Rational Insanity
Arts and culture-treasure of a nation
Hello guys, its WVRAA Season again, and so I would like to share to you this piece I wrote for a contestant in oration. I think this will give you some good thinking moments.
Our country is truly deplorable. Our already pathetic economic condition is worsened by shameless congressmen and politicians who use the people's money to ensure that they have a new car and mansion every few months. Heartless business men displace thousands of Filipinos everyday in exchange for meager settlement pays just so they could build a plush subdivision for the rich and famous. Material gain is all over us; we have forgotten to value the intangible. Beyond these riches is a treasure far greater than any known to man; exceedingly more expensive than any luxury car or resort mansion - it is the treasure of the spirit, the wealth of the human soul. Friends, the greatness of a man is measured not by the positions he or she has held in society or the size of his or her bank account; the greatness of a person is measured by the greatest good - sommum bonum.
We have wasted too much of our lives on corporeal enrichment. We have spent too much time seeking titles and positions that we might not actually need. In the end, when we do get these worldly illusions, we find an empty contentment, a pointless satisfaction, a dead dream.
Our search for happiness and satisfaction will forever be in vain if we do not learn to recognize what we truly need. Our spirit is dying and the only way to renew the eternal spring of the soul is to see what is beautiful in life. Here we find our treasure, the true treasure of a people, the true treasure of a nation. Beauty is arts and culture.
The magic of poetry is being able to wield a piece of paper and a pen and create beauty from the most horrific things that life deals us with. With great poets, fictionists, and novelists like Leoncio Deriada, Cirillo Bautista Nick Joaquin, and Virgilio Almario, it is not difficult for us to see and feel how the pain of an OFW working away from the family can transform an everyday flower pot into a crucible of dreams; how the shameless acts of our corrupt officials can become a traveling caravan of clowns; how the persecution of the yndios and yndias by the Spaniards can become the story of a beauteous Maria Clara.
Our museums are filled with great works from Amorsolo, Malang, Luna, and many other painters who have created beauty out of the persecution of our people and a past that we have almost already forgotten. These creators of beauty have given us the means by which we could enrich ourselves and refresh our spirits with the wonder of arts and culture. Art is the repository of culture. It pays to be reminded of our roots and the fiber of our being. Our literature, our music, our visual arts, and performing arts are all mirrors of the Filipino as a people, indispensable treasures of a great and glorious past. These are the true treasures of our nation; and so, what then is sommum bonum? What is the greatest good? The greatest good is being able to see beyond the glare of worldly temptations and retreat to that silent corner of the mind where beauty thrives, the womb of arts, and the wellspring of culture. The greatest good is being able to stand up and say with sincere ! confidence and burning fervor, 'I have a great past, I have a colorful culture, I am part of a beautiful people, I am a Filipino.'
So, friends, as we settle in front of our television sets every evening and flick the switch to gain access to the controversial world of politics, the dreary world of business, the horrid domains of crime, and the somehow, entertaining avenues of show business, let us try and sit back and ask ourselves just one question, 'If all Filipinos only learned how to value the beauty within themselves, would we still be watching the same disturbing things on the evening news?'
Think, fellow Filipino, and think hard - the price of fame and fortune is too little to pay compared to the price we have to pay for the enrichment of our very souls. Friends, we are the embodiment of our values and ideals, we are the materialization of our arts and culture, we are living masterpieces worthy of emulation, we are a truly beautiful people, we are the treasure of our nation. Be proud to be a Filipino!
Be rational; be insane...every once in a while! TTFN! I love you all! Byers!