Free Fall!!!

Two things enter my mind when I think of free falling. The first is what something a friend told me about an eagle. They say that for an eaglet to learn how to fly, the father eagle would have to drop it from their high nest and let it free fall until it reaches a certain point where the father will catch it again if ever the young one fails to fly. Crazy! I said to myself the first time I heard it, but how in the world can you reject such dreadful methods when in the ends you can't say that it doesn't work! What other animal can fly above the storms? Its the eagle who claims this right!!! This is strength.

The second is the free falling in the Bohol Plunge in the Philippines (you can check a youtube video for this). This isn't just your regular free fall because you are also attached to a rope which has its fulcrum in a longer rope between mountains. So it's like swinging back and forth in the "valley" of the mountain. Cool! Awesome, and the view is spectacular! I would call this beauty.

Though both are never fully one thing they are known and sought for for that things they are known for (did you get that?). Simply put, an eagle is both beauty and strength but as for me it's known to me for their strength. This is the image which mankind was given in general.
Man is _____ and women is ______. Given the options (strength or beauty) I guess you would be capable of filling the blanks. Though both are never purely one they are known for one. It's just like epics like Hinilawod, it's both beauty and strength. Maybe it is one reason why people are so drawn to it.

Lessons from the Movies

"If you've flown as far as you can, you know your halfway there"
Priceless word they are, they mean a lot really:
1. You can't make it on your own
2. Weariness from work may not a sign of progress
3. Hopelessness is a pitstop to success
This is quote is from the movie "The Legends of the Guardian". Very beautiful movie!
Hinilawod also has its version of this quote, expect it wasn't said, rather it was done! One day we each have to run through our own jungles to a place where we've never been before. We just have to hold on keep pushing forward to rescue the ones who needs our rescuing

An Exclamation Mark !

The exclamation mark is a very brilliant invention. Aside from having commas, periods, and question marks are common things. You need them for pauses and a way to identify questions. But to have an exclamation mark, which was derived from the Latin word for 'Joy', is just incredible. I never thought of it like this 'til it actually change my life in a little way!

Unconsciously I use exclamation marks rarely as to let the reader of my message see that when there is the presence of that mark, there is a significance to it and I find this better than to use it often thus allowing the mark to lose its meaning. One day while I was texting with a leader of mine about a meeting we were to set (sorry I meant, it was already set) but something was planned in school on that day which I had to join for the grade (or else I fail). So I had to tell my leader, and I wasn't so use to texting with her yet.

What shocked me the most was that every time she replied there was an exclamation mark at the end of each sentence. It amazed me because if I were to be placed at her shoes and someone came to me saying that they couldn't join the meeting on that day when it was already set! I'd go mad and grow impatient. But her! Wow! I give her my utmost respect and I look up to her. They was she responded with the exclamation mark made me see what a patient person she is and how I can be like that in the future if I just continually aim for it and persevere to attain that!

So now I aim to become an exclamation mark towards the people around me. Who is my benchmark? Labbaw Dunggon of course. He is the "best"! Swimming across vast oceans, cutting through dense jungles, and slaying ominous beings giving his life in the process to be cursed as a pig. Yea, I really do think that he was an exclamation mark! Don't you?

NO EXCUSES part1

Erik Weihenmayer is a person who dreamed of climbing the tallest mountains in all continents. Not only that but he is a champion at wrestling and he got into the "Hall of Fame" in wrestling. He received once received a Medal of Courage and got the privilege of lighting to torch for the Olympics. This same person had retinoschisis, a disease which made him blind early on, at the age of 13! Yet this didn't stop him from accomplishing what he did in his life. This are the type of people we need for anything to rise up. Even a simple business couldn't rise up without such faith and perseverance from its leader what more anything greater than that!
We need to rise up and start doing the things we've never done before having faith that we can accomplish it if we persevere. We need to start making dreaming dreams that would benefit others and would also give us much joy if we do. We need to become the Labbaw Dunggon of our generation, fighting the evils around us, traveling vast seas without even knowing for sure what is at the other end. Will you fight?

Surviving the home

My parents have left for another town leaving me alone at home. It is quite a challenge because they never did this for more than 3 days. Meaning I have to take care of the laundry, dishes, food, garbage, etc… and, quite honestly, this isn’t something I did before. So far I’m having fun and I am surviving. On my fourth day now and I’m trying to see what I can cook.
It is quite shocking that a lot of people know don’t know the basics to surviving. Yes I know some people who cook for themselves, who do laundry for themselves, who clean for themselves but rarely do I see someone do all three! Gone are the days of Labbaw Dunngon where everyone is self-sufficient in the basic necessities of life and interdependent to each other with regards to the community. But if we were like that before, we can be there again. We can even be much better! And the change starts here, with us.

Learning from our ancestors

How could a child follow the instructions of his mother when he doesn’t understand the point of doing so? Why should he avoid drinking that liquid that they use for cleaning their body, it smelled good? Or why should he not try to drive a car, father seems to do it easy enough? Their childish questions go on and on and yet we could call the child wise if the obeys. Why do they obey? Faith. Faith in what? Faith that their elderly know better than they do.

The epic of Labaw Dunggon reminds me of such. Why does he spend so much time and energy to fight off the creatures that doesn’t even belong to his tribe and land? For the rumored beautiful woman? Maybe, but there could be. Maybe, just maybe, he fought for the sake of them, so that peace may return to their land. That others may enjoy better life. It was act of great worth and value that even led him to be a pig, yet he showed no sign of regrets.

“Greater love no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friend.”  (John 15:13)

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Labaw Donggon meets Lam-ang

   What would happen is Labaw Donggon and Lam-ang meet in the distant past? Though these two characters come from two different epics which were made in two different places, imagination wouldn’t hurt. For one they themselves have their similarities. To name one they both have their own experience with animals, it seems that these animals transformed then into something they were not. You see Labaw Donggon was turned into a pig during one of this battles while Lam-ang has his own magical pets (a rooster, hen, and a dog) who gave life back to Lam-ang when he died. If they had a conversation it would probably go something like this:

Labaw Donggon: Hey Lam-ang, do you know that I was turned into a pig before?
Lam-ang: Wow Labaw, you could have been one of my pets. You would make a good addition. My pets gave me life, you see I was dead but now I'm not. *Evil laugh* They are so useful to me.
Labaw Donggon: What?! I will never be your pet. I bow to no other man or god! Fight me!

   Well, they would never get along anyways. In the ancient times of the Philippines, tribes fought against each other and rarely got along well. So it would have been a fight between the Illocanos and the people from Sulod, Panay. “Hinilawod” vs. “Biag ni Lam-ang”. Labaw Donggon would probably win, he seems to be the stronger one if you compare the experience of the two but Lam-ang would just be revived again I guess. Sad for him though because Labaw Donggon would have had already taken his wife by then.

   This is just an imagination of mine, a lot of other things could have happen between them. They could have been talking about other things, or who knows, they could have been friends.

Hinilawod: The Undecaying Manna

“This is what the Lord has commanded: Fill a two-quart container with manna to preserve it for your descendants. The later generations will be able to see the food I have you in the wilderness when I set you free from Egypt.”

(Exodus 16:32, emphasis added)

I was already 16 when I had my first trip to the museum. When I went into the section about the Kingdom Era (the time before the Spaniards arrived) I had been given some very profound information. The most stunning information of all, one I could never forget, is the trade of the native’s gold with the Spaniard’s iron nails! The trade even sounded more unbelievable when I was told that the weight of the gold traded is the same as the weight of the nails traded! This is something you cannot see in the 21st century yet this was how wealthy we were back then. Gold was so common that it was just traded off for iron nails. It just gives me a very vague picture when we merge this information with the barbarian like ways we use to have according to the Spanish. I guess we were some rich barbarians.

It was soon a year after when I found out about the slander in the way the Spaniards described us. How did I find out? Through the play, correction the epic, HINILAWOD. An epic made in the Kingdom Era in the province of Panay. One of the longest in the world, where 3 days is needed to perform the entire piece. It opened my eyes to the unbarbaric way of living of the natives. The epic shows how they richly they adorn themselves with gold! It even shows that they had rituals and beliefs, in other words, they already knew that there was such a thing as a deity. It shows us that we even had chiefs back them who made sure peace was kept in the land.

Yet Hinilawod is still more than that. They play also shows the values that the natives had. It shows how one in the past would fight for the glory of their tribe, for love, for honor. It shows how our ancestors valued maturity, how they respected family, how they made decisions and how they celebrated in times of victory. Just like the epic of Labaw Donggon. Eldest amongst his siblings, he embarks on his journey a few years after his birth. Swimming through rough waters, climbing steep mountains, facing danger, and unwanted beasts around them. It just shows what the people before expected from a man. Maturity was greatly valued by the natives.

Above all, the epic is the “food” given to us by God so that “the later generations will be able to see” that the Philippines was not a nation forgotten by God. It shows us the kind of a people God planned us out to be. It shows us that we were not barbarians, that we were not lazy people who did nothing while the world continued in its development. It shows us that the Philippines had a place in the map, and more importantly, that we can regain that place if and only if we chose to be like the Labaw Donggon in the epic who fought for their pride, their people, their honor.