Chapter 2
The Journey
(Picture was taken from Microsoft Bing just to simulate the factual harrowing experience of Nong Clineo in this Chapter. Retrieved 07-12-2022)
What a journey it has been for Nong Clineo. Life was like a hell rollercoaster ride full of ups and downs but elated having survived unscathed albeit all the blues met coming his way.
"For as long as you're holding on to your sanity, have sound moral persuasion, and maintain consistent integrity and identity, you'll survive. As every mile starts with a single step similarly everything starts with the family at home. How could you give that which you don't have in the first place? Thus, discipline, industry, and above all love of God – should be manifested at home," he recalled strong principles openly enunciated by his father reminiscing the thought playing around gazing through the cluster of blue clouds below forming into a pleasant kaleidoscope seen through an airplane's glass window.
In this journey has been Illa Crispe who in all his travel was there providing the necessary lift needed. Their mutual trust, respect, and cooperation enabled them to survive every twist and turn of events in life-giving standing triumphant amid hardships and difficulties in the end.
"The harder and difficult the road the better and greater the challenge to the journey," both agree together. As Desiderata would say: "Just be true to yourself. Don't faint affection. Be humble because humility is the precondition of all other virtues. You'll never lose your way."
"Never mind all harassments in whatever forms coming your way. They are temporary and would soon die their natural death. Take them one at a time in stride for once you pass them, they have all considered life's badges of honor. In a way then, there are no failures in life. Setbacks are merely there as tools you have to use towards fulfillment and liberation. Yes, indeed failures are our best teachers. They are success turned upside down. Face your fears, Nike's ad clarifies. Once you conquered it, what is there left to fear anyway! Face them as they come. But don't force the issue when you can't manage it. Treat them as a challenge instead and find your way around how to handle them. Just be passionate and stop only when you finally feel you can't take the weight of the world anymore, exhausted exploiting all that you've got succeeding, and convinced you have already delivered your best shot. As much as possible, never leave your accomplishment without any imprint of standard stamping your identity and character. Your mark of excellence is such a very important imprint, in the end, defining the trademark of your name you'll carry to the grave," he learned getting the wisdom from Best Seller life guru Og Mandino. Remember the dictum: "Where the heart is willing it will find thousand means. But where the heart is unwilling, it will find not just thousand, but millions of excuses," recalling the quotation from a bookstore. The book of Psalm is even more emphatic. "Where your heart is, there's your happiness also," the thought playing in his mind!
"Just do it anyway and put your trust in Him. All would just be fine. He will always be there protecting you. Precaution and prudence should be observed though when you translate that to human trust or you'll be in big trouble."
"While He died for all our sins, beware of giving all the way your trust to people. Some are toxic you know out to capitalize and use you for their self-interest and needs."
One such instance was when his service as a pump boat operator was hired by three young men allegedly on a very important mission – ferrying them to Tipisan to be with his wife's side to assist in the delivery of his first baby. Said request was explainable he could not refuse. The incident however turned out the other way around. It was simply a disaster Mang Clineo caught in a fix. Military men in uniform swooped over them cordoning them off instead before their pump boat could reach the shoreline early that evening from a tip of an asset. Before long, they were hogtied, blindfolded, and forcibly dropped into a van and brought to a far secluded place. Hell broke loose as systematic torture was administered in the ensuing interrogation. San Juanico Bridge, electrocution of genitals, Russian roulette, rag stuffed into their mouths, eating of human waste, and all that were administered as interviews were conducted one after the other. Deprived of food for many days, one of his passengers finally spilled out the beans. They were on the mission of collecting revolutionary taxes in the area! It was all Nong Clineo gathered he never heard their voices or meet his passengers again.
The experience was one hell of a ride for survival dancing gingerly with death to an old man. It was tough, absurd, infernal and just one step before an end. Losing almost his senses, the ordeal was a complete package allowing him to survive recovering his comprehension in the nick of time before he thought was his end. He never knew the interrogators, place, and circumstances of the event as if constituting an episode, a portent of doom probably to come he was unaware of. Freedom only came as he finally saw daylight when he took off the blindfold upon instruction from those who abducted him on the count off of ten in the same seashore, he was hired just a few meters from his makeshift fish port, a few meters away from his residence!
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Excesses of the ongoing hostility? This is it! A perfect example of how innocent persons caught on crossfires, not of their own making are sacrificed. Truth is indeed the first casualty in war.
"Who suffers most anyway in any civil strife? Not the military or their perceived enemies but civilians. The statistics in two World Wars and those fought against Terrorism until today vouched for the validity of that claim. Displaced civilians, innocent children, orphaned sons, and daughters – these are some of the prizes paid, and the irony of it all, the division still thrives giving credence to what then PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat would later wail griping "It is easier waging war than forging peace." That is the context of a long-drawn battle between Israel and Palestine. But even then, its spill-over atrocity in different parts of the country is similar. As Ninoy Aquino would say it all later: "In war there are no victors, only victims," he wrote in his Testament from the Prison Cell.
Need to say more? The question that woke Driarco up from his deep slumber was the plane touching down on the tarmac of Manila International Airport, Philippines.
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"No use begging the question of death. Any eschatologist is so emphatic about it. We may be disappointed in questioning or even rebel against its occurrence, a bargain even more not to strike any loved ones. Okay but barring its inevitability is simply wishful thinking," the synthesis of the subject reminded him while he hurriedly breezed through against mobile well-wishers happy to be finally home at Manila International Airport.
"You can't just really sit down and philosophize. The fact is, we are experiencing death ourselves every day ironically without even conscious taking its toll. Think of every second, minute, and hour took away from us. That's tantamount to a gradual and calculated move towards impending extinction accruing from accumulated growth and maturing over time. We grow old, get sick, and soon would perish coming to terms of our lifespan," the thought lingering in his mind doing his last-ditch effort lifting light personal luggage passing X-ray inspection.
"But that's precisely how beautiful life is relating it to death. The catch is, that nothing in this world lasts forever. Nothing permanent not even the word 'change.' And that should be the lesson we should draw wisdom from. Love never loves until you give it away and return it to you. That continuum spells out the difference. We have to grow to go. It's just a matter of time and it's a pretty real good ultimate experience indicating that all in life is fair relegating us back to the ground later as a fertilizer for other creations of mother earth. That's the time when the Grim Reaper does the favor allowing us to experience that special stage of growth taking place cutting off the bond that is life through death but connecting us anew to greater life beyond. What an excitement meeting finally faces to face with God and be with Him forever," he relished the insights he had on the subject.
"What a feeling to be back home after many years of absence from Missionary work," he thought as the wind blows his face looking at various vehicles passing by.
"We have to die to be born again. Unless the grain of wheat shall fall on the ground and dies, it shall remain an ear of single wheat and not gives life," the wisdom of a song sang during Lent lifted all the more his already sagging spirit up never mind momentarily releasing those pent-up emotions down the drain.
"Immediacy of time is what you should focus on. Time is just like snowflakes. It melts away while we're even discussing how to use it. You can play with money but never with time. Right? Another didactic maxim came rushing again like globules from his palm. True enough, time is our hope, our security, and the mirror in which we see eternity," he recalled Paul Tillich, that great American Theologian, beautifully crafting a treatise of time from death's perspective.
(Ecclesiastes writing inspiring words of wisdom of life pp. 681-692.
Maayong Balita .PBS 203. Retrieved 07-13-2022)
"The book of Ecclesiastics was even more uncompromising. Just like the Yinyang dichotomy, we're subject to two inseparable seasons. First, enjoy while there is still sunrise savoring the sunshine on the way facing with dignity the sunset of your life when the time comes.
But in all of this, just take your time and keep the most of it rising early working doubly hard in the day finding oil and digging wherever you can. No need to hurry as there are seasons for everything. There's a time to be born, to plant, to build, to laugh, to dance, cast away stones, seek, keep, rend, love, and most importantly build peace. Corollary to this as life is not always sunshine. Yes, there is time to pluck up what has been planted, to weep, mourn, gather stones together, to lose. To sew, hate, wage war, and finally to rest or die after all those years of hard labor," he reflected with relish on the work of Qoholeth.
Time is fleeting as the air. Like Thief in the Night recalling a similar title of fiction, the author narrates how Pope John Paul I, the two hundred sixty-third Smiling Pope and reigned ironically thirty-three shortest days ever died mysteriously probably short of conspiracy as his reading glass was still solidly perching on his nose when discovered the following day smells just fishy. Who knows given the politics working inside the Vatican and Masons working surreptitiously using their trademark scheme – infiltrating their subject and delivering their coup de grace – poison the way KGB of Russians have been doing destroying their enemies?
"Great reflection," he thought. But whatever happened that it's as if he's spirit-possessed his thoughts wandering subconscious drifting somewhere. However, who would only rest until a fast resolution of the case is met. Why not when one's spirit deserves similar human treatment as man's body is his inherent temporal abode securing its peaceful rest there until home liberating his soul away for good through natural death. Sadly, his father's death is yet subject to an inquest to determine its valid conclusion. No question about it.
"Death is simply beautiful when allowed to occur passing through its natural process. But allowing it to happen out of the blue is not only ugly but more importantly, suspect," he completed his long reflection while staring blankly inside the taxi neon lights of Manila blinding his eyesight.
"Why not give a chance," the thought propelling at the back of his mind giving himself the benefits of the doubt.
"Why not take the initiative of conducting my post-mortem. Where the heart is willing, it will find thousand means; but where the heart is unwilling, it will find not just one thousand means but millions of excuses," an engrossing idea coming back enlightening him again.
"Never mind Atheists promoting Babism, and New Pantheism through their flimsy excuse of women empowerment, environment protection, and reproductive health package looking at Christianity more as losing religion. Why do all these people have balls promoting materialism equating Religion with politics and money? How could their unbelief be compatible with Resurrection, the heart and soul of Christianity in the first place," the inner voice told him building all the more his confidence?
Had God granted him one more wish, it could have been his fervent prayer his father would reach or overshoot man's average lifespan of 66 and improve. He did enjoy even an additional four years bonus. After all, didn't the first Patriarchs from Adam to Methuselah and Noah to Abraham seen beginning in Chapters 5 to 25 in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament enjoyed the highest lifespan as a gift from God (Psalm 91:16) registering the highest close to thousand or 587 lifespans on average the lowest 148 by Nahor and 175 by Abraham? That was how generous YAHWEH back then allowing a man to live as long as he wishes to last as long as the days of a tree some by thousands (Isa.65:22). Unfortunately, that privilege was forfeited with Adam's disobedience. And that was the start of corruption taking a heavy toll, cancer passed on to the rest of humanity, and lifespan gradually lowered down over time making it 70 years on average (Psalm 90:10). It is like a mist appearing for a while and then disappears, the prophet Job tells (14:1). Today the highest is 86 years on average enjoyed by Japanese. The lowest thirty-six among women in Botswana, Republic of Africa. The highest one would reach today is 116 years. Eat and sleep and vice versa is how a Japanese world record holder does.
(Book of Genesis Chapters 5-9 reveal the incredible lifespan of early Patriarch beginning from Moses to Abraham. Maayong Balita.PBS 2003. Retrieved 07-13-2022)
Relevant statistics on record though revealed an amazing account of 256 years old enjoyed by a herbalist Chinese. Just reading this dramatic anecdote living to that proudest long years old validating and reminiscent of how Yahweh back then gives us a privileged long-life span recorded in the Old Testament simply engrossed the young returning priest. His secret to longevity? This man had 20 wives and produced more than 200 children and grandchildren. His winning surefire longevity formula – jealousy, lying, aggressiveness, reticence, cruelty, conflicts, apathy, rude, anxiety, and greed are all deleted from the equation -. The existence of these psychosomatic illnesses is all in the mind! Therefore, securing peace and contentment in your mind will eliminate those problems. Pure and simple. No ifs and buts. How to do this? The author gives three ways to live healthful lifestyles – start monitoring your thoughts, think more about things that make you happy, and meditate. Wow, Driarco just can't believe it becoming Thomas the Doubter's double. But the reference was there, the thought playing in his mind again as the cub driver further negotiated its way through the maze of traffic on its way to the bus terminal for Batangas in Cubao.
"But who was my father God would give his fervent wish. Besides, there's devil ever willing to spoil that earnest request through his cohorts on earth," the thought playing anew in his mind as the bus was on the road for his next leg of travel. From Batangas, the boat would take him to Osigan after an overnight sail.
A few minutes more and home at last. What a weird feeling for the first time what with those thoughts of tragic family homecoming. Nevertheless, what could he do? He is the only captured person being party now and at the mercy of an incident not out of his own doing. How unfair time sometimes, he thought for a while. But what could he do if not deal with it? Almost unacceptable event shoved forcibly to him but that's what life is. Time heals anyway, he knows. That's to him is given and willing to subject to this power of nature. Except for one disturbing query - Who could have done it? This he felt like a sick joke engulfing him bracing himself anew of accepting life's reality even hurting him most. What an ironic reality is this. Beautiful island dear blessed with all resources by God. Peaceful and yet here he is now, shelved and tossed to the tragedy he could not yet accept.
"I'm offering to you, Dear Lord. Take back his soul. Make it whiter like snow," he uttered while walking on the gangplank of the Roro boat connecting him pier's pavement. "Wow. What a feeling to be back home after many years of Missionary work," he said breezing through against onrushing people into the receiving area.
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