BY EDISON MARTE SICAD
This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stone to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.
— Gollum’s riddle to Bilbo from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
THE BEAUTY of language — or words for that matter — is highly valued for the understanding it creates between two people. We speak to express our thoughts. We converse as an attribute of being human. Through language, knowledge and culture, and everything in between can be conveyed and enriched.
The beauty of language is appreciated not only by its role in clarifying the meaning of words, but also (ironically) by its function to make understanding more difficult. Some messages are just not meant for mass distribution. We use language to encrypt the true meaning of words. Knowledge can be ubiquitous but also highly exclusive.
The Tower of Babel
Speaking in riddles, political correctness filtering public discourse, ambivalence resulting to doubts, euphemisms emboldening the opportunist.
The Oracle at Delphi, Zodiac signs and palm readings, the occult and its known secrets, propaganda and the media, interpretations, translations, and relativism. Alibis, updates and exceptions, amendments and exemptions.
Man, the ultimate juggler of intentions and expressions. Man, the perennial victim of its own creations. Man, the creature who continuously searches for something, seeking whatever suits him, by instinct and free will, for personal interest and public service.
“What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime. (John 18:38)
To know truth from Truth itself could have been more convenient. But it was not meant to be so.
Learning how to unlearn
“The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”—Georg Hegel
Unless we have felt the pain, we won’t really learn. Others wouldn’t even learn even when they have suffered the pain. Hospitals—and graveyards—are rich with such stories. There is no thrill in prevention. And having a cure is not profitable—unless there are side effects.
Our natural bodies are being sustained by synthetic medications. Our minds can get comfortable living in the past.
Work ethic
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”—Ephesians 2:10
When passion meets hard work, and passion is strengthened by faith, then a man is blessed, and he becomes a blessing to others. That’s why laziness is not just a bad habit; it is against the whole idea of being a fully functioning human being.
The idea must complement the form. The tangible must blend with the elusive. The here and now must connect with what has been and is to be.
Work itself is a god-like quality. We can build or destroy, our own selves or others. We can, in fact, change or improve anytime we want. For us, it is always choice time. Right at this moment, you can decide to see things in a different perspective. Everything—especially the uncomfortable experiences—have a lesson to teach.
Knowledge and experience
The printing press outmoded oral literature, made knowledge accessible to many, and somehow opened the mind to a worldview.
In a way, our digital format (AI and all related creations) will widen the gap between those who are literate and illiterate. To be literate now means seeing the bigger picture and being able to navigate a sea of falsehood. To be illiterate nowadays is to allow to be inundated by social media information and entertainment; it is a crisis of abundance.
Hyperreality is the new reality.
IN CONCLUSION, contradictions have their merits. Mistakes have their benefits. Suffering can be salvific. Success can be a failure. We have to read between the lines by sensing things that can’t be sensed by our five senses. Moreover, common sense is not a common practice.
In this world where receiving is more preferred than giving, acquiring things and collecting accolades can make life draining, “more” empty, and not worth living.
Eventually, the passage of time (the answer to Gollum’s riddle) will purge the impurities, reveal the truth, and transcend human conduct.
“When will you realize? The more you take, the less you have.” — Master Oogway/PN
