Think about it
Merry Christmas!
By Jun Velasco
“Every gift, though it be small, is in reality great if given with affection. —Pindar
IT’S four days before Christmas Day.
Merry Christmas to one and all!
Yeah! Many of our countrymen are divided on this year’s definition or sense or feel of the Christmas spirit, that is, if it’s joyous or festive, as our friend Ope Reyna would put it, or just one of those passing events in the Gregorian calendar.
Being a Christian, we submit that it should be more than merely a thing. Christmas is the Lord’s Day and we have to go out of our way to make Him smile in whatever manner we know how. How? By being good persons, by being like His children.
It may not be easy to do that given the problematic and confusing environment engulfing us, our lives these days.
Poverty—in spite of the glowing official economic index we read about—still pervades land. Worse, our personal and national psyche is replete with downers.
When you stop by a gas station anytime any day to fill your tank, you are cornered by little kids with extended hands mouthing “Merry Christmas!”
That “merry” thing has become an alibi for mendicancy or extortion.
Check your impulse because these children may not know that they are speaking His name in vain.
We said in another forum that we need to stretch our understanding to those who tend to annoy us because it is very little that they are asking.
If you feel “pushed against the wall,” just pray or summon some reservoir of strength to lighten your load in carrying out a Christian duty to a fellow Christian or a fellow human being, to feel his need, to care for them even if they are not lovable.
Each time we pass by that billboard along Dawel road which says “If you can’t feed a hundred, then just feed one person—Mother Teresa” says it simply but succinctly.
Give a little on Christmas. If given cheerfully, you bring God’s hand to your loved one/s.
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In our last week’s column, we tripped, sorry, on our item on Jose Rizal’s kins in Lingayen, which should have been the Quintos family.
Ms. Arabela V. Arcinue, Sual Mayor Bing Arcinue’s pretty and scholarly wife, has a data bank on Rizal especially about his regular visits of loved ones and kins in the Pangasinan capital town, along what Arabel says “Heroes Street.”
By the way, we have a poetry reading on Rizal Day on December 30 at Kabaleyan Channel and Aksyon Radio at 4p.m. firmed up by the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission. Local poets, Fr. Weng Escano, Sonny Villafania, Flor and singer Johnny Moulic will recite Rizal’s “My Last Farewell” in Spanish, Pangasinan, Iloko and Tagalog. The poetry reading will be followed by a Rizal forum under the aegis of the Pangasinan Historical Cultural Commission led by Gonzalo Duque.
* * * *
In case we are taking the climate change phenomena lightly, there was the other day a temblor that rocked Luzon including Pangasinan at 4.2 in the Richter scale.
As we always said, we should act like boy and girl scouts every day.
No one can really tell what’s coming to our shores. And pls. drop that misleading feel-good mantra that we in the province won’t be hit by a tsunami or storm surge because we are hemmed in by mountains or that we are protected by a cove.
Dark memories of typhoon Peping are still fresh.
And thoughts of Super typhoon Yolanda devastation still give us the creeps.
Just keep in step and in faith with the Lord—and be safe.
* * * *
Media-oriented Pangasinenses were pleasantly surprised when no less than National Press Club president Benny Antiponda declared at the Media Nite at the Stadia that our Cesar T. Duque, was the savior of the press club when it was bankrupt.
In a modest way, it was this columnist who served as NPC’s bridge to CTD. We were a director of the club for two years and editor in chief of its official paper in 2000. While there, we fought for the membership’s expansion to the provinces, citing our borderless world. Benny in his speech in the presence of Mayor Belen Fernandez and former Mayor Al Fernandez said that the pilot of that new membership plan will be done in Pangasinan.
Congrats, President Gons for coming out with the media night.
* * * *
At our DCNHS class rehearsal at Emily Ang’s residence Thursday, it was hilarious to regroup with high school classmates with everyone sporting “new looks.”
Gray and white hairs, bulging or thinning bodies, aging signs, and some hard-to-tell faces wrinkled by time top everybody’s comments.
But the undying love, brotherhood, sisterhood, and friendship were most patent and visible. It’s what reunions are all about, right? And to us who are marking our Golden Jubilee, it’s a time we can’t miss at all.
But please, huag nyo na taytong pakantahin ng Elvis number. Our hip might break apart hu hu.
Merry Christmas and Happy fiesta!
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NOTES: Requiescat en pace. Youthful Immigration officer Augusto P. de Venecia, brother of former Councilor Alex and Derm Care executive Solo de Venecia died of massive stroke at his residence at the Blue Beach Subdivision in Bonuan Gueset in Dagupan recently. He was interned yesterday at the Eternal Gardens. He was a jolly person and loving family man. We’ll miss him.
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