Mayhem, terror, destruction, chaos, darkness, death or whatever you want to call it is a vital part of our very existence. This may sound really hopeless to a lot of people but chaos is an immutable law of universal balance. Without chaos we cannot distinguish order, without darkness we cannot experience light, without heat it is impossible for the cold to exist and most especially without death there will be no life. Since the dawn of time particularly when the void turned into something, there have been countless instances and cycles of creation and destruction in this universe alone. Whether you like it or not good cannot exist without evil and this is how we came into life and evolved as a civilization. Good and evil are counterparts and must co-exist as they go hand-in-hand.
The terror that we are experiencing here today particularly in this fruitful jewel of southern Philippines is something that we do not really need to be worried sick about. It’s just a natural part of evolution and growth as a society and civilization. We cannot practically diminish religious extremism in this day and age simply because it has played a big part in honing our history and culture. Christianity would have not existed if the Jewish people did not nailed Jesus Christ in the cross. Even Ferdinand Magellan and his crew caused a huge distraction towards a lot of Muslims in Mactan Island just so he could viciously spread Christianity to the world. This clearly tells us that religion is simply political and basically an act of extremism in its very nature itself, maybe not just purely violent. As we can’t see, religion is actually creating a boundary around us instead of unifying us; it bounds us of sharing our thoughts and ideas to the world with different kinds of people. We are too hindered by the walls that our individual religions created within us all.
But this doesn’t mean there is no hope left for Mindanao, Mindanao can still thrive and survive with all the chaos around. We can still move forward collectively in our own individual ways. We have everything we need to counter this dilemma, we just need to open our eyes and see what’s happening in a higher perspective.
Since there’s nothing we can do to reverse what’s already happening out there in the present, we can still initiate change and start making things better for a foreseeable future. We’re too caught up with all the negativity we perceive, to the extent that it is already subconsciously affecting us in our personal lives and to how we deal with things and the people around us in a negative way on a daily basis. Simply by being afraid of what bad is about to happen already makes you procrastinate and become unproductive in a way that you can’t normally see. Simply by being reliant and contented to what you learn and see in society makes you nothing but another brick in the wall.
There’s nothing wrong in believing in any deity or god you want to believe into, as long as it helps you get through each day and doesn’t make you self-righteous and hate other people simply because they have different beliefs, ideals and sets of norms they follow. You can always believe in anything you want to believe into.
The key thing in healing Mindanao right now is COMMUNICATION. We must communicate effectively to the world and share our thoughts and concerns in our own creative ways, may it be art, music, sports, science, philosophy, literature, etc. We must communicate about the significant issues present in the society today. We must communicate to alleviate the pain we experience caused by the distraction that there is. We must communicate to overcome the tragedy and the stigma caused by our fellowmen. We must communicate without reservations. We must communicate without boundaries.
We’re too caught up with the things that we fear; we’re too afraid of the things that haven’t happened yet. Let’s us start acting in our own simple ways and collectively we can become bigger than all of this. Even the tiniest things can grow exponentially over time. Mindanao is a very precious gift to me, to you and to us all. Let us not put it to waste. Sure, violence is hauntingly scary but being too afraid of it doesn’t really make you any better. Stop being afraid and start braving for yourself and the people that you love. After all, there’s always a rainbow after the
UNICORNS!!! :p
Ganjhot Champloo (Mitosh Elloi G. Rafanan)
USTP
(For the sake of creativity, try reading this again while listening to Anchors by Tom’s Story. I believe it may amplify the feels as you transcend each paragraph.)