[Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd Monday

[Jaime R Vergara]

Just a thought.


j'aime la vie



-----Original Message-----
From: jrvergarajr2031 <jrvergarajr2031 at aol.com>
To: editor <editor at saipantribune.com>; Mark_Rabago <Mark_Rabago at saipantribune.com>; jayvee_vallejera <jayvee_vallejera at saipantribune.com>
Sent: Sun, Mar 11, 2012 9:07 am
Subject: OpEd Monday


3.11.11
 
For those whose lives experienced a shaking of thefoundations by the events now associated with the numerical metaphor 9/11, thenation of Japan, in various degrees of intense challenge and trappings ofdespair, have 3/11 as their own symbol of the literal terrestrial tremor and immenseinundation that visited the northeastern shores of the island of Honshu.  The earth-shaking occurrence that made“Miyaki” and “Fukushima” household terms has come to a year’s turn testifyingto the awe and wonder of human resilience that continues to see a people beartheir suffering sans rancor, and proceed with the many miracles of disciplinedresolves without much taint of arrogance nor conceit.
 
Volunteers trained to dive the cold waters of the NorthPacific in order to locate those still missing so that bodies, if stillrecoverable, or, at least, identifiable, be given to relatives to relieve batteredminds and console forsaken souls; they scour the ocean floor on thisanniversary day to give the culture’s vaunted communal effort one moretry.  The symbolic power of the attemptafter all, carries a stronger punch on the human spirit than whatever tangibleaccomplishment it may gain.
 
Various degrees and forms of 9/11s and 3/11s have come toshake the corporate and individual foundations of our lives of late.   A whole economy like that of Greece teetersat the brink of wholesale collapse even as those who hold the purse strings instaid buildings of France, Germany and the Benelux readjust the numbers intheir books to see if the financial processes at play can proceed.  The Greeks see a decade long belt tighteningbefore they can see the light at the end of a long tunnel.  Others in the Eurozone cower in fear thattheir banking systems are next in line.
 
The drumbeats of war are getting stronger as Gringos' machismo reflexively wants to lash at those it perceive to threaten its comfortzone stated as aggression.  Syria’sbackyard is reportedly stained with the blood of kin in civil discord, whileCairo’s youth and Gaza’s refugees wrap their fists around many stones.  Israel brags about keeping the option to go‘unilateral’ and those opposing Obama’s diplomatic efforts are easy on thelanguage preemptive offense.
 
The implications of the Japan disasters on the reality ofclimate change, the sudden hyperactivity of the tectonic plates and air/oceancurrents showing unusual patterns, along with the continuing specter of thenuclear card going rogue or awry, matters than can no longer just be ignoredand are in fact still resolvable with our current state of knowledge, are laidon the tables of our rational considerations, and we tremble at the prospectsof head of States going ‘postal’ (with apologies to the USPS) on narrow andless than global context.
 
As our sense of the global challenges have grown more acute,the alarming turn of our individual destinies into the dark shadows of fear andsuspicion, on one hand, and the hellish reality of corruption and violence, onthe other, has brought the realities of 9/11 and 3/11s to roost at thedoorsteps of our homes, if not into the inner sanctums of where we lay our headto sleep in the night.  That, or ourmedia’s choice of reporting the news is too heavily leaning on the side ofhuman depravity. And ignoring the reality of our situation has sent us allflying to the momentary comfort of many forms of lala-land, failing to see thatat the root of the malaise of our time lies the crisis of nothing less than thecowering shrinkage of the human spirit itself.
 
Less one thinks I have gone soft on the head, I am notreferring to some element here foreign to the common eye, or only the province weofficially parcel to the parson and the priest, the rabbi and the imam, the guruand the shaman. I am pointing to that wonderful discovery of consciousness thatis the gift of our century and generation, the capacity to transcend our momentwhile at the same time, being totally and immanently immersed in every aspectof it.  Then, while standing on thecomprehensive with the longest view for a context, be minutely sensitive toevery vibration every moment and every square inch in the arena of livingengagement, knowing that were the shadows of death abounds, the drive for lifeabounds much more.
 
Or, at least, that objectively remains an option for each ofus, for while we constantly rehearse the perceived causes that brought us to where we are, often accompanied by a blame game on our reflections of CNMI’s past, and anticipate with much forebodingand doom fare the chances that lie on our path beyond, it is the choices thatwe make each day that constitutes the final stroke determining the course ofour existence.
 
Nippongos, for all the gory and glory of their past, manageto keep their chin up in a deep sense of self-respect and self-confidence, and bymany accounts turn calamities into a limbering of futuric resolves, and whilemany a year later today still reside in makeshift shelters overlooking theempty spaces left behind by their devastated homes, life flows on like udon on a bowl of seaweed-flavored andjasmine-scented soba, as the land ofthe rising sun continues to greet a harried world, Ohayoo Gozaimasu!
 
So, how are we faring with our choices today?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 Jaime R Vergara


All of yesterday, thanks; all of tomorrow, yes; all of today, let it be!

 
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