The Promise

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

I JUST learned from unofficial sources, that last October 8, is the first day of the “staging of the 1st Pangasinan Environmental Summit sponsored by the provincial administration in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)” at the Sison Auditorium where “Sectoral leaders will express their commitment to the environment to be culminated by the signing of all participants on the billboard containing the “Pangako ng Pagkakaisa Para sa Kalikasan” (Promise of Unity for the Environment). In this summit, “Participants will also be given the opportunity to widen their perspectives on environmental management” through lectures in National Greening Program Situationer and Forest Fire Problem in Pangasinan; Solid Waste Management, Water and Air Quality Management; Organic Agriculture; and Best Practices on Environmental Management.

A good initiative, but like all contracts, the promise to protect the environment is not in how many contracts you sign, or how many promises you utter, but how much will actually be implemented by all sectors concerned. More important is, for the individual person, how much of the promise can be kept and lived. Nowadays, to walk your talk, especially with the pollution that governs our environment and our minds, seem to mean only to walk in the highway to massacre trees and to lay the groundwork for the establishment of a nuclear plant.

A promise is a prayer, and a prayer is not something you ask God to do, while you stand on the stage and sign on a billboard. You pray with your own constant work. When we pray for a seed to grow into a tree, the thought exists in our minds, but our bodies must be directed towards this end, and this intention is transformed into work as we water it, nourish it, and speak to it. Caring for a tree, as in caring for the soul, demands full attention in order to develop the deepest roots, the most beautiful flowers and the tastiest fruits. In prayer, we essentially communicate with our deeper selves and try to reach the point where we connect with the living God in our hearts. A fully-grown tree is a fully-grown prayer, and a fully-grown soul.

A promise, like marriage or any relationship, needs constant gardening, revisiting, and the practice of genuine caring. You do not talk about promises, you live it. You work at it. A promise is hard work.

If we promise our love to someone, we pray for the love to grow, and our thoughts must be directed fully to achieve that single purpose. All words must transform into action and must affirm that intention. A promise is not a promise unless it is translated to work, and anything that is not translated into work is the empty chattering of a fool.

 

PAKNAAN

 

malet ya lakap

na sintas

angob na patey

nen Hudas

 

abay na taker

ed paknaan

ya manpatey

 

et si Brutus,

ma-asna

COVENANT

 

the tight  embrace

of a girdle

the Judas  kiss

of death

 

cord sponsors

to a promise

to kill

 

and Brutus was,

an honourable man.

(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)

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