blackshama's commentary on Philippine issues

The truth is plain. We were once children. The foreword to a recent edition of GK Chersterton's "St Francis of Assisi" tells of the world of children and the price of being an adult is never being able to re-enter that world, even in a dream. Not even for a memory since many adults only have a hazy recollection of childhood especially if it was a happy one. As Merlin played by Sam Neill in the Hallmark remake of the Arthurian legend says, "My childhood was so happy for it was over in a flash" Too bad biology dictates that we end up as all adults. But the Gospel speaks of Christ telling the people that "they won't enter the Kingdom of God unless they become children once more." I have heard this in Church many many times since I was received in the Catholic Church during the feast of the Santo Niño 20 years ago. I was a young adult then and no longer a child. The Gospel reading was about Jesus after being found the the temple by his upset parents, g...

Happy Teacher's Day to all! We are all teachers in one way or another. Anyway I am reminded of these lines in Robert Bolt's "A Man for all Seasons" Sir Thomas More- Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher; perhaps a great one. Richard Rich - If I was, who would know it? Sir Thomas More - You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that. And oh yes. The quiet life. "A Man for all Seasons" is one of my favourite plays and movies. But what does it really mean to teach? The cliche is that teaching is a noble profession. Perhaps. But like all cliches, many don't really have an inkling what that really means. Bolt's More is right mostly but the quiet life bit. Teachers do not have a quiet life. They are there to disturb, to shake or rock, to shatter and even to destroy if need be. Teachers do build. They build futures. But in order to do that they have to shatter complacency, stereotypes, apathy and destroy ignorance. In doing so they ...