There is no point beating around the bush and going around in circles at a time when there is a need to face reality and deal with the truth.  Let's call a spade a spade and not give it any other name.  People are indignant with business as usual.  They are fed up with status quo and they are frustrated by quid pro quo.  People are sick and tired of getting tired and sick. They are bored of stagnation which is the expedient of decay and they are doomed to complacency which is the key word for deterioration.  No nation can advance with stagnation and no man can improve with complacency.  Innovation is not an option, it is a necessity and a requirement, and yet innovation deteriorated our standard of living to subsistence level. Our time of life is a meteoric rise and a meteoric fall in the nature of progressive deterioration.

We have more problems than solutions, we have more questions than answers, and we have more burdens than blessings. We are heavily laden for the yoke is heavy.  Our freedom is tolled by more and more laws, rules and regulations in place. Our rights continue to be eroded in the name of national security.  Our life is loaned to big government and big business to whom we are heavily in debt.  The times we live in are so dynamic, so tenuous and so slippery that we are sometimes tempted to think that there is nothing stable anymore. Our freedom, our rights and our lives are devalued when we are too old to work and too weak to beg. We are trapped in the quagmire of destitution and we are going nowhere with big government and big business.

It is not enough for children to read and write, to learn and understand.  It is not enough for adults to earn and spend, to save and retire.  It is not enough for leaders to have power and lead, to speak and govern.  It is not enough for clergymen to bless and worship, to preach and pray.  It is not enough for merchants to buy and sell, to gain or lose.  From youth to old age is a transition of priorities we go through not by choice but by destiny.  We rise and fall with the changing fortunes of time.  But there is nothing we can do to control events borne out of bad luck and hard times.  It is good to count our blessings even as not one single life was lived without regret.

We can't get rid of status quo and business as usual by doing nothing about it. We can change the things we don't like.  There is only one corner of the universe we can be certain of improving and that's our own self.  Politicians think of changing Washington, of changing the way we do business, but no one thinks of changing himself.  When great changes occur, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong and the minority is usually right. We must adjust to changing times and keep faith with unchanging principles.  We can't afford to vacate the values that have supported us in the past in favor of every new trend that comes our way. The risks are great and the stakes are high with change but the risks are greater and the stakes are higher with complacency and stagnation.  The times don't change and the world can't change by itself; we can change our times and the world.

We are used to customs and traditions, making it difficult to change the way it is to the way it should be.  Most people are adamant to change just as it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.  In the words of Kenich Ohmae: "It is hard to let old beliefs go for we are familiar with them.  We are comfortable with old beliefs and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them.  Like a man who has worn his eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses.  Today, however, we need new lenses and we need to throw the old ones away." We couldn't grow without change and we couldn't change without taking action. Change demands action and action requires taking chances and taking risks because we are borne of it, live with it and prospered with it.

Growth is the only evidence of life. If we have to grow we must change and if we have to change we must grow. Growth through change repudiates complacency, it eradicates stagnation.  Growth through change shines the wisdom of the mind, the kindness of the heart and the enrichment of the spirit. A change of mind and a change of heart will usher growth of mind, body and spirit.  No nation can match the endless grace we derive from above and yet material enrichment rescinded our sacred values.  Our desire to change, to grow and to prosper must be pursued in the equilibrium of honesty, integrity, justice, kindness and truth.  Our passion for growth should not renounce our sense of righteousness. Our predilection for change should not clutter our values from within. Change is not remunerative when the means justify the ends, it is laudable when the ends justify the means.

Change is the magic word for an audience that is dissatisfied with government.  Hope is the magic word for people who are down in the abyss of helplessness.  Politicians know what we want to hear and they keep us spellbound in the paradise of hope and the dawn of change in their elocution.  Every time we are down, they feed us with hope and if we live solely on hope, we die of hunger.  There is no change and no hope with business as usual, politics as usual, status quo and quid pro quo but a change no change, a change of men and not a change in men.  A holy cross strapped around a pig's neck does not make the pig holy, it is still a pig.  A trained monkey properly attired does not change the monkey to become honorable, it is still a monkey.  A wild animal inside a cage does not change the animal to become timid, it is still a wild animal.  Change and hope are not engraved in words and phantom speeches, they are engraved in deeds and born-again behavior.

Politicians bewitch us every time we are flattered by change and buoyed by hope. Hope gives us feathers to fly and only the dead are without hope. While there is life, there is hope; we should not give in to fear and give up hope. Fear is a lower and slower energy, hope is a higher and faster energy. Hope brightens life and fear darkens it. At daybreak as the sun rises, darkness will flee away. We cannot give up hope if we are here to achieve, to accomplish, to grow, to succeed, to win and have a better life, a better world beyond the horizon.

When something better comes out of something good, it is because hope ignites the urge to do better.  Politicians hope to win public office when they run for office. Athletes hope to win their games when they engage in competitive sports. Businessmen hope to make profit when they invest in financial ventures.  Students hope to earn a diploma when they go to school.  Workers hope to win promotion for working hard on a job well done. Gamblers hope to win a fortune in their wagering activities. Soldiers hope to win their battles and the war. The sick hope to be healed and be in good health. Lawyers hope to win their cases before tribunals, boards and commissions.  And now, this election year, our leaders hope to regain the trust and confidence of a betrayed nation with change and hope which are the all-time magic words.

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine