A FEW DELIMITATIONS and ‘extensions’ before our discussion main.
“SELF-“ SHALL APPLY denotatively and connotatively – both in its singular and plural forms, thus: (my)self, our(selves); (yourself, your(selves); (him/her/it)self, them(selves), and so on.
“DISCOVERIES” SHALL – IN this issue, mean: any learning or lesson, or ‘new’ info – acquired or benefited by the said -self, or -selves’
“THINGS LEARNED” AS applied here shall play on the psychological, socio-historical, and philosophical insights gathered, benefited, or viewed as ‘ingrediential to daily existence’, or eshom ni panbiya biyag.
“THIS COVID TIME” refers here to the period an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) was declared in the whole of Luzon – March 15, 2020, up to.. this present time. Now, to our topic main.
REAL ACTION-HEROES. A-PLENTY of them, and visible, felt, or known in unforgettable descriptions as: “acting rather than talking”, “silent rather than credit-claiming”, “just softly smiling rather than expecting recognition”, et cetera.
THEY COME FROM, any sector of the society: the rich, the ‘middle-class’, or the poor – time and again you see a poor reaching out to the poorer e.g. by sharing out his rations of sardines, rice, and noodles to a neighbour who received no ration yet.. or at all; an nnr (not-necessarily rich) who returned to government his Social Amelioration Subsidy of P8,000.00, so that accordingly – or in his words own said: ‘others more needy may benefit!
THE EDUCATED AS well as the Unschooled too – on TV and Radio examples, we see or hear lawyers helping the downtrodden, physicians, and medical people caring for the sick – at times sans fee nor payment; and unschooled, ordinary, barrio folks too coming to the immediate Aid – of accident patients, the stranded ones, the locked down recoverees.
THE ‘MAJORITIES’ AND Minorities (so-called).. in these Covid times you see them no longer in cultural or historical ‘juxtapositions’, ‘comparisons’, or other contrasting references. Rather,
YOU SEE THEM ‘knowing-well-care’, nagkukumustahan, with one another or vice-versa extending help to each other e.g. chayote, carrots, and other vegetables highland-, hinterland-, or lowland-produced: to any afflicted – or devastated part, city, or province of the country – be these occupied by groups of the ‘Majority’ or the ‘Minority’ (.. so-called, yet before).
NATIONALISMUS A-BUILDING or ‘naturally-obtaining’; at-randomly, cum spontaneity while before there were four (or five?) Island-peoples, viz. ‘the Luzonians, the Visayans, the Mindanaoans, the Palawanos; with Covid time, radio, TV, Social Media, etc., people mostly spoke of: ‘the Filipinos’.. ‘the Philippines..’
THIS ‘TREND’ WAS also heard, felt, exhibited by some – or many – of our officials who, did special mention of: ating mga Kababayan (Transl: “our countrymen”) – in addition, to the terms ‘Filipinos’ and ‘the Philippines’ (though – certainly: media people may claim said additional as their ‘original’).
[COMPARED TO: BEFORE Covid time, there were ‘classifications’, ‘categorizations’, and ‘distinctions’ e.g. between who was ‘from the city’ and ‘from the rurals’ (now furthered or enhanced, by the favouritism for the elusive reference of the Provinciano).
[AND SO WITH those inclu- and exclusive dubbings of who spoke: the ‘Standard’ Tagalog, versus those who used the ‘Popular’, versus still the native’; the ‘Standard’ Visayan, versus Cebuano, versus Waray-Waray, or Ilongo – or ‘the Accents’ of these, et cetera].
IN Covid time, everybody was using Tagalog or the National Language in public and in official functions – with of course English(!) – we mean the Philippine ‘variety’, which we are wont to abide by.
RETURNING – OR ‘BEING in more’, to the Folds. Remember Oratio Imperata? (literally: “Oration/Speech/Prayer” and “directive/obligatory/command/involuntary”; so: “obligatory Prayer”?, “Command Oration”?, etc., I stand corrected, in case). There was a big going back to our prestige as: ‘the only(?) Christian Nation in Asia.’ Though candidly, it was perhaps Prayer – not others specific, that we, ourselves; you, your- selves; or they, themselves realized – they can – or have to, go back to;
THUS FILIPINOS WE all are, we sought the help of the Entities held sacred, revered, adored, etc., by us respective e.g. the Lord, our God; represented by several Prophets around the World, the Eastern beliefs, the Indigenous original versions, name it – we all prayed – respecting each group’s style or modus – in united hope to gain blessings and redemption from the Omnipresent, Omnipotent same-direction of our Prayers and Offerings.
OUR SELF-DISCOVERIES AND Learnings in Covid time – should now suffice to prepare us.. as fellows and co-concernees of Mother Earth. Ayuhh!
