Someone asked about popular preaching not too long ago. I am sharing this article for the Saipan Tribune that I also shared with colleagues of the Realistic Living Symposium. The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the bend! j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate! -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031@aol.com> To: jrvergarajr2031 <jrvergarajr2031@aol.com> Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 12:00 pm Subject: Fwd: OpEd Wednesday My secular articulation of transcendence, immanence, and transparency; metaphorical translation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate! -----Original Message----- From: Jaime R Vergara <jrvergarajr2031@aol.com> To: jayvee_vallejera <jayvee_vallejera@saipantribune.com>; mark_rabago <mark_rabago@saipantribune.com>; editor <editor@saipantribune.com> Sent: Sun, Dec 2, 2012 11:55 am Subject: OpEd Wednesday HERE ISTAND The oft-quote, "Here I stand, I can do noother," is attributed to the German monk Martin Luther when asked torecant his Wittenberg 95-thesis at the imperial Diet of Worms. The phrase now considered an editorialinsertion is nevertheless "faithful" to the religious reforms of the1500. We do not draw a dividing line in our class contextthough 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 metaphorsin Saipan not too long ago.) "Life, real life, is the subject of what we can talkabout in oral English," we begin. "Of this life, we view it from three perspectives." We then draw a couple of two-inch-widecircles, two feet apart, on the board. The first circle is the microscopic perspective. On individual lives, it is the small picture. It begins at the hour of conception when 200million 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 justallow 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 sophisticatedbio-organism complete with digestive and respiratory systems, muscle andskeletal structures, a neural nexus and a reproductive capability. Not yet born, it is already a winsome, free,and creative marvel. One is some body! 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 8million in Shenyang, a creature out of 1.395 billion in China, and a humanbeing among more than 7 billion in the planet. The planet is but the third rock from the sun, which is a minor star inthe Milky Way, careening in a space of a billion universes, our own speculatedto be 14 billion years old. We are noteven a pixel in the HDTV of life! One is,quite literally, a no body nobody! By then, the part of the class who tends to be apologeticabout their lives and their humble beginnings hear that it is their birthrightto be somebody. On the other hand, thosewho are prone to air balloon their somebody-ness might hear the emptiness oftheir valued significance. In the bigpicture, we are just a bunch of nobodies. By this time, one may feel a silent awe-filled andawe-some current in the air. Stealthily, we return to our board work and mark an X onthe center, equidistant to the two circles. There is a third perspective, we declare. This one knows itself not absolutely asomebody, nor eternally a nobody. Itknows itself to be temporal but is full of moments, historical but not altogetherfleeting. It knows itself as one,unique, unrepeatable gift of life into human history. There has never been like it before, andthere will never be another one like it ever again. With all the drama I can muster, I solemnly declare:"I am this one," pointing to the X, and after a long pause, "andso are you!" The invitation todecisional confidence is laid bare. Letting the last line drop, we draw a large circle aroundthe two small ones with the X in the middle, and add a horizontal "S"intersecting with the X. The result is ahorizontal taiji, the figure of the yin-yang on the board. We are in China. The taijiwas banned as a religious symbol in 1949, surreptitiously revived as acultural oddity in the 80's. "A group of people", we continue, "havechosen to call themselves the people ofthe middle, Zhongguoren." Wetranslate Zhongguoren as"Chinese" in English, from Zhongguo,aka "China", the term the Persians called the Qin in the SilkRoad, "Sina" by Rome, "Chine" to Marco Polo, and "China"by England. While adopting the appellationof "China" in English, in Zhongwenand Putunghua, Chinese callthemselves privately and internally in China as Zhongguoren, the people of the middle. Though limited in their English, by now, through theboard drawings, and our body language, the members of our audience catches onto something significantly personal and meaningful being uttered. We conclude: "Face" is important in China. The face you wear so far shall be leftoutside the door of the classroom door. Itwill still be there when you leave the class. You can decide if you wish to continue wearing it. The language you are about to start using insists ongetting as close to the "real" as possible. It will want you to objectively narrate whatyou see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. It will encourage you to reflect and express your feelings, andarticulate and interpret your thoughts. It will ask that you rehearse in terms understandable to your peers thedirection, plans, decisions of your life. In short, we shall speak with authority on what is real and authentic tous. That created face is what we want tosee and hear. T'is temporal, t'ishistorical. That is the face we want tocreate in Oral English. By then, the students realize they had not come to astandard academic class. Thus, commencesa 16-week series of encounters, a journey of choice and creativity in eightclasses at Shenyang Aerospace University. It is, indeed, a season to be jolly. With the global gaze of human academé, andthe cosmic grace of the spheres, I encounter students who call themselves Zhongguoren, and with them, I say: herewe stand! In English! My Muslim colleague down the hall says, Amen! j'aime la vie Yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate. In all, Celebrate!