[Oe List ...] ST March 21 OpEd

[Alice Baumbach]

Thank you, J'aime for your profound sharings. They always mean so much, 
Alice Baumbach

On 3/19/2012 9:24 PM, Jaime R Vergara wrote:
> With gratitude to Randy W. for the Rifkin quote.
>
> The usual caveat: curious, welcome; not, see you at the next bend.
>
> 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: Tue, Mar 20, 2012 10:09 am
> Subject: March 21 OpEd
>
> *The day my father gasped*
> **
> It was an auspicious year, 1912.On the 21^st day of March a century 
> ago was born my Dad, from whom I was named and who receded as stately 
> a Senior while Junior grew in professional wisdom and became a man of 
> his own.My Mom used to say that my Dad would rather wear his sons worn 
> clothes than let them wear his!Much of his life was a celebration of 
> the present and a hopeful anticipation of the future.
> 1912 birthed China's first Republic and the formation of the 
> /Guomindang/, a long shimmering caesarean delivery by means of a 
> bloody revolution that festered long after the manifestoes of many 
> combatants were sheathed on cabinet folders.The ill-fated /Titanic 
> /made its maiden voyage.
> A century before, Napoleon Bonaparte's undefeated French army met 
> Russian resolute defenses that later led Tchaikovsky to scribble his 
> /1812 Overture, /which our Madison Avenue mind lords did not hesitate 
> to mine for the world-renown Lone Ranger and the Marlboro Man!
> The Philippines finally emerged after the American occupation with a 
> national identity and its /Illustrados/ quickly merged their 
> pocketbooks with the imperial designs NYC's captains of commerce and 
> industry, and married their oligarchic privileges with the shakers and 
> movers of Washington DC.
> Jaime Sr. was the runt of a brood of 11 children.He was two years 
> older than the first of many nieces that followed.In fact, the family 
> story goes that as an infant, he was cared for by his eldest sister 
> who had already been married but seemed to have difficulties 
> conceiving, and her care of my father apparently got the maternal 
> juices flowing enough to bring forth her first born.My Dad's first 
> playmate and later close friend of his family, was his niece but 
> belonging to his own generation.
> There is nothing special about recalling father's birth other than our 
> historical sense of calendar markings.The use of "gasp" rather than 
> "birth" is our literary rendering of the moment of birth and death -- 
> the first gasp into life, and the last out of it.
> We recall his centennial for what he left deeply embedded in my 
> psyche, that is, the facticity of one's birth is sufficient for the 
> lifelong celebration of life, in all its entirety.This was not a 
> religious belief or a theological understanding.It was an indicative 
> daily lived, an intuition that seemed to inhabit every cell of his 
> flesh and bones, an insight gladly shared in his teachings, mostly in 
> the form of a pastoral ministry in the United Methodist Church.This 
> was no Pollyanna optimism, no was it devoid of real regrets and deeply 
> felt disappointments.
> He would have been at home with Jeremy Rifkin's definition of "faith" 
> in his book /The Empathic Civilization:/
> /     ...faith (is) the belief that one's life is worth living, and 
> for that reason alone, it (has) meaning in the larger scheme of things 
> and therefore (needs) to be lived fully in deep connection with others./
> /     ...faith...can be purloined and made into a social construct 
> that exacts obedience, feeds on fear of death, is disembodied in its 
> approach, and establishes rigid boundaries separating the saved from 
> the damned.  Institutionalized religions, for the most part, do just 
> that. /
> Having myself taken the journey of perusing the width and breath of 
> the Judeo-Tradition, I happily landed on its genuine ecumenical side 
> and, thereby, afforded the chance to appreciate the rest of the 
> world's religions, its metaphysical evolution when it turned religious 
> metaphors to become seriously secular, to the wisdom of the scientific 
> revolution that is the legitimate offspring of the journey of human 
> consciousness itself!
> My Dad stayed with the religious metaphors of his upbringing, which I 
> forsook when "open hearts, open minds, open doors" became cynical 
> shibboleth suited for superficial heart-warming Wesleyan experience 
> but found wanting in the current realities of my time.
> Our latest complete family picture of the first generation siblings 
> (with Mom) was taken on the all-family dinner after Dad's internment, 
> memorable to me since Dad was interred at the same time I was on my 
> back while four holes were poked on my belly to deal with an 
> oversupply of gallstones.More religious relations were aghast when I 
> characterized that moment as a tete-a-tete between Dad and I while he 
> was getting the shovel and I, getting sliced with a scalpel!
> In my decade-long visits to the CK P.O., I had a nudging acquaintance 
> with a retired Mr. Blanco who, I believe, is the father of a former 
> government functionary named John.The son later went back to active 
> military duty; I made his acquaintance while engaged in one of 
> Saipan's voluntary social services.With Mr. Blanco's blue hatted 
> graying mane and autumn canvas jacket, we would nod at each other; I 
> did not ask what was on his mind, but he was surrogate Dad in mine.
> It has been awhile seen I last glimpsed Mr. Blanco at the P.O.In a 
> week, /Ching Ming /(the dusting of the gravestones) is a time in China 
> when we remember and honor the beloveds who have gone before.More than 
> the "thanks" that profoundly burps from the bowels of my being, for 
> Dad and Mr. Blanco, I live my life because by their quiet and ordinary 
> living examples, they managed to convey: You may live likewise!
>
> Jaime R Vergara
>
> /*All of yesterday, thanks; all of tomorrow, yes; all of today, let it 
> be!*/
>
>
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