Ever Since the World Begun

“Its destiny that guides as all and by its hand we rise and fall. But only for a moment time enough to catch our breath again…. …. …Its love that keeps us holding on until we see the sun again.” - Survivors

Once upon a time during King Solomon’s reign. He said “destiny guides the fate of men… that a boy born in the east and a girl born in the west today shall marry in 20 years time.” Upon hearing it the Eagle and the Owl declare that such cannot be the case for destiny is made by men and not written in their stars.

King Solomon dares the Eagle and the Owl, that in 20 years time both child shall met and marry for it is their destiny to be together. The Eagle and the Owl take up the challenge and made sure that the marriage will never happen. Flying as fast as it could the Eagle went to the west and kidnapped the baby girl – putting it in the remotest of island. The Eagle and the Owl become the girl’s parents, feeding her, giving everything and fulfilling her need.

Twenty years pass…. In the east, the boy grew up to become a fisherman. One day during a powerful storm his boat was shored in the remote island where the girl is located. It was love at first sight for the girl has not seen a man in her life and the boy has never seen such beauty and grace. They fell in love and swore to be together – and hatched a plan to be so. The girl told the boy to sail back to the east and make a wooden horse inlaid in gold large enough to fit them both. More like a small version of the Trojan horse.

In the evening the Eagle and the Owl arrived to visit the girl. They announced that the time has come to visit King Solomon – assured and confident that they had won. The girl pleads the Eagle and the Owl for one last gift a wooden horse inlaid in gold. Sweeping west the Eagle and the Owl they could not find any, then turning east there in the beach a wooden horse inlaid in gold.

With all its might the Eagle clutched the wooden horse and brought it to the island.
Early morning the Eagle told the girl to prepare for the travel to King Solomon’s temple. Afraid the girl said “Mother… I may fall from your back as we fly, if I hold into your claws I may lose grip or get injured. Can it be that I get inside my wooden horse, where I am safe and protected.” The Eagle said “then be it my child get inside your favorite wooden horse as we fly far way into your destiny.”

The day of reckoning has come!!! The conceited Eagle and the conniving owl presented to King Solomon the wooden horse where the girl is hidden, declaring that for 20 years the girl born in the west have never seen a man, that she had stayed in the remotest island, that it is but impossible for the boy in the east to met her and marry, that destiny is but man’s way of justifying his condition.
“Very well” said King Solomon “Open the wooden horse and let see for ourselves.”

Lo and Behold!!! Before the King’s court the boy from the east is lock in tight embrace with the girl from the west. There in the midst of everyone the wise King pronounced them husband and wife.

Indeed, the fate of men is written in their stars and our decisions lead us to our destiny. The Eagle in her shame ascend to the highest heaven tucked her wings to fall in the ground and meet her fate. The owl went to the forest disgraced, venturing only during the night ever watchful and forever haunted by not believing in destiny.

They said that you and your better-half(ves) are married in heaven and remarried again in earth.

Ergo the cliché “What God has put together, let no man put asunder.” In Hindu our better-half(ves) are part of us in the beginning of time though we lost it and our life are spent searching for them – our “soul mate.”

Whatever… ?

P.S. If you like my blog leave some comments. Nag-advertise pa oh…Hahahaha….

Bad Trip

Mirror, mirror on your eyes who is the truest of them all.


We reflect ourselves in the eyes of others. What we see in ourselves we presume to be true in others. When we are good we expect others to be so. Bad and cynical we treat other the same way. If we are gifted we assume everyone has their dose of “Promil Milk” too and as good as we are or even better.


Sir Isaac Newton and John Nash is never a good teacher – they usually stand in the corner of the class blabbering all sort of arcane and complex theories expecting students to comprehend them as they do. Students usually prefer average teacher knowing too well that they can better explain and illustrate ideas to average students. A trusting person usually doesn’t count change while a leery will always check.


Why do we get disappointed in dealing with fellow humans when the outcome is not what we expect? In reality the disappointment is from within, something is telling us that we are wrong to be too trusting and too good. We cannot accept the truth that others are so indifferent with what we feel and what we are. Our mistaken view of the world is what disheartens us.


We begin to ask, to question, to seek answer, to our own premise about human nature. How others could be so mean, so cruel, and so heartless? What have I done? As we begin to answer these questions. We begin to grow, we learn and we grow old. We learn that indeed the eyes of others may not reflect our own.


This is the critical point of whether we want to remain as an actor or reflect back the awful image we see in others. Do we want others to be part of our psyche or do we want to remain free and be ourselves? Most humans do change and sometimes for the worse. To remain who we are in spite of all the soreness is the difference between living free and forever be slave to the whims of others.


Free yourselves and live your life.

Florante at Laura

“O pagsintang labis ang kapangyarihan,
Sampung mag-aama’y iyong nasasaklaw
Pag ikaw ang nasok sa puso ninuman
Hahamakin ang lahat masunod ka lamang.”
- Francisco Balagtas, 1788-1862


Aaah Love! (deep sigh) Hmmmm…. I’ve memorized the quote when I was in high school and never forget it since. I love to fall in love and loved many times. For if the essence of life is love, then I have lived a hundred lives. It’s nice to read the blog with background music of Rod Stewart’s “Love Hurts.”


Was Guinevere right to kiss Lancelot? Is it fair to love someone but marry another? Unfortunately, the answer to both questions is YES. It has something to do with the unique configuration of our brain romantic love and attachment to someone is activated from different region of our brain – they are independent of each other. Consequently we could love someone and then spend the rest of our life with another person.


Helen Fisher, anthropologist and well-known love researcher from Rutgers University, says that "...The human body releases the cocktail of love rapture only when certain conditions are met and ... men more readily produce it than women, because of their more visual nature. ….this fire in the mind is caused by elevated levels of either dopamine and phenylethylamine or norepinephrine or both, as well as decreased levels of serotonin."


What the heck are these chemicals? Sure don’t know what they are but I would appreciate it much if somebody can give me a shot of serotonin to counteract the increasing dopamine and “whatever chemicals” that’s messing up my neurons lately.


Romantic love originates close to the part of your brain that controls your heartbeat, breathing, and other internal organs. This happens in the subconscious part of our brain – the reason why we sometimes fall in love with the wrong person. As they say we can never choose whom to love. It is love who chooses for us and we can only hope that the person it chooses love us back. This is the most nerve wracking experience of all. We go to high heavens or pawn our soul to the devil if only our beloved will return our feeling. The passion for love is greater than hunger. How sorrowful can it be when our love is never acknowledged? Unrequited love is state of being that I dare not even venture to explain for words are not enough to describe the depths of anguish that we go through. Why do we have to suffer for something that’s beyond our control? Only God knows for “the heart has reason that reason cannot know.”


How do we tame our unruly heart? We can’t… We just can’t… We really can’t… I’ve tried and failed – a lot of times at that. Sorry to disappoint you folks but that’s the way life is. We just have to sit it down, wait and cross our fingers that the chemical imbalances in our brain subside soon.


However, there is a way to trick the brain out of our own misery. The brain cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy it’s the five senses that makes that distinction. By constant daydreaming of our beloved we somehow fulfill the wishes of our subconscious mind and thus minimize the damage. The key is to make one’s action innocuous while under the spell of love.


Hope it works.
I’ve tried it,
Was a bit successful,
I sure look stupid.
But hey, what can’t kill you can make you stronger…..

First Knight (1995)

A movie by Sean Connery, Richard Gere, and Julia Ormond demonstrate the malady of love and the wreck it can bring.

Guinevere: Love has many faces. I look on you differently, but not with less love.
King Arthur: When a woman loves two men, she must choose between them.
Guinevere: I choose you.
King Arthur: Your will chooses me. Your heart chooses him.
Guinevere: My will is stronger than my heart.
King Arthur: Do you think I put so high a price on my feelings? They'll pass.
Guinevere: My will holds me to my course through life.
King Arthur: As mine does me, and yet, all I have to do is look at you and everything I ever believed in fades to nothing. All I want is your love.
Guinevere: You have it.
King Arthur: Do I? Then look on me as you looked on him.
Guinevere: I gave one moment to Lancelot.
King Arthur: Yes, you're innocent. But you love him! Any more of this innocence and I'll go mad.
Guinevere: I'll do whatever you tell me to.
King Arthur: I don't know what to think. I no longer see my way ahead. Only fools dream of the one thing they can't have.
Lancelot: Forgive me.
King Arthur: What's to forgive?
Lancelot: I dreamed the dream of you. It was a sweet dream...... while it lasted.

Mysterious and powerful – resistance is futile for love can obliterate any opposition. No one is immune it comes and goes according to its whims. It can make a pauper out of kings or humble the proud to beg on their knees. We are under the mercy of love. One way or the other there is no escape sooner or later it will catch up on us. Better to confront it with the knowledge that somehow we can manage this common affliction of all human rather than wait in the dark and be caught under its clutches.

So what is love but a state of mental incapacity when our brain releases chemicals that overwhelm our thinking neurons and bring us in state of complete bliss. Akin to drug like morphine or cocaine we literally get addicted to it. As much as we want get rid of its effect in our brain – the body crave for it. We need it as much as we need the air we breathe. Love is the only legal drug that cost nothing but is so powerful that it can ravage us for life. We humans are designed by nature to fall in love and reproduce. Understanding that love after all is the presence of chemical imbalances in the brain that put us in the state of ecstasy making us unreasonable and sometimes commit acts we will never do under a regularly functioning brain. Subconsciously our brain seeks out the source that triggers the release of these chemicals. Our body craves the feeling and it wants more of it. Thus, a person in love will go to great lengths and almost exhaust all means in his disposal just to see and or be with his love.

Think of it as drug addict stealing, robbing, and committing crimes just to have another dose of drug. And you get the idea how strong love can be in making us absolutely irrational and focused in being together with the one we seek.

Is there a way out of this? Yes there is as much as addict can be rehabilitated so are love-struck can be tamed. But this is reserve for the next blog. :-)

Devil's Advocate

I've been thinking lately about devils and why do people curse one other as the devil or evil or satanic wherenever they don't like what they have done. Hmmm... Lately, I realize that these are insult to the devil using their name to refer to us. In all respect Lucifer and his organization is the one most successful organization in the world - that is if you believe in the devil. Members of this organization are disciplined, they have a single-handed purpose of decieving man, they are committed, they help one another, they are blind obedient to their leader, they share information, and are never selfish always willing to lend a hand. In other words they are all-for-one-and-one-for-all organization. Man could only marvel at the sophisticate tricks, means, and resources that the devil can employ in achieving its goals and objectives of leading man astray. There is no power struggle, no backbiting, no treachery among them, there is no war, nor famine, everyone is helping one another, just plain goodwill and brotherhood in their own way.

If only man can reach the level of organization and camaraderie the devil have achieved the world would have been a better place.

Now I wonder... if its a complement or a curse to be called a devil. But somehow being called a devil is a way of deriding our sworn and worst enemy in more aspect than one in general they are more successful than us. You only have to see the real world to see the proof of their success... :-)

Education

One day after lecture I chance upon a boy age about 9 to 11 peddling peeled mangoes. I asked him why is he not in school. He replied "My mother asked me to sell these mangoes instead of going to school." Perplexed, I wonder how can a mother do such thing to deny the child his right to education. Then as our conversation went I realize that there are more things this child can teach me than I will learn from my readings. In fact he made a perfect example of what opportunity cost is all about. His mother thought that one day outside of class is one day of earning roughly about 50 pesos of additional income for the family. An earning opportunities worth the absences from school for the poor child.

I begin to question my own assumption of what education is all about. Do we really need to go to school to learn? Or is hands-on street smart education a better alternative to education. The answer is it depends on your purpose. If your ends is money and you use education as means to achieve it, I believe you are better off not going to college but instead start your own business as soon as possible. But if your purpose is higher than money your best bet is to pursue education in its fullest extent.

I always told my students before that the best definition of education I encountered is in the movie Titanic, when Jack told Rose something like "I have 20 dollars in my pocket and I know how the world works. Come with me and will be alright." Learning how the world works is really what matters most when you are out there and nobody to turn to. In the ends its not what you know that matters its how you use what you know.

Seek Your Own Self-Interest

"One of the most encouraging thoughts is to know that man can change through conscious effort." I forgot who said it. When you walk through Marawi you see a verse from the Quran that states something like "God will not change the condition of the people unless they change their own." Those who have gone to various countries more developed and peaceful cannot help but wonder why we can't do the same on our own.

Is there a magic potion that could bring us to development? Do we need a savior to save us from ourselves? Can the people change by themselves? What do we really need as a people?

When you ponder the possibilities that you as a professional can do a lot to provide the next generation a better future, through your effort and contribution - all other goals pales in comparison. However, we in the field of economics advice as Adam Smith says "that you should instead seek your own self-interest for the outcome of all people trying to seek their own self-interest will benefit society." Examples its not because friendster.com is benevolent that we are able to connect. They couldn't care about us they just want a higher volume of visits to have more ads - thus they put all sort of benefits to users.

If only Filipino will seek their own interest instead of letting others do it for them our country would have been a better place. Don't worry so much about our society just make yourself a better person and useful professionals. God will take care of the rest.