Today, I chanced upon some pictures of my daughter and I having lunch after a parlor date. We had our hair trimmed and colored. We looked fantastic, by our own standards. So we fully documented the occasion. We were absolutely radiant in all our pictures that day.
It was a day that was chock-full of laughter and unexpected delights.
We were so happy. You know. That kind of day when you’re not even thinking about it, but all your happy hormones are singing their hearts out. Everything was perfect.
But two days later, when we didn’t expect it, our only daughter-in-law died. Of cancer. It was a battle that lasted almost six years. But one which ended quite abruptly.
We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. It’s so obvious it doesn’t have to be said. But I’m saying it anyway – as a “note to self.” Because that was my life lesson the day our daughter-in-law died.
You can be having the time of your life right now, loving and living life at full throttle. But in the next breath, all that can change. And you wake up to another kind of reality.
That’s how I think of our coming May elections. But in reverse. I’m hoping that I’ll wake up from this nightmare our country is in right now. And wake up to an absolutely new, hopeful, and promising kind of reality – IF the right people win.
We live in two different spheres. A personal, private reality and a public, external reality.
The two overlap at certain points. They can have shared advantages, disadvantages, neutral ramifications.
We can be well-off and comfortable, insulated by our wealth, work, family, and friends in our private realities. But when we venture out and look out our car windows – we see our countrymen lining up in the sidewalks, waiting for a bus or jeepney or a tricycle. Carrying the weight of their lives in their weathered faces, their sagging shoulders, their tired feet. No matter how efficiently bubble-wrapped we are, we shouldn’t numb ourselves to the poverty, desperation, and grief around us.
Our private lives may be different and mutually exclusive. But they co-exist. How we manage ourselves in both realities defines who we are. And how good… or bad… our lives will turn out to be.
Hence, it’s all the more crucial now that we elect the right people to run our government.
Many have become despondent, angry, or cynical – thinking that this monstrous machinery of cheating, of dirty money and dirty politics will massacre us in the end. That there’s absolutely nothing we can do to beat this Evil Alliance that’s immoral, inhumane, heartless, totally devoid of conscience, compassion or dignity.
It’s uncanny, but we’ve seen so many movies with plots like this. The good guys are the underdogs. The bad guys have all the money, machinery and muscle. But in the end, against all odds – and because they never gave up – the good guys win.
Well. It happens in real life, too.
Never lose hope. Never give up fighting for what’s right. Never think the right candidate won’t win anyway.
Vote for people with a proven track record of integrity, accountability, competence, a strong sense of justice, and a good family. You can’t go wrong if you use these standards.
Let’s just do our part. God will do the rest.
Remember, He parted the Red Sea and drowned the mighty Egyptian army –
against all odds, against all human predictions and expectations.
