What takes a man to be an elder?

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Roger D. Sinot

 ASIN HOT SPRINGS, Tuba – A favorite song of old folks written by poet Bob Dylan in my early years goes, “How many roads must a man walk down before they can call him a man?/ How many seas must a white dove sails before it sleeps in the sand?/ Yes, and how many times must a cannonball fly before they’re forever banned?” Then the chorus:  “The answer my friend is blowing in the wind./ The answer is blowing in the wind.”

 “How many times can a mountain exist before it’s washed to the sea?/ Yes’n how many years can some people exist before they’re allowed to be free?/ Yes’n how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see? The answer…”

 “How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky?/ Yes’n how many years must one man have before he can hear people cry? Yes’n how many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died? The answer…”

 We were taught well in Easter School the way a teen age should grow. By teen-age, it was a time for “I wish” – I wish for this, I wish for that, like I wish that I’ll be the President of the Philippines some day. At age twenties to thirties, it is the age of “Wit/Wisdom”, to pursue higher education. And at the age of forty and above, the years of “judgment”.

 As pointed out by Dr. Jose Rizal, “Men are not turtles to be valued according to their shells. Persons should be valued according to their character, whether they are just, moderate in their wants and optimistic in their attitude.” Man is an organism composed of body and soul. The human body is the material shell within which the soul operates. The soul is the principle of life. It is that by which we live, sense and reason. Man is the wholeness of his materiality and spirituality, a union of the body and the soul.”

“Man is born into this world as a person, an individual human nature manifested in the history of time and place. Man is a creative intelligent being capable of creating and transforming his environment. He is a powerful dynamo that can construct or destroy himself, society or mankind. He incorporates in him all those powers belonging to the lower creatures. He exists the same way animals do. But above all, he thinks and wills and is in control of himself.”

 Karl Marx once said, “Human nature is a potential, a set of conditions, the human raw material, so to speak, which cannot change. Yet man does, in fact, can change in the courage of history. Man therefore is the product of history, becoming what he is potentially. History is the process of human developing those potentialities which are given to him when he is born”, according to an Ethics book.

 In our Ibaloy old ways, we were advised by our parents through a “jam-jam”(scolding) from our elders when we did wrong. We were afraid that something bad will come to us in return, “What goes around comes around!” We were taught to be respectful “The Shy complex”, to love our neighbours, “When you’re thrown stone, you throw them bread” and most especially, not to get what is not ours.

 Fr. Francis Daoey, our priest at the Anglican Church in Guisad Valley always reminded us to have a vision of the person that we ought to be when we grow up. Being the school chaplain, he compelled us to draw the best in us, as a student and athlete.

In history, men who were considered as great in character were often non-conformists, acting against the prevailing beliefs and practices of their day or time. Such were Christ, Bhuddha. Ghandi, Martin Luther King, locals Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino and Macli-ing Dulag, among others. Character is the process of becoming man, by unfolding the innate goodness of human nature. It is a conscious effort to grow “in age and wisdom”. Man must form the habit of good reason, then leads to perfection.

 Glen Campbell, a well-known country singer-songwriter wrote this song that became popular in the 70s. “Try a little kindness/ Show a little kindness/ Just shine your light for everyone to see/ And if you try a little kindness, don’t overlook the blindness of the narrow-minded people on narrow-winded streets.”

 Happy trails on our journey to elderhood and Happy parade this September First!!!