Think about it
Love makes the world go round
By Jun Velasco
“Love never fails,” — 1st Corinthians, 13:8
THE election of two Dagupenos to the country’s two highest Jaycee posts — Former Mayor Al Fernandez to the Philippine Jaycee Senate presidency and Vice Mayor Marc Brian Lim as Philippine Jaycees president has added color to Dagupan’s colorful politics.
Mayor Belen Fernandez, who is doing well as a management-oriented chief executive, must be hoping that all these yarns about Al Fernandez or his son Councilor Alfie being persuaded to join the mayoral contest against her would be dashed by his ascent to the prestigious post in the Jaycees.
You see, Jayceeism is fair game in the art of leadership, a badge for the noblest leadership mantra.
No doubt Mayor Belen has given her position an enviable prestige as a no-nonsense semi corporate performer even amid the hoi poloi salivating for an exciting political scene in 2016.
But Marlyn Manaois-Reyna, daughter of two Dagupan mayors, is regaling the public of Dagupan politics’ unpredictable character, insinuating a famous Jaycee leader aiming a shot at it the next time around.
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In the national scene, the ongoing investigation on the much-lamented death of 44 heroic commandos in the hands of barbaric terrorists remains unresolved.
Calls for sobriety are being disrupted by non-stop blame pointing even as the carnage has unmasked the fact that most of those responsible were caught with their pants down.
How the beleaguered republic — the national government, especially — will rise over and above it and move on will reflect on our future.
Let’s hope and pray God’s Hand and the wisest of wisdom would guide us from the nightmarish tragedy to a dawn of peace.
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It’s ironic that the proverbial day of love (Valentine’s Day) was a couple of days away when we wrote this column.
LOVE being the greatest of thing in the universe leads us to 1st Corinthians l3:1 – 8 thus:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophesies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away, the greatest of which is love.”
We are not sidelining the power of human feeling reaching the height of divinity in the blissful union between lovers.
But we hasten to take love’s power to improve or liberate lives as a verb — or as an action word — in a world crushed by hate, apathy and cynicism.
We continue to be in league with loved ones by extracting our noblest side to better ourselves in order to better others all for God’s glory.
Last week, our item on “get a life” received a lot of thumbs-up response. Here’s a quote that has a Valentine scent: “Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work…
Realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around…. Think of life as a terminal illness, because if you do you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.” HAPPY VALENTINES!
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At Region 1 Medical Center, we were witness to a concrete proof of love carried out internationally by a Canadian group led by a Dagupena-Ilokana nurse in Vancouver, Shirley Quinto-Pinlac, head of GO-MED (Greater Outreach Medical Educational Destinations) for the sick among the poor of Pangasinan.
Shirley is not related to the Pinlacs of Malasiqui, as her husband was a Kapampangan, we were told.
A part owner of Happy Ripples resort in San Fabian town, Shirley is happy about what she and her group, Go-Med, have been doing worldwide, rendering medical services including treatment, surgery and counseling. Her group has been to India, and its next mission is Cambodia.
The group, says Shirley, is “committed to making a difference in the world, while creating a strong foundation and partnership with each of the communities involved.”
Before the group camped for two weeks at R1MC, it had been to Baguio General Hospital. The 28 Go-Med volunteers had a sharing with several patients at R1MC at the behest of Director Roland Mejia from January 24 to Feb. 6, 2015.
We felicitate the volunteers namely Ghee Hwang, Garth Warnock, Rachel Barton, B. Fleige Zahradka, Stuart Herd, John Riendl Steve Kraus and David Hunter, medical; Jennifer Chow, Teresita Franco, Rosalyn Abad, Ronda Furwan, Cindy Moreno, Anna Houston, Tina Maher, Denise Moreno, Jill Scyrup, Marian Hembroff, Rachelle Lutz, nurse; Adrian Zahradka, photographer; Lisa Brruhm, sterile processing tech., Kiana Thompson, supplies; Robert Pinlac and Ed Tiamzon, interpreters; Sage John S, administrator, and Shirley Pinlac, mission planner.
Their mission is “Improving health throughout the world, one person at a time.”
One can’t help admire its mission statement: “We are a group of successful individuals who realize their good fortune in life and who want to give something back to the planet and its inhabitants. We realize how lucky we are to live in a country (Canada) that has one of the best medical systems in the world, with open access to all… even the poorest of the poor. And we want to share some of the good fortune with those in need in other countries.”
Is there anything nobler?
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NOTES: Happy Valentine’s, lovers! If you are in Dagupan, don’t fail to dine at the Golden Mami Haus at the Caltex station and get the best food in town such as braised beef, pancit guisado, siopao, etc. It’s managed by couple Raymond and Juliet Afficion.
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