A Golfer's Invictus

(This is one of my earlier poems published in our class website. I've included it here so that it would not be left out in the event my son decides to put my blogs in book form.)


          Out at the Master's links I see
          Hazards and traps from hole to hole;
          I know they're meant for testing me
          And my indomitable (?) soul.

          Driving for show, I lost my stance,
          Got a bad lie, I griped aloud;
          Beguiled to take another chance,
          I lost my ball, but am uncowed.

          Beyond the final hole I see
          Our Master's Place, good golfer's lair
          Where someday toasts will be on me...
          For now, I'll share with you this pray'r:-

          It matters not how tough the course,
          How seemingly unfair the call;
          God, help me play better, not worse,
          God guide my ball, as well my soul!


                                    

                              

IMAGINATION

     I pictured in my mind a secret place
     Made lovely by my soul mate's radiant face,
     And all my aches and pains just flew away,
     Gone too my woes and worries of the day;
     I prayed to God to give me happy dreams,
     No scenes of violence nor sounds of screams,
     And so I was led to this peaceful place
     To refresh my soul and receive God's grace.
     I awoke this morning raring to go
     Off to our harsh world-- unfit for the slow.
     Nothing to fear now;  I'm swift on the draw...

God, Have Mercy

     The group of retired septuagenarians (plus a few octogenarians) having coffee at the Serrramonte Mall is evidently getting fewer in number. Every now and then we hear a friend is either in the hospital or at Duggan's Funeral Parlor, or already awaiting  final funeral/ burial or crematory services at the Skylawn, Cypress, Holy Cross, or some other cemetery in our area. This is the reason why our late colleague Nick Dazig called the mall "The Departure Area". In fact, he declared that each of us now has his "boarding pass" and that we are merely waiting for our final call.
    The realization that our allotted time in this dimension will indeed have to come to an end compels us to  re-focus and review the "map" to our next "destination", if any. Is there in fact a "next" place, an afterlife, or is man's earthly life all there is, that death equals nothingness, oblivion, no heaven, no hell, just absolute Zero? The traditional Christian believer bestowed with the gift of faith will have no problem wrestling with and resolving this issue to his satisfaction. Those who are just a "tic" away from being agnostics or skeptics need a more solid foundation than what was "force-fed" to pre-adult minds in catechetical/religious classes.
     Let me try with the basic scientific fact that matter and energy are but two sides of the same coin. All matter is actually energy that to our human senses has become solidified, perceivable, palpable, measurable. But matter/energy cannot be destroyed. What then in a human being who is both made of matter and energy can be destroyed? I maintain - only his physical human form, his material constituents, except his components in the subatomic level. When a human being dies, his body decomposes, turns to dust, so we assume nothing of him is left. He is dead and gone.But note that at the subatomic or quantum level his quarks, gluons, leptons, all his subatomic particles,being indestructible, must continue to subsist. Knowledgeable scientists say there are trillions and trillions of these subatomic particles in one drop of blood. This fact supports my own theory that Christ's crucifixion released an inexhaustible supply of His quanta (the particles that made up His flesh and blood as a "True Man") in order to provide the divine spark to any and all of us, including future generations, if we but accept Him into our lives and follow His final injunction to love one another as He loved us. Insofar as we ordinary human beings are concerned and as earlier contended, our subatomic components also cannot be destroyed. These particles, in my view, must still carry or contain all the data or information pertaining to and/or derived from the deceased individual to which said particles were previously linked, including all the errors, mistakes, misdeeds he committed in his lifetime. Although a person has just died and/or has been dead for sometime, many paranormal happenings involving or caused by the deceased have been reported. Several books on out-of-body and near-death experiences have been published confirming a persons's continuing self- awareness despite the fact that he was in coma and/or physically unconscious. How can a brain-dead person or fully anesthetized patient remember floating above his bed and looking down at his own physical body being operated on by the surgeon and other hospital staff, unless there was a part of him that actually observed what was going on? Let us not be timid nor embarrassed to concede that human beings do have indestructible souls. I have a fanciful but quite believable theory:- When we were young and we fell deeply in love with that flirtatious classmate in high school or in college, we thought she was our soul mate and we kept dreaming of her, thinking we could not live without her. More often than not, we later discover to our dismay that she is just another imperfect human being like all of us. But we do have soul mates. I have a soul mate and that is my own incorporeal/deathless soul which is bonded to my material/mortal body. The former has to go somewhere when my body dies. I believe when I die, my disembodied soul ( who in my mind is untouched by the passage of time and still retains my youthful image) must go back to where it originally came from--the spiritual domain.  In this regard, I have to concede that there must be a First Cause, a Creator who made us and the whole universe, for nothing can come out of nothing. And since it is also my instinct, my intuition, and my intellect that tell me  God is Just, I have to agree (and expect) that my poor soul would, after my demise, be dealt with accordingly...(nevertheless, O GOD, HAVE MERCY!)

Lies

     That which motivates not only individual persons but also artificial entities or organizations is self-preservation. Survival is the prime directive for the hunter, farmer and for tribes, nations, governments, clubs, associations, corporations, even religious bodies like the Catholic Church, the various Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim organizations. We can all agree that each and every one of these entities are Truth Seekers. But oftentimes because we instinctively seek to survive and continue on without change, we become stultified or blinded by our self-interests and stray away from, veil, or in silence refuse to articulate the truth. But all efforts to hide or bury the truth will be of no avail. It may take a few days, weeks, maybe a few years, or even decades or centuries, but in the end the naked Truth will prevail. And oftentimes the belated discovery and acquiescence of the truth can prove not only embarrassing, self-defeating but even disastrous. Note, for example, the Ampatuan case where an entire vehicle was buried in a futile attempt to hide the killing of members of the media assigned to cover a political rivalry in Mindanao. Recently, we all witnessed on TV the Weinberg "twitter" case. This is an instance where an almost nude presentatiion led to adamant remonstration, downright misreprepresentation, and finally apologetic resignation. A graver faux pas is Galileo's supposed heliocentric "heresy". We have many leaders in government, in business and the clergy who resorted to prevarication and/or misused their powers to hide misdeeds, mistakes, skeletons-in-their-closets, secret lives or loves. 
     Closer to home and since in this space I cannot tell a lie, so did I....

Time to Grow Up

     One of the last topics that Tony (Alikabok) Villanueva wanted to have a debate on was whether Virgin Mary was transported  in her physical human body to Heaven. As far as I know, the subject was between us never discussed at length, for every time we met near the Pacific SuperMarket or at the mall, he was in a hurry to go somewhere, and I guess so was I. Nevertheless, I know him well enough to state that his percipience would not allow him to concede the affirmative side of this issue. Although God is Omnipotent, I do not think He would let so-called miracles to occur in manifest violation of His own Natural Law that He has laid down for His whole creation, paticularly considering that His Omniscience tells Him these fantastic stories could only drive mere doubters to total unbelief. The clergy has had occasion to dissuade "unguided" reading by the laity of the scriptures and other sacred books, including the Quran, for untutored readers run the risk of being misguided by the mere literal meaning of the texts. For example, jihadists justify their horrific actions. because they are supposed to destroy infidels.But infidels are those who do not obey God's Commandments. And the Muslim's Quran prohibits the killing of innocent non-combatants. So who then are the infidels if not the jihadists themselves?
     In this day and age, most people of the civilized world should now be sufficiently enlightened to be abe to separate the chaff from the grain in the holy scriptures.Fairy stories are OK for children. But let's not be (kidded) kids forever... Time to grow up, gentlemen.

Govern for the Living

      If I understood Thomas Paine's counsel stated in his work "The Rights of Man", the purpose of government is to govern the living, not the dead.  It is the government's responsibility to accomodate the present generation, to make laws appropriate or necessary to meet the current challenges, and not simply stick stubbornly to a modus vivendi which may have been proper in the past and made into law by a past body of lawgivers but could no longer be sustained under present circumstances. There appears to be no dispute that there is need for a re-assessment of all taxpayer-funded programs now being administered or controlled by the government. Our leaders apparently all agree inaction can only lead to the nation's bankruptcy. Our current batch of young workers is being burdened with taxes for a social security fund that we all know would soon have no funds at all. This is a manifest injustice that deserves urgent correction. It is reported that 100,000 employees of retirement age will in fact henceforth retire each and every day and they would be expecting to receive their respective pensions. Just printing more paper money to meet these obligations is obviously not a sound solution. While the passage of tax laws is a Congressional prerogative, may not the President also be able to exercise his executive discretion and momentarily hold in abeyance enforcement versus our young workers that portion of a tax measure intended to fund a program from which they could not possibly derive any benefit? Remedial action should be done now. It is hoped that our leaders will act in a timely fashion so to avert this sword of Damocles falling on Uncle Sam's head. If I may translate a Tagalog saying to conclude:- "Of what use is grass to a dead cayuse?"

A Gambling Man's Consolation Prize

     (This is a substantially revised version of Shakespeare's "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes...")

     When I've lost all my chips at slots and dice,
     I all alone beweep my luckless state,
     And blaming Dame Fortune with futile cries,
     I crawl back home, beggared, cursing my fate,
    Wishing that I should not have overstayed
     Trying to find that looser lucky slot.
     Now I fear my bills will remain unpaid,
     Unless I hit the MegaMillion pot...

     Life is a gamble, so while I live I must try:-
     Pursue long odds, but if in penury I die,
    Then thru the needle's eye, with ease my soul shall fly!