It took a not-so-serious post for me to realize another profound reason why am I blogging and blogging about these kinds of stuffs found here at Pinoy Sounding Board.  It was also a friend who made me unearth from the depths of my personal universe another one big reason why I continually write about plaguing issues that are crippling our country slowly pushing our national life near the cliff of total social, economic and moral decay.

No, it is not about finding the rare joy on mocking politicians by spanking their lazy asses with baseball bats or if you may peppering them with AK-47.  It is neither the affirmation I get from people I know who crown with laurel my worthless ideas from time to time; and of course from those who mock my posts as non-sense pieces of rubbish worthy of being thrown into the nearest trash bin or be burned to go down as useless self-centered opinions from a quixotic blogger.

Some can easily go for and choose “survival” when faced with compounding issues that ask from them some tall order.  Such choice could refer to the human condition we all Filipinos have been experiencing in the last decades, as the perilous journey of a nation always been highlighted by the public knowledge and the confirmation of the global community of the widespread poverty, illiteracy, crime and violence, corruption, unresolved issue of over-population and ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor – these things served to us daily, more than three times a day.

There is no big problem with survival.  It is a basic part of the context of our individual state of affairs.  Survival affirms our struggles, our daily toils and exploits to both ever-occurring and uncharted human conditions.  It pushes us to bear the heavy burden upon our wearied shoulders and spirits the challenges rendering our actions as immediate responses to assure that we could still have a last gasp of breath, one more morning to open up our eyes, one more bridge to connect our today to another chance at life.

Survival is more or less the domain of the animal kingdom, where the strongest beast survives, where the feeble and weak are being slain whose cheap lives are made worthy and noble only when offered as sacrifices to add more days or years to those who had already triumphed by staining their hands.  Survival thrives in the jungles of power struggle.  Memory is the only comfort of those who lived and failed to win the battle against a stronger nemesis; easily fading as soon as a new breed of living corpus rises to take up the challenge.

Survival is not a euphoric galaxy but its door is always flung wide open for everyone who is invited to take a daily stab at life.  Others may simply live on to see its doors inviting them to take on the challenge, only to find that their inner strength is as feeble as the stem of wild daises growing on the plains of wilderness.  Others can go on and take the steps closer and closer up to the pinnacle of becoming the greatest but may eventually grow weak as their strength diminishes due to the sheer burden of taking up the serious task of being bombarded by daily challenges and pain.  Soon, the strength turns into a mound of ashes ready to be blown away by the wind.  Survival is for all, with different processes, magnitude, frequency and quality.  But only a few stands up to remain victorious.

But I am not contented with living my life as a daily struggle of survival like the wild animals that are trying to survive the harsh realities of the African plains; though admittedly, survival is part and parcel of life.  But it is not the only part of life that human beings are invited to take part of and savour.  There is always an inherent upward movement inviting human existence to rise up from the state of living every day as a struggle to fight against the conquerors of the heart and soul.

I am for a meaningful existence; where relationship thrives and universal virtues govern the mind and the heart of all those who give themselves for higher set of values.  It is where the memory of the heart which is gratitude triumphs over cunningness and deceit for ambitions not to be stolen or hampered upon by others.  It is where the spirit of charity moves silently yet actively on everyone and not by the unmitigated greed by individuals who protect only their selfish interests.  It is where our home is also called a community, a far cry from the thick jungle where hungry beasts and sentinels fight against each other under the cloud of darkness and uncertain future.  Survival is the life of conquering and hopefully winning against today.  Meaningful existence is the holistic outlook of our existence from yesterday, today and tomorrow governed by goals and purposes bigger than our individual selves.

This nation is living on a daily basis of survival with so many Filipinos all over challenged by burdensome socio-economic situations, fighting daily these seemingly perpetual enemies; and all too focused on surviving today, and worry about tomorrow when it already comes.  Care only about tomorrow after one survives today.  While others unfortunately are forced by circumstances to unleash that little beast inside them to survive the fight and so in the process creates another jungle around their lives.

Meaningful existence is not a  platonic world; it is not a human condition devoid of sufferings and pain and sorrow; it is not heaven if there is such thing.  It is rather for me a human condition wherein the pains and sorrows and challenges of life are governed by values and virtues and not simply pushed by animal instincts to act in certain ways in order to survive such a condition by eliminating pain, sorrow and poverty no matter what it cost.

Writing itself is the practice of meaningful existence as one tries to explore the galaxies of imagination and the realities that surrounds it by echoing the truth or painting a world where people can see images of hope of a better future.

I cannot see a meaningful existence for the whole nation when billions of government money coming from the hard-earned labor of its people are being stolen by government officials; when crimes can put your safety at risk; when economic instability only sustained to stay afloat by the remittances of Filipinos who need to suffer the pangs of loneliness and abuse is the seedbed of our national economic status; when the greed of the powerful few abuse the basic rights of its citizens to speak up the truth in order to live a genuine democracy; and when poverty, illiteracy and hunger are still the main issues that are being served to millions of Filipinos while the hypocrisy of government and religious institutions perpetuate their cling to power.

Being content with just surviving life side-by-side by those who makes our lives miserable is to surrender the profound gift of meaningful existence; and to denounce the excesses of those who use the power entrusted to them to enrich themselves is to bring back the chance of meaningfulness amidst misery for which the fullness of life will govern the interrelatedness of human existence.

May we live a meaningful existence as a nation.

Image from World of Stock

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