MESSAGE
For the Class 58 Reunion, Quezon Provincial High School
By: NESTOR
MANIEBO PESTELOS
As almost
everyone knows, we live nowadays in interesting times, more challenging than
life in the 1950s when we were students at the
old Quezon High. Now in our late 70s, we must have grappled with survival
issues and often it must have been difficult to give advice to the generations
much younger than us. A post sent through Facebook by a friend sums up the
current global situation depicted in a cartoon in which a student asks:
“Teacher ...
could we learn how to survive in a civilization threatened by ecosystem
collapse, rising sea levels and the resulting geo-political turmoil around
conflict and the increasing polarization of ideological orientation, and
humanity’s seemingly insatiable appetite for stuff.”
The cartoon
does not show how the teacher has responded. It is safe to assume that like
her, we are oftentimes dumbfounded and shocked by our own tendency to create
conflicts in our family, community, organization, everywhere inhabited by the
superior being scientifically labeled Homo
sapiens supposed to be the most advanced creation of God and nature.
Advances in
science and technology have not been accompanied by enhanced wisdom in both
international and personal relations. The milestones achieved in scientific
knowledge have not been matched by greater
wisdom in leading the good life, in bringing peace and prosperity to the planet
we inhabit. In fact, it has been said by many scientists and philosophers that
the human race is on the road to perdition, destroying the natural resources we
have inherited from the Creator and the institutions and cultural practices
human communities themselves designed based on actual experiences and
reflections embedded in centuries of evolution by ethics and religions in
various cultural and geopolitical contexts.
Drug abuse
has become a global concern. Equally disturbing, suicide cases have increased
both globally and locally indicating despair and loss of faith particularly
among the young. Every 40 seconds, a person resorts to suicide somewhere in the
world. Every 3 seconds, a person attempts to die. More than 800,000 persons of
the suicide cases in the world are due to depression.
In the
Philippines, during the period 1984 to 2005, suicide cases increased from 0.7
to 9% per 200,000 population. The
highest increase in suicide are among age groups 5-14 and 15-24.By all
indications, suicide cases have increased among the young in recent years. We
who belong to the old generations have failed to inspire them and guide them
well enough to prevent the young from taking their own life out of despair and
depression.
We who are
now in our 70s must share in this burden of guilt in what is happening in our
country and the world. Truly old us we
are. let us bring back the glory of being alive, that “splendor in the grass”
we used to recite in our high school days. In the remaining years of our life,
let us continue to help create a better world by making our families closer together,
resilient against the forces of evil that now threaten life in this our planet.
In our final
years on earth, let us reduce our universe in one block, as it has been reduced
due to our limited strength and failing health, but let us continue to bring
the light of hope in our own family and local communities by spreading love. In
John 4:16, it is said: “God is love and
those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” ###
No comments:
Post a Comment