Within Thy Wounds Hide Me

Towards a Re-evaluation of Values?

In this Sunday’s sermon, the priest said we should have an ear for trajectory of the scriptures and another ear for the trajectory of history. He said that it’s similar to the accomplishment of the Second Vatican Council, when it rode with the spirit of the times. Geist. Fresh out of Copenhagen, and disappointed with the poor outcome of Copenhagen, he insightfully highlighted the necessity of environmental consciousness and the reduction of carbon emissions. For your children and your children’s children, he said.

In his trajectory of history going hand in hand with the trajectory of the scriptures, he cited Mahatma Ghandi as a paragon – as Ghandi embodied and enacted the values of Christianity in aptness to a historical period. In front of the tabernacle, the priest was this close to saying (in a rather charming Irish accent) that Buddha is more Christian than Christians.

The previous Sunday, while singing the Lamb of God, a child was acting out the lyrics. It was so sincere, and so truthfully cherished, as only a child could pray. The most unblemished form of prayer comes from children.

In morning masses at 9am, it’s usually a children’s choir who sings in Malate. It poses a more magical efficacy when children in chorus beautifully voices out “hide me in thy wounds...” or “your children have grown weary in living in confusion.”

Religion is the opium of the masses, so Marx says. But they’ didn’t have rehab back then. I've sort of gone through a religious rehab. Now that I am free, but not necessarily enlightened, I want my opium.

Religion is also the childlike condition of humanity, Feuerbach goes. I still believe in Feuerbach. Since I am going to be a father soon, I’ve merrily reawakened the child in me. I’ve also concluded that Catholicism is essential to the value formation of our child, a necessary step towards a Nietzschean re-evaluation of values.

But know that all your life, you will have to seek out the Truth, my child. Have faith in what is good, hope fervently, uphold what is right, and as your mother says: pray, pray, pray from your heart.

After Sideways

“I‘m a thumbprint in window a skyscraper. I’m a smudge of excrement on a tissue surging out to sea with a million tons of raw sewage... I think it’s Bukowski." – Miles, the failed writer in “Sideways.”

Torn between an afternoon run and watching Sideways while drinking. For days now, I’ve been waiting for some good afternoon sunshine and some adrenaline to be pumped into my lungs. It’s a rush and it’s relaxation juxtaposed: a run in the late-afternoon- getting-really-Christmasey-October air. But how can the inconsistency of human decision fare compared to the irresistible cocktail of gin, concentrated calamansi juice, honey and lemon slices? I slip the perfect movie in the DVD tray, something I’ve longed to see again. Now I’m watching Sideways while having a drink, toasting and laughing with the characters.

Human inconsistency, my frailty, fared wonderfully.

But now I’m sideways. Oh well, we’ll get it straightened out later.

Recurring

Recurring. That’s what’s happening now. Again and again, I weep, I whine, and I witness a happy ending in the middle of my story. What’s happening is an immersion to my own life. It’s been injected with more intimacies dispersing itself daily, ubiquitously. Here, now and elsewhere, every second. Every moment with D., every story, every taste, every shared laugh, every run, every pleasant drive, every chore, every read, every family, friend, every love all around.

I long, inextinguishably, to repeat every moment of my life.

I Am Just Quietly Untamed

Evenflow,
Thoughts arrive like butterflies
Oh, he don’t know
So he chases them away.

Nobody could have expressed our angst better. Not the way Pearl Jam and the grunge music of our generation made whatever absurdity we felt less shapeless. We were on the way to the beach, aboard the bus to Batangas and I was reading Oscar Wao with the grunge playlist plugged in. I heard Eddie Vedder's deep yet screechy voice accompanied by guitar distortion. The lyrics were powerful and furious. With its hidden meanings, it made me understand why the world worked in wayward ways. It made all the Emo music of this generation seem sissy and just cretinous. We didn’t have Google yet back then, but we understood.

And precisely because I understood, I protested. I was young and ready to make world spin in idealized directions. I wanted to change the world’s wayward ways. And then the music grew too loud. I got drunk silly, chased girls, and youth disappeared. I grew up, silencing myself.

Hearing this again now, I understood. I am just quietly untamed.

Short Stabs at Philosophy

One of the tasks of philosophy is to both seek and inspect the creation or discovery of a knowledge-base that is solid (with foundations) and at the same time fluid (with its willingness to agitate those foundations).

Pardon my level of discourse. I'm only peeking out of the cave for a glimpse of that "world of forms."

It's a classic, and you've probably heard the question a million times from students such as me: “Do philosophers really live up to the stereotype of being confined to ivory towers with their brows arched, writing their scholarly volumes?”

Is it the snobbish air hanging around Philosophy which easily dismisses popular culture with a bad reputation, denoting the absence of good foundations? Have we examined at all what purveyors of popular philosophy had in mind? What could Bryan Magee have done differently in his philosophical TV show in BBC, if he should have had one at all?

We live in a time where the information is readily available, if not nearly-effortlessly accessible. While this is good in many ways, the inevitability of information dissemination leaves too many stones unturned. Too many details are left unchecked. "Popularizing" philosophy may easily backfire into misinterpretation or misrepresentation. Even more perilously, popularizing philosophy can lead to intellectual indolence. It can also breed its own monsters and create its own convenient fictions or totalizing narratives. Can we simply describe it as their participation in the beautiful mystery of life in the universe?

Even with so much imprecision, the dispersion of Popular Philosophy will persist. An angsty teenager is likely to look up Nietzsche when he sees "Fight Club" or Schopenhauer when s/he sees "Antonia's Line." A talented artist will call their art "postmodern" and will popularize that philosophy thorough its icons - Warhol-style. Someone will ask, “What are the metaphysical issues expressed in T.S. Eliot’s poetry?” “Is there a touch of nihilism in the lyrics of Radiohead or The Smiths?” Whoever reads Camus' The Stranger will easily warm up to Existentialism.

Our world is understood or misunderstood in many, blended forms of learning. One of the tasks of philosophy is to both seek and inspect the creation or discovery of a knowledge-base that is solid (with foundations) and at the same time fluid (with its willingness to agitate those foundations). Philosophy should be able to clarify concepts, question truth claims, and examine methods - perhaps even in popularized forms. Maybe it's worth the time?

Popular or not, I'd like to believe that Philosophy will reign as the mother of all disciplines. Popular or not, philosophy will prevail. This gives us a little room for excitement - to find out how it’s being played out there, outside its circles.

Remember Wittgenstein's Poker?

I've been following some forums and discussion boards on Philosophy in the University I attended and it's exciting to think that there might be scenes amongst Professors similar to what happened with Popper and Wittgenstein's Poker.

Among us, there are those who lurk quietly and pursue philosophy in our own non-academic ways. We read reviews/discussion boards about recently-published Philosophy books or Philosophy-related books, films, plays or music that show coherence or congruence with certain philosophical ideas, some genuinely exciting philosophical insights and (with a blighted hope) maybe some sense of humor.

Either fortnatately or unfortunately, some of us aren't afforded the privilege of having Philosophy as way of life. Nonetheless, we want to keep on having Philosophy as an influence in our lifestyle choices, or as a lifestyle choice in itself.