[Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd Monday

Sun Mar 11 19:05:13 EDT 2012

Thanks Herman.  Yes, I do remember the Mumbai attack with some of our visiting colleagues in the city at the time.

Will remember the added 11!

j'aime la vie

-----Original Message-----
From: Herman Greene <hfgreene at mindspring.com>
To: 'Order Ecumenical Community' <oe at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sun, Mar 11, 2012 10:39 pm
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEd Monday

Thanks Jaime.

There is one more 11, 26/11 (2008), thedate of the beginning of the Mumbai attacks.

From:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Jaime R Vergara
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 20128:17 PM
To: oe at wedgeblade.net
Subject: [Oe List ...] Fwd: OpEdMonday

Just athought.

j'aime la vie

-----OriginalMessage-----
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 ashaking of the foundations by the events now associated with the numericalmetaphor 9/11, the nation of Japan, in various degrees of intense challenge andtrappings of despair, have 3/11 as their own symbol of the literal terrestrialtremor and immense inundation that visited the northeastern shores of theisland of Honshu.  The earth-shaking occurrence that made “Miyaki” and “Fukushima” householdterms has come to a year’s turn testifying to the awe and wonder of humanresilience that continues to see a people bear their suffering sans rancor, andproceed with the many miracles of disciplined resolves without much taint ofarrogance nor conceit.

Volunteers trained to dive the cold watersof the North Pacific in order to locate those still missing so that bodies, ifstill recoverable, or, at least, identifiable, be given to relatives to relievebattered minds and console forsaken souls; they scour the ocean floor on thisanniversary day to give the culture’s vaunted communal effort one more try. The symbolic power of the attempt after all, carries a stronger punch on thehuman spirit than whatever tangible accomplishment it may gain.

Various degrees and forms of 9/11s and3/11s have come to shake the corporate and individual foundations of our livesof late.   A whole economy like that of Greece teeters at the brink ofwholesale collapse even as those who hold the purse strings in staid buildingsof France, Germany and the Benelux readjust the numbers in their books to seeif the financial processes at play can proceed.  The Greeks see a decade longbelt tightening before they can see the light at the end of a long tunnel. Others in the Eurozone cower in fear that their banking systems are next inline.

The drumbeatsof war are getting stronger as Gringos' machismo reflexivelywants to lash at those it perceive to threaten its comfort zone stated asaggression.  Syria’sbackyard is reportedly stained with the blood of kin in civil discord, while Cairo’s youth and Gaza’srefugees wrap their fists around many stones.  Israel brags about keeping theoption to go ‘unilateral’ and those opposing Obama’s diplomatic efforts areeasy on the language preemptive offense.

The implications of the Japan disasters onthe reality of climate change, the sudden hyperactivity of the tectonic platesand air/ocean currents showing unusual patterns, along with the continuingspecter of the nuclear card going rogue or awry, matters than can no longerjust be ignored and are in fact still resolvable with our current state ofknowledge, are laid on the tables of our rational considerations, and wetremble at the prospects of head of States going ‘postal’ (with apologies tothe USPS) on narrow and less than global context.

As our sense of the global challenges havegrown more acute, the alarming turn of our individual destinies into the darkshadows of fear and suspicion, on one hand, and the hellish reality ofcorruption and violence, on the other, has brought the realities of 9/11 and3/11s to roost at the doorsteps of our homes, if not into the inner sanctums ofwhere we lay our head to sleep in the night.  That, or our media’s choice ofreporting the news is too heavily leaning on the side of human depravity. Andignoring the reality of our situation has sent us all flying to the momentarycomfort of many forms of lala-land, failing to see that at the root of themalaise of our time lies the crisis of nothing less than the cowering shrinkageof the human spirit itself.

Less one thinks I have gone soft on thehead, I am not referring to some element here foreign to the common eye, oronly the province we officially parcel to the parson and the priest, the rabbiand the imam, the guru and the shaman. I am pointing to that wonderfuldiscovery of consciousness that is the gift of our century and generation, thecapacity to transcend our moment while at the same time, being totally andimmanently immersed in every aspect of 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 of us, for while we constantlyrehearse the perceived causes that brought us to where we are, often accompanied by ablame game on our reflections of CNMI’s past, and anticipate with muchforeboding and doom fare the chances that lie on our path beyond, it is thechoices that we make each day that constitutes the final stroke determining thecourse of our existence.

Nippongos, for all the gory and glory oftheir past, manage to keep their chin up in a deep sense of self-respect andself-confidence, and by many accounts turn calamities into a limbering offuturic resolves, and while many a year later today still reside in makeshiftshelters overlooking the empty spaces left behind by their devastated homes,life flows on like udon on a bowlof seaweed-flavored and jasmine-scented soba,as the land of the rising sun continues to greet a harried world, Ohayoo Gozaimasu!

So, how are we faring with our choicestoday?

 Jaime R Vergara 

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

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