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The last Monday in May is Memorial Day, coming after the Pentecost of Christians and
<i>Shavuot</i> of the Jews. The legal day commemorates the lives lost in the military while in the line of duty, starting with Confederate and Union soldiers during the Civil War. Memorial Day, considered the first day of summer ending on Labor Day, is not to be confused with Veterans’ Day that honors those who served the military.
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In the Christian calendar, Pentecost celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit to the 12 Apostles and Jesus’ followers, metaphorically translated as the affirmation of earthly life no longer alien to the “will of God”, or, to the Way Life Is,
<i>aka,</i> the “birthday of the Church”.
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<i>Shavuot</i> of the Jewish holiday celebrates the giving of the Laws to Moses in Sinai, so there is no excuse for not living the wholeness (holiness) of life, for one can now “go by the book”. It caps the Passover that begins with the Seder Feast and the eating of the unleavened bread
<i>matzah.</i>
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The word “Pentecost” derives from the 50 days between Easter to the descent of the Holy Spirit, 10 days after Jesus ascension into heaven, which is also the end of the Jewish Passover pegged at the symbolic number of 40.
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Not too distant is the Muslim
<i>Ramadan</i> or
<i>Ramazan </i>when the faithful of Ibrahim (Abraham) takes on the summer heat of the desert by physically slowing down on daylight activities and purifying the soul in fasting, perform acts of charity and self-sacrifice exemplified by the
<i>Eid-al-Adha’s </i>memory of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son like a lamb on an open fire.
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Earlier after the full moon also in the spring, Hindus observe
<i>Holi </i>that disregards social norms and indulge in merrymaking, attending bonfires and spraying kin with colored powders and water affirming the bonds of friendship and community.
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Native Americans perform at mid-summer the
<i>Sun Dance </i>and the circle of life and death
<i>, </i>which the Buddhists’
<i>Vesak </i>of the lunisolar calendar observes as the birth and death of “Buddha” (that bookends enlightenment), a role that rededicates to the dharma and the eightfold path. The faithful scoop water to “wash” a figurine of the baby Buddha as a symbol.
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C">The metaphor on the concrete milieu of these religious observances is dismissible. But the Book of Acts of the Apostles' note on its significance is quite explicit: “I will pour out my spirit upon every sort of flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy and your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams." The young forecasts and plans the future with vision assured by the guidance of dreams.</span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C">We are more than a century beyond just revering the fallen in the old American conflict in the Civil War. Celebrating African-American slaves who died fighting for emancipation marked the death of soldiers as well. It is now 2015 and recalling of events is to recognize life’s reality: that one remembers where one came from in order to courageously determine where one is going!</span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C">There are those among us who have grown comfortable with what had transpired before. Like the “written word” in the desert, reliance on the past is at a premium. Distances between oases in the desert after all do not lend itself to easy charting of the shifting sand dunes as life by its very nature changes, thus, the value of memory. Some dub the direction of change as evolution.</span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C">We are not unsympathetic to those who insist that we stick with the “tried and true” against the untested and new, and Memorial Day gets the accent on the first. It is signals the onset of summer. Life, nonetheless, surprises us, sometimes pleasantly and other times, pushing the difficult side, both full of wonders.</span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C">The Scots transformed the solstices and equinoxes as quarter days used to mark the times when real estate rentals and indebtedness were settled in the Middle Ages. The seventh Sunday after Pentecost is when newly baptized faithful in white garbs (Whit Sunday) are sent out to start life anew. </span>
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<span style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28);"><font size="3">The accent on today is not only on memory but also on the implication that one can build on the shoulders of the old. What newness presides over the CNMI is the question that begs our attention. E.g., marijuana legalization simple decriminalizes a widespread practice, so is same-sex unions, the subject of the recent AG Cup speeches.</font></span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C">The influx of Chinese visitors, Korean money, Japanese technology and Filipino CWs dominates the CNMI landscape. Ownership of land remains in Chamolinian hands but intermarriages with the new arrivals have diffused the “indigene” formula on blood to determine ownership as prescribed by the Constitution.</span>
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<span style="color: rgb(28, 28, 28);"><font size="3">Meanwhile, the military flexes its muscles, pleasantly PR'd though still on the ethos of </font><i style="font-size: 16px;">"yours is not to ask why, only to do or die"</i><font size="3"> now applied to the use of the isles' strategic military value vs. China. Local self-interest is hardly homogenous; varied intents and interests prove divisive. </font></span>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica;color:#1C1C1C">The challenge is participation not only in the economic benefits of development but in the political decision-making. May that be the conversation in the family BBQ by the lagoon this Memorial Day! </span>
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<i>j'aime la vie</i>
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<i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. in all, celebrate!</i>
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