it is knowing that the
genetics of union might carry incomplete chromosomes and incompatible genes,
that the generous portion on our plates may also contain added artificial
chemicals to prolong shelf life for commerce.
It is feeling in our bones the emptiness of achieved knowledge and
attained certitude. Reality defies easy
categorization of the mind.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Come down to the
pala-pala in front of the JP building (formerly Century) at 4-6 pm today. We can fast together!</font></span></div>
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<br>
<div style="font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: 18px; clear: both;"><i>j'aime la vie</i><br>
<a href="mailto:pinoypanda2031@aol.com">pinoypanda2031@aol.com</a><br>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. In all, celebrate!</i></div>
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