Graduation, sorry no more traditional brass band, and other stuffs...

There'll be no brass band in this year's graduation ceremonies.For the last seven years I have been with the school, and the decades before that, the school has employed the community band to play and provide  accompaniment to the marches. I guess this tradition  showcased the musical talents of the Taytayenos especially those of Maestro Serving De Leon who wrote and composed the school hymn and Mabuhay ang Taytay and Maestro Fred Villanueva who composed the Mabuhay Rizal, both were Taytayenos and according to TES former music teacher were disciples of Maestro Lucio San Pedro. It's not just tradition, it's  about culture.

________________________________________

The school year will end in two weeks. I am excited about the summer vacation for the much needed break from the daily grind of teaching, paper works, and keeping the classroom in order. I think most teachers will agree with me when I say that the most stressful part of teaching is classroom management.

The classroom is composed of around fifty pupils from different backgrounds and keeping this menagerie of children in order requires so much energy and most of that energy is channeled in keeping the teachers' temper in control. So, don't judge a teacher when he or she is caught slapping a learner. I am not defending the act, but there are times when the teacher have had so much and temper flare up.

We are now in preparing for the graduation ceremonies. I could feel my pupils' excitement but at the same time I could also sense separation anxieties especially among the girls who it seems to be more affected by the impending dissolution of the class. They have been promising never ending friendship and even making pacts that they'll stick together into high school and so on.

I was telling my pupils that in a few months in high school they'll overcome this sense of loss and move on. They'll create new friends and get into deeper relationships and that the classmates they teased during their elem could grow up to be beautiful ladies and the bullies could end up wooing them and vice versa. I told stories from my experiences but I was booed and told that such things would never happen.

Though this is my seventh year in teaching and have had hundreds of pupils passed through my classes, I still feel a sense of sentimentalism, call it that, every time a class graduates. Every class is unique, they develop a corporate identity. I would not say that the last one is better than the others who have moved on, each is different, each has its own identity. I remember last year's class was composed of active pupils who participated in almost every school activities from cooking to singing and dancing and they have won many certificates while last last year's class was made up of athletes, while the current graduating class seemed to be timid and like to keep to themselves.

Like what happen every year, I told my pupils that in a few weeks. I may not be able to remember their names, and in a few months I may not even remember their faces and though we feel so close today, even familial, this will change and there'l come a time that they would even avoid their elementary teachers. 

Life goes on.

Guilt for the unsaved, Sunday meanderings

I have seen people cry because their relatives and close friends do not belong to the same denomination or religion they belong to. 

They feel guilty because they have genuine love for their loved ones and it's really unthinkable to live in paradise while your children, or spouse , or friends are in hell in eternal torture from burning and swimming in sulfuric lava.

There also those who are concerned about their accountability because in the end, when things have come to its realization, they could be held liable for not sharing or convincing people around them to convert to their religion. Of course, the guilt is based on the premise that the only true religion, the only true church is the one that they belong to. 

It's futile to argue about the validity of this claim to exclusivity because almost all of the religion have an exclusivity clause. I am not thinking about Christianity and its thousand of sub-denominations that have their own exclusivity clauses, I'm talking about religions in general. I respect Holy Books but to talk about things, argues, explore reality, within the confine of the pages of these Holy Books is very restrictive and problematic, for me.  There will be no conversation but a one way spoon feeding of doctrines and dogmas.

Think about circumstances, forget yourself for once and pretend that you're someone else who is born in another country, grew up in another culture and belongs to another religion. Let's pretend that you're an average Filipino citizen, born in a Christian culture. You go to church regularly, you work honestly, and you live an average life like an average Filipino. 

Then a Muslim missionary knocked at your door and offered you Islam as the way to your soul's salvation and that Christianity is a false religion, Satan's creation to challenge the real and true religion. (Islam is the fastest growing religion today.) He is offering you a new way of life of devotion to Allah. You may raise your eyebrow because you grew up in a Christian community and is a practicing Christian and your perspective of things is very Christian. 

Christianity (and the church you belong to) is the only true church or true path to salvation because that's what is inculcated in you by your culture, your community, your family, your government and by social genetics. Your whole being is immersed in Christianity and to think apart from this perspective is (almost) incomprehensible, even unthinkable.

And you may be surprised that there are Islamic missionaries because you think Muslims proselytize by the sword or violence.  Your first reaction is hostile. You're instinct is to run or to pray out loud to invoke the power of the Holy Spirit to repel these enemies of the church. But then common sense and education got the better of you and you declined politely.

Of course chances are you will not take  these Muslim missionaries seriously and may even look at the them with suspicion and disdain. But when these missionaries start to open up with their goods and aids, doors would open.

Anyway, this is hypothetical but these missionary thing happen all the time. i think it's only the Buddhist who give shelp without attaching their religion to their charitable works. 

Millions of people who are born in different country, in different cultural setting, in different religious traditions, and in different circumstances in life. To think that God revealed himself to a particular race and that this particular revelation is the only true revelation and is the only true way to salvation (whatever that may mean but I am not inclined to think that souls are meant to walk on gold pavements and sing praises to God in eternity), I think misses the goodness in other people. (the inclusive may say, "Hey we see truth in their beliefs, it's juts that their's is not good enough, they fall short!"

I was reminded of a scene from the novel "To kill a mocking bird" where a white american drunk bum beleived himself to superior to a hard working black american because of his skin color. 

The Jimi Hendrix Sketch Epic saga

After sketching trees which got positive comments from FB friends I had this idea that I think I'm good enough to do portrait sketching. I mean how difficult would it be to transitions from drawing imaginary trees to drawing portraits of people.  

                                                                                                              At its basic elements pencil drawings is all about shapes and shades. I mean this is not water color or painting which requires heavy, heady stuffs like color theory and color mixing.                                                                                                                               So, I thought about it. First was the subject. Hendrix was the obvious choice because the guys had a vast influence on rock and blues music. Secondly, he had a colorful life.                            

Thirdly, the face is  iconic and very recognizable, at least to rock and blues music enthusiasts like me. Since I'm beginner, I thought of the grid method. I put a crisscrossing lines on the picture of Hendrix face and then put coordinates on it so that I could focus on the little things and not get overwhelmed by the details and to make it easier still.                                                                                                                                           I covered the part which I am not drawing, again, the purpose was to isolate the area and not let my wonder get overwhelmed. How difficult could it be when all I had to do was draw this little shapes and shades on this little boxes.                                                                                                           I was doing well in the first part, the neck and the lips. At least the sketch resembled that part of the face. I was positive that I would be able to do this. I am not aiming to copy a picture, what I'm after was the image or the semblance of a Hendrix. 

As the little boxes moved up to Hendrix's nose, I was stumped. How could I make Hendrix's nose appear. When I used borderline on the nose, it appeared cartoonish and looked weird. The human face had no lines, I was reminded of an on line teacher's lesson, most of the features on the face, especially the nose are defined by shadows or tones and not by lines. OK.

 This is the result of my effort.

Jimi Hendrix v.1 lookeslike a Neanderthal man.

 Hendrix v.2 looks like another Neanderthal man.

I guess no one gets it the first or the second time but definitely I will not stop until I get even just a semblance of Hendrix in my drawings. At least, the results are humanoids. hahahah

Pencil drawing and why engage I in it, enjoying the moment of the here and now

I started sketching about a month ago. At first it was a way for me to visualize my bonsai material but as I progressed I realized that I enjoyed the art and have even watched lessons on you tube which is very helpful especially the lessons on principles of sketching. 

How does it benefit me?

no need to beat yourself in the head

I have the tendency to overthink. I think about work, future, family, religion etc.I guess everyone thinks about these thing and more and only the insane are exempt form these anxieties. and when I doodle and draw ( or play the guitar) these negative thoughts are replaced by something else, relaxed concentration. 

Another thing is that my pupils seemed to be impressed by my drawings. Of course they are easy to impress and I'm not fooling myself into thinking that I'm going to be a professional artist or something but impressing the pupils is an asset when it come to teaching MAPEH. I gained more authority, another way to put it.

Now, whether I'm good at it or not, is a question I will not even entertain because once that thought entered my head the interest will be lost. I think the goal of an activity is to enjoy the moment and the journey, It should not to be about being good at it, or to be the best or not all, these thoughts are  joy killers and could be depressing if the expectations are not met. There are a lot of people who gave up what they are doing because they feel they are not good at it, or they loss enthusiasm because someone else is doing better than them, learning faster than them, or worse someone told them they are not good. But that should not be the case. It's all about enjoying the experience and cultivating the interest, nothing more.

I'm fascinated by trees

The best way to do it is to engage an activity with no expectations, nothing, tabula rasa, and from there discover from within if you're into it but don't give up just because you think you're not good at it. It's all about interest and your interest should not be frustrated by failed expectations.

How many times have we heard people say that the real race is against the self and not really against other people but to tell the truth, that is also bull. I mean, you don't have to have a race with anyone not even yourself, It's all about enjoying the moment.

I heard a music teacher say that the inner struggle of learning the classical guitar is the idea of not enjoying the here and the now of the moment. Joy is lost when the learner thinks that he/she should have been better now, should have improved but instead of thinking that way, why not enjoy the moment and the music.

So, don't punsih yourselves, do good and beautiful things because you enjoy and surely you'll be rewarded like I hope I would be, but then again, I set no expectations.

Meanderings on Religious Exclusivity

Put plainly, religious exclusivity is the belief that my religion is the only true religion and the others are bullshits. (Bullshit is a PC word compared to what preachers say about people who do not belong to their religions and the traditional nomenclatures they use ranges from infidels, condemned, pagan, unsaved, children of Satan, demons, witches, etc. :Bullshit" is way, way kinder than these terms and to think that some religions even behead people who do not subscribe to their beliefs. Definitely, bullshit is much better) . 

Another dogma of religious exclusivity is the conviction that only those who belong to my religion would go to paradise. Well, to tell the truth, not even all those who are in my religion would go to paradise because there's a selection process that the believers must go through like indoctrination, infant circumcision, prayers, pilgrimage, holy wars, etc. Even those who have participated and met these requisites do not automatically become saved, there is the other part, the inner conversion, the miraculous transformation of the believer, the spiritual thingy.

Now, if one sits down and give enough time and coffee  to think about it, it is obvious that religious exclusivity is one of the the roots of all evil. I would not even dare say it is religion because there are religions that would not even hurt an insect! 

Open your history books and you'll read that most of the man-made miseries in the world is caused by the idea of religious exclusivity. Even today, watching the current event in the Middles East I am inclined to think that this area of the world is in the dark age because the region is divided into religious factions each killing one another primarily because of the differences in the interpretation of their holy book and secondly because the schisms are being taken advantaged of by the Western primarily Christian part of the world to advance their interests. 

These fanatics that came from the same religious gene cannot coexist with one another because of the effing idea that heaven is reserved to the few. Pity the innocent and the decent people who simply want to live in peace but no, they must be converted.

The idea of exclusivity goes back to the primordial soup and the microbes. Microbes based their survival in one scientific principle of physics and that is "no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time". 

So, what the microbes do is multiply fast and produce enzyme or whatever you call these stuff they produce to displace another group of microbes. they congregate and those who are not within their congregation are displaced and then exterminated.

Exclusivity is a survival mechanism. It is built in to every living things' DNA from the microbes to Bill Gates. Animals form packs, herds, schools etc, to protect themselves from their predators and also these animal group protects themselves from their own kind in their struggle for food and territory. People are not that different, though we have evolved and transcended the animals' feral struggle for survival, yet exclusivity is still humanity's primary motivation for the struggle against each other though unlike the animals, people tend to cling to exclusivity more out of greed and not of need.

Socially, for us exclusivity is primarily genetics. We form group from families, to clans, to tribes, to nation from which sprung up belief system. Religion is nothing but an extension of the clan, the social family. 

One current proof of exclusivity  is what Trump is doing now.

It is understandable now why this idea is easily translatable into the beliefs or faiths. Religious exclusivity especially among the Abrahamic religion is primarily a survival mechanism which in the process of historical evolution has become the mechanism for oppression and control especially among its fundamentalist and fanatical adherents.