You Park Yourself.

I Shoot, And Then I Tell The Story

October 12 – The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: Some things you have to do for yourself, even if you do them wrong. Serving God is one of those things.

Even considering you as part of a family, neighborhood, village, town, team, gang, group, organization, institution, you have to do your part all by yourself. We all have to.

What if you might make a mistake? You will. So what if you park yourself on the wrong spot, or you miss the signs of the times?! We all make silly mistakes.

This sign says:
PARKING FOR
CUSTOMERS

and you park yourself oblivious of the sign, of everybody and everything else. And as I pass by you, in a flash I see you as a good subject. I shoot!

My photograph is a little blurred, as I took it while riding my blue bike, with only my right hand moving, if ever so slowly, imperceptibly rising, forefinger pressing on the big button. So the fellow didn’t have a clue I was holding a candid camera; he didn’t notice me pointing the device at him – I was just one of those passing by, except that I was on a bike enjoying my ride.

If you see someone on a blue bike with a crash helmet and his right hand holding a Canon SuperShot A540 on the ready, that must be me. It’s not the highest-quality camera money can buy, but it’s the best for me. Now my writing comes with my photography, which I first learned almost 40 years ago – but I couldn’t afford a camera until September this year, when my children gifted me on my birthday – now I’m using my talents the best way I can. I share all my talents now. What I’m sharing in writing (and photography) is what I have in abundance – ideas – with my illustrated storytelling, to make people think or laugh or smile. I share my faith, my hopes, my loves. It’s the best I can do.

And yes, I blog alone. I write and format using Word 2003; I create and/or edit the jpegs using Microsoft Paint and Adobe Photoshop; I convert my Word files to one with HTML codes embedded using Google Docs; I upload my text and images using WordPress (Blogspot is pretty, WordPress is beautiful – I like beautiful). I write continually for the American Chronicle (americanchronicle.com), which is really an extension of my blogging.

How did I learn to blog all by myself? In the beginning, I was willing to do it wrong; I wasn’t afraid, or ashamed, to make mistakes. I also asked questions and got good answers from my son Jomar, who is a ComSci graduate of UP Los Baños.

At first, I saw my role in the Internet through a glass darkly; but now, I see it face to face. That role is to tell a story in an inventive way. I hope you enjoy the beginning, middle, end as much as I enjoy show-telling the story to you. If you don’t, don’t worry. Reading is one of those things you have to do for yourself, even if the first time you do it wrong!

Falling In Love.

And Staying In There

October 11– The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: Romance is built on purity, loyalty, and sacrifice. Love is a spiritual thing, a bridge between soul and soul.

Yes, Father, that’s why it’s so much easier to fall out of love – and fall in love again. Simple. All you have to do is love without purity, love without loyalty, love without sacrifice, love without bridging your soul to another soul. The gigolos do it all the time! Don’t forget the gigalas, if I may invent a word.

I have written elsewhere (americanchronicle.com): ‘If you’re making love to the body, not both body and soul, you’re pathetic.’ But if you live in a country other than the Philippines and Malta, if you run into a little of trouble even if it be of your own making, divorce is only a few steps away. Very convenient.

My photograph is that of a young husband and wife who attracted my attention because he held the baby on his shoulders like that. I haven’t seen such a scene for a long, long time (say 30 years?), and so I had to capture it on camera – I was walking the dog and this time I didn’t forget to bring my Canon SuperShot A540 along. I usually shoot pictures on candid camera; this time, I asked to shoot the baby and I got more than I asked for. What I have captured is the language of love without meaning to. I was only interested in capturing the baby on the shoulders of his father, the innocent probably wondering why I was looking at him one instant and then covering my eyes the next instant. Why did I take the picture? Because I’m a romantic.

Oh and by the way, to fall in love like Fr Reuter describes it is impossible – and that’s why it’s so much sweeter when you finally learn to stay there. Love is so much sweeter when you’re a romantic.

Life Is Beautiful.

But You Have To Look

October 08 – The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: Life is a beautiful gift of God. Every moment of life is beautiful. Especially this moment, right here, right now.

Thank God for the moment.

Be careful how you look. If you compare yourself with others, chances are you will feel a letdown. You have only a bicycle while they have a car. There is a great divide between the rich and the poor, and you are the poor. Even if you are rich if you look at the great divide between the rich and richer, you are poor.

I’m 67. When a friend or acquaintance greets me, ‘Ano, kamústa?!’ (‘So, how are you?!’) I always answer now, ‘Buháy!’ (‘Alive!’). To be alive is beautiful, and I thank God for every minute of it.

What if you are sick? Thank God you’re not sicker. What if you’re away from home? Thank God for whatever you have to do. What if you owe people much? Thank God they gave you the benefit of the doubt. What if you were a beleaguered politician? Thank God you’re not a crook. What if you were a crook? Thank God for the moment!

Now You See God.

Now You Don’t.

October 16 – Fr Reuter’s pastoral message is this: You have to see God in those you love, and in those you don’t love, even in your enemy.

You can see God in your family, your friends, your officemates. Can you see God in the ugly, the dirty, the unpolished, the squatter, the beggar? I doubt it. You see only the ugly, the dirty, the unpolished, the squatter, the beggar. So do I.

The world is a world of prejudice, a world of standards dictated by the rich or the privileged or the powerful, a world rich in resources and yet people are born poor, if not in material possession in spiritual blessings.

Do you see God in wealth? It is easy to mistake material blessings with God’s blessings, and so you can’t see God in those who are not blessed materially, or those who cause you pain.

Before you can see God in those whom you don’t love, in your enemies, first you have to accept that God is love and that love covers everything. Everything.

If You Don’t Practice What You Preach,

There Is No Genius In That!

October 20 – The pastoral text of Fr Reuter is this: To be an apostle, a laborer in God’s vineyard, you don’t have to preach. You can bring others to God by what you are.

Father, I should know about preaching, even if I’m not a preacher. I mean the other side of preaching, that is, being preached to. Do you realize, Father, that nagging is preaching? So, I take it that your thought for the day is also for naggers, and I thank you!

In my own way, I preach, but in an indirect way. I have learned to write about the negative in a positive manner, so that you don’t immediately realize that I’m writing about you when I’m writing about me. Even when writing about science, such as ‘The Green Elephant Of India’ (thefranciscanessay.wordpress.com), I’m writing about virtues even if you don’t read the word ‘virtue’ in my essay. Do I write from a position of virtue? No, but I write about it anyway!

The other day, I biked through the busiest street in town and what did I find? You can see in the photograph: many cars and particularly a line of cars parked in a no-parking street. ‘No Parking in Rizal Ave!’ screamed the big sign at one end of the street. (Actually, I changed the name of the street; I cropped out the plate number of the red car to protect the innocent-until-proven-guilty guilty party. In fact, I shot each of the plate numbers of those cars in that writ-defying row of vehicles.)

I also ‘preach’ about how to be creative, positive, in the midst of the great negative that is the Manila Imperialism of intellectuals and other do-gooders. Even if you’re the most-read columnist (or blogger) in the Philippines but you can’t think positive, you are merely the most read negative columnist (or blogger) in the Philippines; even if you’re a genius but you keep preaching (and practicing) negative, there is no genius in that!

Whatsoever Is Lovely,

If There Is Any Excellence,

Dwell On These Things,

Benjamin Franklin.

October 28 – The pastoral message of Fr Reuter is this: Virtue is its own reward. When you try to live by the Gospel, you find peace of soul, joy in living, happiness, love.

As a very practical example, if nobody practiced any virtue at all in this lake resort, this man would not be able to sleep like that with doors open wide and feet exposed for everyone to see. The practice of virtue is public, not private – if it remains private, then there is no public test as to whether the virtue is being practiced or not. Virtue is not virtue unless it is practiced.

Interestingly, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia (newadvent.org), the word virtue means manliness or courage; in its widest sense, it means ‘the excellence of perfection of a thing, just as vice, its contrary, denotes a defect or absence of perfection due to a thing.’

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va) comes this definition:

A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.

The Catechism also quotes from the New Testament these lines:

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Whatever it is, it is virtuous if it is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent.

Benjamin Franklin, an American hero, prescribed the practice of 13 virtues: temperance, order, resolution, frugality, moderation, industry, cleanliness, tranquility, silence, sincerity, justice, chastity, humility. The problem with Benjamin Franklin was that he was a womanizer (school-for-champions.com). Ben, virtues are not only for listing; they have to be practiced. If you are the preacher, practice what you preach!