<font color='black' size='2' face='arial'><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: large;">A New Journey</b><br>
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<div class="MsoNormal">I start anew. The
safety rails of academia's steady support and income is gone. I am left with my own devices again. A close friend once quipped: "I am not worried. You have always managed to survive your
transitions." The gift of articulating
wit and wisdom graces our keyboard hacking; I hope to survive simply out of the
assets of genetics and wordsmithing since my social net are hardly existing. Newspaper opinion writing is hardly a living.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">In every journey, it is a virtue to know what one is turning
one's back from, as it is getting familiar with the arena and scope of what one
is going to face. As once said by Lolo Pepe
Rizal: <i>"ang hindi lilingon sa
pinanggalingan, ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan" </i>(ze who fails to
know where ze comes from will not reach where ze is going).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">I just left for good the geography of North America as well
as my social relations and kin there. I
also left behind half a century of engagement in the affairs of a nation that I
will continue to relate to in a tenuous relationship as a resident of its CNMI
in Saipan, and Honolulu of its Pacific naval station. But more than the departure of body and soul,
I also leave behind a mind familiar with the mental maps that charted
civilizational courses beginning in Greece and Rome, and culminating in the
Westside of Chicago and the Bay area of San Francisco.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">There is a rich throve of metaphors I am giving up that had
served me deal with the fundamental human questions of identity, vocation and
lifestyle. My identity once was labeled
as being "the child of the living YHWH, God, Allah"; my vocation was
unconditional expenditure of one's life beyond one's self, in the liberating
ways of Moses, the redeeming task of Jesus, and the prophetic lucidity of
Mohammed; and the lifestyle of one who does not shrink from the challenge and
responsibility of freedom - a Holy (wholesome) spirit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">In the scientific, secular, and urban surroundings of my
current journey, I may or may not rephrase the life questions in similar
fashion as the above, though the not doing so is more to avoid pat answers to
standard questions. Authentic life
awaits to be lived, nonetheless.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">What I do know given the current state of knowledge about the
universe and my place in it is that the 14.5 billion years journey of my known
universe and the 4.3 billion years of my planet makes a less than a century of
my lifetime look petty and insignificant.
As a child of the universe where the carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen in my
body preceded the big bang of my solar system, I am but a recycled NOBODY.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The odds, however, of my one, unique, unrepeatable gift of
life happening to create me is in trillions.
The 200 million sperms alone that my father unleashed in one exchange of
fluids with my mother, after several attempts, that brought me in being, is
already considerable. The permission of
my mother's ovum to penetrate a shield to union is purely an indiscernible
choice. Created was a segment of time
and a particular space where I can leave my footprints and hang the syllables
of my name. Statistical probability leads
me to think that I am responsible for 86 years of existence for this body,
heart, mind and soul, a SOMEBODY by choice.
Longevity is not the issue, quality of life is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">The NOBODY-SOMEBODY who walks this earth with my name does
so from the practice and perspective of freedom. Yes, sheer freedom. There is no supernatural power that determined
or works my 86 years. There is nobody to
blame; to whine is to waste energy. I
have no way of returning to what is already done, and the beginning of the
fifth phase of this journey in 2014 in increments of 17, is now a decided
period of gracious aging. Old. Forget the cosmetics of youth. I wish to live the natural wilted-ness of my
age!</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">The arrival point of life is birth; my departure is
estimated at 2031. Today, my life is not
determined by what has transpired before, nor am I hung up in the despair or
delight of failures and accomplishments.
I do not waste time regretting the first, nor engrossed in gloating over
the second. I have the here-and-now; my
responsibility is simply to make choices and innovate on chosen options if
possible, or to decide to create the path I travel every step of the way!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Before someone dubs my view as that of an ingrate, my fealty
is not about the cult of rugged individualism, or urbane sophisticated
self-centeredness without regard of the infinite mystery that is at the core of
my existence. I do take comfort on the simple
nature of things: that life begets life when used and invested. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">I know that life, when unconditionally given away, manages
to be significant. I do not plan,
factor, or expect anything from a return, yet, I am eternally grateful. I am detached but with compassion on material
wealth and spiritual poverty; totally engaged in meeting the unknown headlong
single-mindedly with care; obedient to the way life is, not manipulating it nor
being subdued by it. If you are
continually moving on, you have company on your side. </div>
<br>
<div style="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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