The Power of Caring (a guest post)

I welcome everyone who wants to share his thoughts through this blog. Below is the first guest post written by my son as he is still recuperating from a recent brain decompression surgery! Thanks for sharing Deboy!

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Now I don’t know about you, but I’m 99.9% sure that my Christmas break was just a little different than the normal person. Yeah, I had a gathering of people around me and we all had a feast, and we all opened presents. By a gathering of people I mean nurses and doctors, and by a feast I mean the “gourmet” hospital food that was served to me, and the only thing that was opened this break was the back of my head. Before you get freaked out by my (maybe) too graphic of a description, let me explain what happened to me this Christmas break so that you won’t get too confused. During the break, I had what was called a “Brain Decompression Surgery.” Basically at the end of the first semester, I started feeling tingling numbness on the whole left side of my body, causing some occasional aches and pains. Sharp excruciating headaches also accompanied it and that’s when I got it checked out. It turns out that my skull was a bit too small for my brain causing my brain to hang down and therefore causing me to have nerve problems. The Doctors diagnosed it as a Chiari Malformation. Now this article isn’t about the condition or my process into my surgery, so we’re not going to get too technical. Instead I will be talking about the overwhelming support that I got from my friends and family. Whether it’s my dad sleeping on the not-so-comfortable chair every night just too keep me company, or a friend texting you all day and all night so you won’t get bored, or all your fraternity brothers checking up on you making sure you’re doing well. Getting this major surgery made me realize that, I really do have a wonderful community around me. Friends of friends, family from the Philippines, friends that I’m not even Facebook friends with knew about it, and all of them had the decency to pray for me. I guess when it comes to facing adversity and difficulty, you find out who truly cares for you, in which you find out that basically all of your friends and more care for you. That is the true way to showcase the power of the human heart and soul. The support that I got was probably the best Christmas present I could have ever gotten (unless it was an Ipad or a new car, even then it still be hard to beat.) My point in this is that; don’t take your friends for granted, because they would do just about anything for you like you would do just about anything for them. In life you will have many friends come and go, which means that embrace the ones you have known because when you need them, they will be there and there is nothing better than the feeling when you know you’re receiving the true power of caring.

Between Comings and Goings

It is the dash.  In the tombstones of many, it means the lifespan,  between the year of birth and the year of death. In a job, it represents the period of employment between the starting and leaving. A dash, therefore, represents a  period of time. It could be very short or long as a lifetime! It could be the period between January 1st to December 31st!

Every dash contains a story or a history! And I found  Steve Jobs' dash so remarkable and awe-inspiring. I heard about Steve mostly in the primetime news, in things, well, related to Apple. His name did not get much of my interest at the start simply because ain't a Mac person. Until I was introduced to TED (www.ted.com) when I seemed to get to him upclose and personal. Posted on TED was his 2005 Commencement Address in Stanford University titled  'How you live before you die'. His talk was so loaded heavily with wits and wisdom peppered with humor. He can be quoted in practically  everything he spoke. Since then, I became his avid follower. Much about his life were revealed after his recent passing.And his person became even bigger with his death! Well done Steve! Humanity just lost a genius!

This might one of the shortest among the dashes. But its impact affects what seems to be a lifetime to many. On March 11, 2011, 2:46 in the afternoon Japan Standard Time, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the eastern Japan what has been dubbed as 2011 Tohuku earthquake or the Great East Japan Earthquake. Considered as one of the five most powerful earthquakes in the world (and Japan's worst ever) since modern recording was available, the tremors sent powerful and massive tsunami waves, rampaging everything on their paths of destruction. Tens of thousands of lives lost, missing and destroyed,  countless people were displaced. Over hundred thousand  buildings damaged or destroyed. There were nuclear accidents, nuclear meltdown in some nuclear power plants. Most of the gut-wrenching events were recorded as they unfolded. The images of black waves rolling from the shoreline down through the nearby urban center, carrying everything on the paths- cars, homes, people, animals, etc, was so  surreal. It sent shivers down to my spine. I thought I saw clips of the futuristic movie, The Day After Tomorrow!

And while working on this topic, I did not expect something to happen in this year's dash, right there in the place I used to call home in the Philippines, in Iligan City! December 17 before the break of dawn, many people were roused from their peaceful sleep by rushing water. Flash flood caused by the heavy downpour brought in by Tropical Depression Sendong inundated a wide area in Iligan City as well as in Cagayan de Oro, which is about an hour drive away. This calamitous event was never expected, for these places had rarely been  hit by storms history-wise. And besides, Sendong (international code name - Washi) being designated a Storm Signal 2, with winds gusting around 60 to 100 kilometers per hour (kph), was not as dangerous as many people would imagine.  The continuous downpour of heavy rains which rapidly soaked the denuded areas was blamed for the inland-tsunami-like waters which swept and rampaged thousands of homes and establishments, waking thousands of   people up from their sleeps.  Unfortunately, the same rampaging water unforgivingly drowned hundreds of innocent lives in their sleep. This incident happened just a week before Christmas!

The scene of dead people lined lying like logs on muddy roads, the morning following the inundation, was horrendous and heartbreaking. Included in the fatalities were some of my relatives, and few colleagues at previous work. Many of our friends though they considered themselves lucky for being still alive,  were not spared from the unexpected inundation with murky waters reaching from hip-level to the rooftop. Most of their belongings (household appliances, furnitures, books, etc) were damaged, some of them with only the clothes on their back! For certain, this was not the way they want to celebrate Christmas of 2011!! But it happened! As such, I offer my condolences and deep sympathies to the families and relatives of victims whose lives were lost in the tragedy. I share my hopes and well wishes to relatives, friends and families whose households were damaged, as they start to rebuild their lives again!

This year's dash is highlighted with countless milestones which will surely merit some pages down in the history. And some of these mementoes will continue to shape the future that's been unknowingly stored for us. The year 2011 is almost gone to history but we must be thankful and grateful for what this year had bestowed for us. For they help us make through to the upcoming year, 2012!

Happy New Year Everyone!

The Day My Son Went Under the Knife

December 20, 2011. My wife's cell phone rang. It was 4:00 this morning. A wake up call so to speak! Time to get up and prepare for what could be one of the longest days in our life. My son is scheduled to have a major surgery early this morning!

More than three months ago, my son was complaining about recurrent headaches and neck pains. Then he had numbness on the left side of his body. We thought that his symptoms were just few of the common discomforts sleep-deprivation and probably stressful college life may cause. He is a college sophomore pursuing a degree in journalism. But the doctor in the university he attends did not take any chance. Diagnostic imagings were ordered. The blood vessels around his brain were checked and all seemed normal. No aneurysm (thanks goodness!). His brain MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) images caught the attention of the, I believe, general practice university physician. He was referred to a neurologist. Additional MRI was ordered, this time on his cervical spnal cord. Then I got one of the news I did not want to hear. My son has Chiari Malformation type 1 with syringomyelia!

It was my first time to hear about this disorder. But I can easily understand what it is! Chiari is not a disease. In common terms, his skull is a little bit smaller relative to his brain. So there is a little compression going on in his brain and in particular, it is his cerebellum that is affected. The pressure caused a portion of his cerebellum to come out of the skull by way of the foramen magnum, the big canal which serves as the passageway of the spinal cord from the brainstem. That herniation, the cerebellar tonsils which come our of the hole, might (it can only be speculated) have caused the symptoms he has been having of late. But it could be something else!

It could've been less alarming if our son has only the herniation. The MRI conducted on his cervical spine showed a syrinx inside his spinal cord. A syrinx is a cyst which results from the accumulation of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which normally the CSF should be circulating inside and outside the spinal cord. This poses a major risk, considering the size of syrinx. The neurosurgeon looking at his case recommended an immediate surgeon lest the syrinx may cause permanent damage.

This recent development caused changes in our plans for the winter break. In September, we made flight reservations to visit our aging folks in the Philippines. It's been three years since we last visited them. So all four of us were excited to spend the 2011 Christmas holidays with our loved ones back home. Not anymore! We decided to have this surgery conducted immediately after our son was done with school. And it was only Alison, our daughter, went ahead with the trip!

The thought of surgery sends chills to my spine. With my son undergoing a major surgery, scares me to hell (if hell exists!). For it's not just removing an appendix or a gallstone. He is going to have a brain decompression surgery. A portion of the skull bone that's covering his cerebellum will be removed. Am scared about the risks associated. Am scared about human errors that may do more harm than good to him. I can only hope with modern technology and the expertise of the team working on his surgery, everything will be okay!

At 8:35ish, we were told the surgery started! The procedure would take about 2-3 hours, give or take, the neurosurgeon told us before our son was wheeled in to the operating room. Must be a long wait for us in the waiting room. The wifi available in the waiting area has helped us while away the time. Just like anybody else in the waiting area, we are eager to hear any information about what's going on inside the operating room.

Finally we get the chance to have a brief audience with the neurosurgeon, two-and-a-half hours after. The surgery went well, we were told. A chunk of his skull was removed as well as his cerebellar tonsils. Then it was going to be another two-to-three hours before we could see hear about him again, hopefully, when he wakes up from sedation. But I dont know if we could come close to him. He is expected to be in the intensive care unit (ICU) until his recovery process improves.

The day has gone long, and we're only halfway through yet. I know it's going to be quite a long day for us, but longer for our son as his body has yet to get rid of the anesthetics it received earlier. I know it's going to be a long road to recovery for him. We could only hope he will get a relief from the unpleasant symptoms he had been enduring in the past months along with the recuperation.

We received well-wishes from a lot of people who knew about our son's forthcoming decompression surgery. Prayers inundate the heaven, asking for the intervention of the Great Healer for his safe and rapid recovery. All these were very much appreciated. Your abundant emotional and spiritual support have helped us through this rough time. Thank you so much!

Gone Fishing

I've never been to a  fishing trip before. I mean, going out to the waters on a motorized vehicle and spend countless hours casting and reeling under the heat of the sun. Although, I remember trying to catch tiny fish from a shallow stream near our vegetable garden before, the same stream where my older siblings used to do laundry. A slightly bent bamboo twig was used as pole; a staple wire from a box was formed into a hook, and this hook was tied to a thread which served as the line. Eureka!! a rudimentary fishing gear. For bait, a live earthworm freshly dugged up from a muddy soil was cut up into lengths that fitted the staple wire hook. That was fishing to me, for recreation , since I did not cook the poor fish I caught.

I got a few friends who just loved to go fishing. Once, I was invited to go fishing and I had to look for a lame alibi to decline the invite. For I thought, fishing is such a boring thing to do, may be next to doing nothing! And so the idea of going fishing was nowhere in my to do list. To me, the thought of waiting for the fish to pick up my bait for who-knows-how-long was like eternity, and therefore so much of a time wasted. This is in addition to the apprehensions of mosquito bites if gone fishing during dusk in the freshwater lakes around Manhattan, KS or the extreme Texas heat of the mid-day sun off the waters of the Corpus Christi Bay. Another reason that held me strongly back from going fishing, especially in sea waters, was my inability to swim.

Why did I go fishing anyway?

A geology professor (Vernon K.) whose office is next to mine in the College where I am teaching, mentioned to me that he loves to fish. He is a white septuagenarian who has retired five times already from previous jobs, He goes fishing for sport and for spending solitude. Although, he told me that once in a while, he would fillet the bigger catch. I have always been a fish eater and I indulge myself  with fish meal  from those simply cooked in vinegar ('paksiw'), fish soup ('tinola'),  fried fish and fish escabeche, to the fancy and pricey steamed or grilled fish. I knew in general that Americans love to fillet their catch and that they simply toss the fish heads and fleshy bones away for the seagulls to party on. So I told my geologist friend not to throw the fish parts next time and to save  the other species that are not subject to regulatory restrictions (number and size wise) instead of throwing them back to the water.

One summer morning back to my office, I got a voice mail from Vernon, straight from the middle of the Redfish Bay asking me if I were interested in some fish. Apparently, he was out there catching some good quality local species of fish like flounder, redfish and drum. Honestly I knew nothing about these fish but I got to know them eventually. My class for that day was to end at about ten in the evening so I did not have the time to go to his place and pick up the fish. I was thinking then I might have defaulted the offer. But this gracious 'old man' who looks and acts 'way younger' that his age saved the fish for me.

On my way to pick up the fish, I did not know what to expect. Maybe Vernon got a couple of his 'legal' catch for me. But my eyes opened so wide in amazement when I saw what he got for me. It was a 'lot'.. a big flounder, three drums, a couple of red fish, and few others I did not remember their names! And of couse, few fish heads from those he filleted. Venon's wife witnessed how astonished I was in reacting to what I saw. She told me, it was as if I got the biggest surprise of my life. And it was true! Our freezer was stuffed with fish like never before.

The following week, Vernon went fishing again, for fun. Their freezer was still overly stuffed with fillet from his previous trips, so I was the lucky recipient of his legal catch again! This time, he taught me how to clean the big fish. I got more-than two week's supply of fish. He drove me by the bay and showed where he usually got his 'loot' of fish. It turns out, he was fishing only in shallow waters. Admiring the abundance of the fish my friend caught regularly, and out of my curiosity, I told him that  I would go fishing with him one day. And so, my interest in fishing started!

Saltwater fishing license, checked! Sunblock, checked! Food and drinks, checked! With life vest on, I was seated in front of an open boat. The smell of the ocean and the morning breeze washing my face brought a good feeling! While Vernon was  behind me navigating the boat, my mind was wondering  in anticipation of new experience this day would bring. I knew there is something in store for me, including the catch. I gaped my face to the horizon before me, and to the sea grass bed  all around. I got excited with the sight of huge fish swimming in the sea grass bed and with those that keep jumping off the water. Silently, I told myself... watch out fish!

Then there was ... casting 101! Before we left  Vernon's place, he showed me a couple strokes on how to cast the line. I thought it was simple and easy. So out there in the waters, I practiced casting fishing line. It turned out casting was not easy as I earlier thought. I tried my hardest to cast but they were not good enough. At the start,Vernon was watching me every time I cast my line, if only to prevent his ear from being hooked (lol) if not to check if I was doing the right stroke. My hooks were not going that far no matter how I tried. I would release the reel either too early or too late. Not at the right timing. I was told to relax and get the feel of the timing when to release the reel. After about half an hour doing the casting, I became frustrated. I was nowhere near to be doing good in this 'seemingly' easy task!

I sat down to get some drinks. Suddenly,  I started to think about my students who were trying to learn something new for the first time in my class. Here I am, trying my best to do good but still struggling. At this very moment, I put myself to my students' shoes. I thought about the times I got upset, if not frustrated, when my students fail to completely comprehend topics which seem to be very simple and easy to me. I felt I need to show more compassion to my students if only to give justice to job I love the most - teaching! What a humbling experience, indeed!

Seven hours slipped very quickly, and all our baits were gone. We called it quits. We ended up catching drums, croakers and perches. I experienced having my hand and fingers pierced by the sharp fins of catfish and perch. Some lessons learned, including when to release the fish back to the water.  Finally, I was able to feel the right timing in releasing the reel.

Contrary to my expectation, there never was a dull moment spent while we were casting and reeling in. There was always the excitement every time I yanked  the pole to, hopefully, get a fish hooked.

After cleaning all what we caught, Vernon told me to take of all the fish home. For there's no space in the freezer to stash. That was a lot.. more than enough to feed us for a month! Sweet!













 

One Father's Reflections On Father's Day

I don't blame some people for choosing not to become fathers. I dislike people who, through their own volition, irresponsibly refuse to become fathers to the children they sired and helped brought into the world. And I admire people who desired and stood up as fathers to countless children who may, otherwise,  have lived and grown without fathers. For 'any man can be a father but it takes someone special to be a dad.'

I have two lovely grown up children now. So this makes me a father! No doubt about it.

Now, am I a dad to them? Who knows! I can only hope....

If raising kids makes one person a dad, then I should be one! For, along with my wife, I did help raising them to whoever they are today. But I don't claim any credit for 'making' them who they are and what have become of them now. For they are who they are. I may just have been a set of 'Dos and Don'ts' to them, and may be a little bit more!

Becoming a dad is a nature's gift. It comes in nicely as a package of role to portray, a game to play, a commitment to dutifully fulfill, and most of all, a life to live! The role was challenging for I definitely dont want to be their model. I have my flaws, insensitivities, temper and my fickle-mindedness. The game was seemingly difficult in the absence of established set of rules. And the playing field was so vastly immense, limited only to my imagination! The commitment was life-long, although as I see it now, it gets a little less demanding as the children get older. And the life.. am still getting there. A rollercoaster ride it has been so far...!

I could safely say I was almost always there for my children since they were born. Almost because while I was always around for our daughter since she was born,  I was in absentia, by necessity, during the first one-and-a-half years of our son. I just hope my absence did not make less of a dad. For sure, he may not know it!

Watching these once tiny kids grow was always a source of profound happiness and pride. I could relate myself to my dad who'd always see to it that he was around in any of our school programs to watch us perform a part or receive recognition. They continue to shower us with so much pride,  boosting our egos and making us even more proud with their stellar achievements, especially in school.

Now that my kids are grown ups, I feel a void building inside me. For it won't be long,  I will not be seeing them more often . I wonder if I could even hear their voices. I feel a little sad and lonely as I start to feel  losing my little girl. Soon, she will be out navigating the waters in her own life's journey!  And with my son declaring his independence!

Many times, not in the distant past  I wished my children did not get to grow to who they are now. If only we could stay together! But this selfish thinking, is not what a dad should embrace. As what my son told us, 'let the bird fly', and so fly he does to start finding out for himself what the world has to offer.

A word of advice to young dads out there... cherish every moment with your kids. For they grow so fast. Before you know it, they are kids no more! And time for them to be on their own!

Happy father's day everyone!

Bits-'n-Pieces

I've been idle and unproductive in the days past. This comes after a week of tight-knot schedules: a weekend trip for a kin's wedding in Kansas City, the final examinations for the spring semester, my daughter's college graduation.. an apartment move. As all those bustles are considered done, unpacking and putting stuff away included, I found myself glued to my laptop most of the time. I thought I deserve this break. And so I indulged myself, LOL only to myself though,  as I followed and reacted every funny joke posted in the Plaridel Group facebook page. It is fun...

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It's nice to be doing nothing... but facebook! At least momentarily as I try to enjoy and savor my solitude this first week of summer vacation. Gone are the PowerPoint lectures to skillfully master, exams to write then grade, meetings, and yes the flood of students whining, why did they get D's or C's when they thought they deserved better grades. Am so done with these... for now!

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Last night, I was up late, as usual catching up with every posting in FB as well as trying to gather information if the 'end of the world' saga has already unfolded in areas of earlier time zones. Today, May 21st,  is supposed to be the end of the world where calamities (notably, earthquakes) must have crumpled the world,  as Rapture  has the chosen few joining with their Lord while the heathens are left gnawing their teeth  under the rubble of cataclysm. And so the doomsday prediction by  the apocalyptic believers was doomed again! 

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It makes me wonder why would some so-called Christians bite the bait the doomsdaysayers are putting in. For  it is written ' no one knows exactly the second coming of the Lord '. Ironically, they don't see this coming!

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While the apocalyptic believers readied themselves for the Rapture, doing their 'lasts' with their loved ones - last dinner, last gathering, last everything...., the non-believers were out there partying, mocking the believers.
I wonder if today has become a great disappointment to the believers for the end they're looking forward to did not come! Sigh...

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I dont believe the earth will just end in a snap of a finger. Nature is bound to obey its laws. And these laws make nature run through its course. The cosmos is catastrophic. As we continue to hear earthquakes of unimaginable magnitudes, hurricanes of unmeasurable intensities, extreme weather changes, and all sorts of nature's 'signs of the time', they are not unexpected. They are part of the vicious cycle of nature's existence.

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Our existence in this planet is governed by the laws of nature. We experience all sorts of catastrophes spicing up our lives. At times, we found ourselves in the abyss of hopelessness and despair, and in some other times, we are at the summit of everything. This makes our life worth living. Our reselience in dealing with life's adversities leads us to where we are now.  We dont worry so much about the future for we know not what the future holds. But we take lessons from our past in order to make the present a little better. 

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For now,  I have to get rid myself off the guilt feelings of doing nothing but facebook... It's a treat to myself. Soon, I will start checking out the things on my to-do list, trying to accomplish one task at a time.




 

Done With Life

About a month ago, a colleague in our Department, lost his dad after battling with a debilitating disease for quite a time. From his countenance, I could sense he was harboring mixed emotions. A smile in his face, as I expressed my sympathy to him,  meant he was glad seeing his beloved father relieved of the pains and sufferings he endured through the past years. It must be very difficult for him and his family seeing a moribund loved one day after day. Then as he bit his lip, I felt the grief his heart was keeping, for the eternal loss. But he was quick to regain his composure,  deeply consoled that his dad is done with his mortal sufferings and with the thought, as his faith promises, that he is heaven-bound. A year earlier, another colleague of mine mourned for the death of his dad, three days after which his father-in-law passed away, all succumbed to infirmities which kept them bed-bound for the remaining years of their lives. And all I could gather from him was a sigh of relief, from the painful sight of seeing his dad waging a fight he could not win and for his dad as the end of his sufferings came to pass.

I was thinking about, what if I am in a situation where my life is characterized by nothing but physical pains and afflictions? That after exausting all available modern medical interventions there is, still there isn't  any relief in sight. And the intense physical suffering gets worse every day as it is augmented by the psychological pain  of self-pity generated by the bitter feeling of sheer uselessness.Where I am totally emasculated from doing things I used to, and have to rely on machines with a network of  tubes delivering air and food to, and removing wastes from my body. Then I'd say, I am done with my life. I would sign a waiver seeking a medically-assisted end of my life.

This is euthanasia, also called mercy killing! It is an act of ending a person's life who has been terminally ill by witholding extreme medical interventions. Suicide with consent! This is one of the hotly contested topics for ethical debates. To do or not to do, poses a great dilemma as it creates a divide among many health providers as well as the family members. Euthanasia has also been a subject for long debates in the halls of lawmakers arena. And it has been judiciously argued, with a lot of attention, in the halls of justice, as famously hallmarked by the case of Terri Schaivo.

I offered a course called Controversial Topics in Biology during aWinter Term, three years ago and our class tackled several issues that were, well controversial! I introduced euthanasia through a tear jerking foreign movie titled Done With Life. It's about one man on the way to the peak of his youthful life, which is peppered with feats and accomplishments unusual to any man his age. But he, unfortunately, did not get to where he quite wanted as an unusual accident cut him. He dived in a cliff and he landed at the back of his head, breaking his neck. Becoming quadriplegic was the major source of miseries in his life. After the surreal twists and turns of events in the story,  he eventually ended his life with the help of a medical doctor who prepared the 'drinks'  he had to binge on to kill himself slowly and less painfully.

My students, when asked to give their reactions, as usual were divided close to fifty-fifty. The pragmatists did not doubt taking the same route as the hero in the story. While the conservatives and probably the moralists, on the other hand, were apt to passing their strong disagreement to ending a life which they considered  sacred and given to him by their creator. This scenario reflects a microcosm of  what and how does the society deal with this issue.

Nobody has been incriminated for attempting to commit suicide. But many have been incarcerated for trying to murder a person, pre-meditated or otherwise. One can take another person's life  in the name of self-defense without going to prison. Which means, one's life is really valuable. Just like any valuables, one person's life belongs only to him. And so, I thought, a person is entitled to do anything with his life. For as long as he fully knows the consequences of his action. This is especially so if the person wishes to relieve himself from the pains and burdens he's carrying through for the rest of his life.

For A Dear Sister on Her Birthday!

Every child is a gift from heaven. This is what our parents believed. Getting married at early age, teens to be more precise,  our parents had a long way ahead of them. And so, our first sibling (a girl)  came, followed by another one, then another one… then me, the seventh child. Plus two more after me. .. We thought that was it.  Then, came our last sibling, after a hiatus.

I was about nine when we welcomed our youngest sibling, Berse (she is also fondly called Angging in our family) to this mortal world.  She was the apple of the eyes of many in the family. She was well loved, the privilege she naturally  received being the youngest. But she never grew up a spoiled brat.

In our family, the older siblings were, at times,  charged with looking after the younger ones. And I had my share of babysitting the younger sisters, especially when my older siblings were all at school. This brought me closer to my younger siblings, and Berse, being the littlest always deserved more of my attention. She told me, she could remember fondly enjoying a piggyback ride she got from me when we were heading somewhere.

One thing I could remember so well about Berse is her being an industrious person. As a young child, she would find ways to earn a little  money for herself. I thought this was a trait predicting her success in the future. 

I was off to college when Berse was starting grade school. Away from home for 8 years, the only times I could see her were during short visits  at Christmas or summer vacation. In 1985, job brought me back close to home and about that time, Berse was starting college. This was the time Berse and I were closely associated again, as she went to the school where I worked as a professor.  Through the years, I saw her transformation into a very responsible person. I even teased her as 'sipsip', showing extreme loyalty to one of her favorite college professors. We parted our ways again after her graduation from college as she started teaching in a high school somewhere.

Fast forward.... today Berse, our baby sister, turns 42 years old. And yes, she lives a simply full life. She is blessed with a nice family, intelligent kids and a very successful career. There is one thing I admired so much about her, being the caregiver to our octogenarian mother. Living alone like a single mother since husband Roger is working overseas, I thought it was difficult for Berse to lead a normal life, with our frail and ailing mother,  three  kids with two teenagers, and acting as head teacher in two elementary schools. I thought she has so much on her plate. But I have never heard her complaining. On top of that, she seems to be the go-to person when a sibling or two are in need of something, especially financial matters.

I am greatly indebted to Berse.  She has done the greatest job which nobody else in our family has ever done, caring for our dear mother. Words are not enough to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to our baby sister. 

Now I realized why heaven sent her, the youngest sibling in our family.  Because if she did not come, who would take care of mother? If the older siblings were to take care of the younger ones, then the youngest will take care of the old folks! LOL..

Happy birthday dear sister! We wish you with continued success in your family and in your career! I owe you something... a trip to the US with a stop over in Canada someday soon!

Human Genome Ten Years After It's Been Mapped

I voluntered to deliver a talk covering  a certain topic in Genomics in an upcoming Friday Science Seminar which is regularly sponsored by our Department of Natural Sciences. We have a Spring Break this week and I was supposed to be relieved from the usual school tasks. But I was glued most of the time to my laptop gathering materials for my talk. The good thing is that, unlike during my student days when I had to dig up the card catalogs in the library and spend countless hours leafing through the pages of journals,  I just have to type the topic and let the search engine do the searching!

Turns out, this year marks the 10th year after the draft of the human genome was reported. Two drafts actually, one done by the government-sponsored International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, the other one by a Biotech Company, Celera Genomics. Each used different mapping strategy and both came up with comparable results.

Mapping the human genome was an ambitious project conceived in the 1980s under the Clinton Administration. It officially took off as a 15 year- and 50- million dollar project in 1988, as a collaborative undertaking by participating laboratories in the US, UK, Japan, Italy, China and somewhere else. This project had an initial rough sailing while presented to the  government for funding. Fears were mounting that most of the research budget would be siphoned to this audicious project.  Tauted as a big science, many scientists were abhorred of the idea at the get go. Being a non-hypothesis research was also a major issue.

Anyway, in the month of February 2001, two leading highly authoritative scientific journals, Science and Nature, trumpeted to the whole world the first drafts of the human genome project. The project was completed two years ahead of schedule and at $3 billion bill.  Among the salient findings:  (1) about three billion  bases (A,T,G,C combined) or 3.2 Gigabases  was estimated to compose the human genome; (2) only 1.1 to 1.4% of the sequence actually encodes for proteins; (3) over half of the total DNA consists of repeated sequences; (4) about 1.42.million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were unearthed to be distrbuted throughout the human genome. Simple translation - there are fewer genes annotated than what most scientists were expecting! For it was believed with the complexity of human beings and being on top of the evolutionary ladder, at this time, humans must have accumulated a comparably higher number of genes. The question that crops up with this finding is: what is most of the DNA (the non-genes)  in the genome doing?


Hope springs eternal. With the human genome sequenced, it was hoped that information about every base in the human DNA could provide benchmark to the development of personalized treatment of certain disease/s tailored to every individual's genetic profile. The genetic clues could be mined from the individual's SNPs pattern. In the same manner, preventive treatments could be given to individuals whose SNPs patterns reveal predictable late onset gene-based diseases.

But medicine is  not quite there yet! Ten years after, the beginning has just started. The art or science of medicine has yet to take off incorporating genomic information to the treatment regimen. In response,  a few topnotch medical universities in the US are beginning to re-write their curriculum considering the direction of personalized treatment of human diseases. While humans are genetically distinct from our close furry relatives, every individual has a distinct set of SNPs. This unique genetic identity explains why different individuals having similar symptoms and nature of disease would respond differently to the same treatment. And this is when personalized treatment becomes an invaluable tool.

Personalized medicine brings forth to life pharmacogenomics! That is - developing certain drugs or treatment plans based on the patient's  DNA sequence. Which means, a patient should have his entire DNA sequenced.

Sequencing the human genome for the first time was very costly, took a long period of time (13 years), and quite labor intensive with  hundreds of DNA nerds spending countless hours in the laboratory , in over 20 laboratories worldwilde! But through their journey, technologies evolved. Automated DNA sequencers were developed, and the processing capability of computers has been improved beyond one's imagination! We learned that some who's who in the human genome project ,and rumors have it that few celebrities, have their own genomes sequenced, to a tune of a million dollars a piece.

But mortals like me and everybody else, may not lose hope. With technological advancement occurring in quantum leaps,  genome scientists sing in unison that soon sequencing one's genome could be inexpensive, and therefore, become affordable to many! Save a thousand dollars and drop your mouth swabs in the mail. In one week,  receive your DNA sequence!  This will then mark the era of the start of personalized medicine... when a patient's genomic sequence has become a part of his medical records!

The Day The Earth Moves

I was watching the raw video footages posted on the internet taken while the 8.9 magnitude earthquake  was in progress in the Sendai Prefecture in Japan. I could not believe what I saw!! It was terrifying. Inside the grocery, workers were uselessly trying to keep the tall aisles still to prevent the displayed items- wines, canned good, boxes and what-have you, from falling. Inside an office, computers, monitors, wall decors, even desks were falling. There was a footage in a  lobby which reminded me of my first trip to Manila, decades ago, on board the M/V Dona Marilyn (before it sunk) while navigating through the unusually rough waters off  Romblon island, where bottles rolled from side to side of the huge ship. In that footage, I thought the tall building must be swaying!!! Indeed, it was swaying!

What was even more gut wrenching was the aftemath of the strong earthquake, the tsunami which flowed in multi-story high waves of rushing waters raging the coastal areas up to 3 kilometers to the mainland. I watched the dark mound of water picking up yachts and small boats from the shoreline and cars and trucks parked in the streets bringing them  to who-knows-where, knocking down weaker structures (homes and bridges) along the way The eerie sight sent a chill to my spine! In the airport, I saw few airplanes swarmed around by drifted cars and trucks.

I thought I was watching the thriller of the futuristic movie, The Day After Tomorrow. Some scenes were so surreal that most people think would happen only in the silver screen. It did happen for real, caught  in people's not the director's camera! The magnitude of the damage seems incomprehensible, as thousands of lives are lost or missing, massive infrastructures damaged including the nuclear power plant facilities and power is out for who-knows how long!

This powerful earthquake occurred in Japan earlier today while rescue and recovery operations are still underway in the rubbles of Christchurch, New Zealand after it was rocked by 6.3 magnitude quake less than a month ago. Elsewhere, tremors shook and caused significant damage to buildings and loss of lives and limbs in Southwest China, and was felt in Bali, Indonesia. Unfortunately, the tremor which shook Japan was estimated to be 800 times more powerful (and hence more destructive) than the one which shook New Zealand.

With this string of calamitous events, the self-proclaimed soothsawyers out there are apt to quickly remind the people the end of time is near. That humans have caused so much displeasure to god. And that god is punishing the earth!

Truth to  reckon is that the earth has been a harsh environment to live in. This planet was born out of unimaginable disaster if we try to contend with the Big Bang Theory. After it's formation, the earth's environment has been so hostile, even before the first life was formed.  Volcanic eruptions, powerful earthquakes, meteorites invasion and some other forces described the cataclysmic nature of the earth. Ironically, it is believed that through the energy generated from these activities, chemical reactions occurred which in the course of time, the first life was formed.

Life in this planet just come and go. According to scientific estimates, more and more living forms were present in the past (and are now archived in the layers of rocks in the earth) than those that live at the present. This is just how things go. We heard about fish kills, bird drops, and massive loss of lives. These are tell-tale signs of  natural selection. It's part of the dynamics of the Gaia, the earth being likened to an organism. Where there are continuous interactions between the various components of the earth's ecosystem (the atmosphere, the oceans, the land and the bedrock beneath)  in order to keep the earth healthy.

And so catastrophes are part of our existence. Sometimes we are lucky.. others are not!

Symbiogenesis

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a room with privileged people - students, professors and researchers, listening to a talk which dealt with  the topic on Symbiogenesis. The speaker, Dr. Lynn Margulis,  was a not an ordinary person as she has been credited for the widely-accepted  endosymbiotic theory of the origin of eukaryotic cells. She is currently a distinguised professor in the department of geosciences at the University of Massachusets in Amherst.

It was about 6 years ago since I knew about Dr. Lynn Margulis. I was a member of a large delegation of biology professors from all over the US grading the 2006 Advanced Placement test in Biology (APBiology) in the University of Nebraska -Lincoln. No, she was not one of us. But her name always popped up in almost every page of the test booklets I read. The question was about the origin of the first eukaryotes and many students unnecessarily mentioned her as the proponent of the theory.

In that lecture, I paid particular attention on how she talked and how she relayed the wealth of information within a limited period of time in a presentation. For people like her, I thought,  are exceptional mortals and are endowed with the unique critical skill in weaving a major  scientific concept which makes it to the college textbook. And all I wanted was to emulate her wits and style.

Symbiogenesis, the merging of two entirely different organisms to form a new organism, is not really new. This idea was synthesized in the 1920s by a famous Russian botanist in a book titled Symbiogenesis: A New Principle of Evolution. Symbiogenesis was considered a major driving force in evolutionary biology along with Darwinian's natural selection. This treatise on symbiogenesis however, suffered the same fate as Gregor Mendel's theory of inheritance,  gathering dust in the library's bookselves over a long period of time as they were ignored by the scientific community. In just about a year ago, The Harvard University Press published a English Translation of the book where Lynn Margulis was one of the co-editors. The re-discovery of symbiogenesis has begun an exciting era in evolutionary research.

We share this planet with a gazillion of other living organisms. We share our bodies to tons and tons of other living organisms. Lice in our heads or pubes; worms inside our guts; fungi in between our toes, armpits and yeasts in the vagina; and of course the truckloads of bacteria and protozoans which call our intestines their abode, others invading every inch of our skin, eyes, nose, mouth and not to mention the genitalia. These are part of who we are. They make vitamins for us! They make us stinky! Many of the them form our normal biota where they offer themselves the 'military' protecting our bodies from invading 'alien' microorganisms.   

Similarly, in bodies of other organisms live tons and tons of living hitch-hikers.Symbiosis, the close association and coexistence of different forms of organisms, therefore has become the way of life. Symbiosis causes different consequences to the parties involved, parasites get 'fat', hosts nutrient-deprived, commensals mutually benefited. When the host becomes immunocompromised, the opportunistic pathogenic endosymbionts (those who live within our bodies)  are out there to defeat the host in a disease. In short, both the endo- and ecto-symbionts make our either bodies better or bitter.

Dr. Margulis used the sea slug, a close relative of the squids and octopuses, as one example that seems to exemplify the process of symbiogenesis. Many different species of sea slugs obtain defense structures, like the nematocysts from the deadly jellyfish, portuguese-man-of-war. Instead of being destroyed, these stinging cells are kept by the slugs for their own defense. There is a certain species of sea slugs which feeds voraciously on algae. Instead of being broken down as food, some algae stayed infact and remained functional within the animal body, as endosymbionts. The slug, which is shaped life a flat leaf, looks green because of the presence of the algae which carry on photosynthesis inside the slug body. So here is an animal that, through its of endosymbionts, is capable of photosynthesis. Examination of the eggs produced by the slug showed the presence of chloroplast genes in the cytoplasm. 

This could just be the tip of the iceberg. There could be many animals out there whose close contact and  strong association with other organisms, may result to the formation of an entirely different organism in the long run. In here, missing links will not be an issue. The scientist may just have to look closely which other organisms that are associated. And by looking at the different DNA fingerprints, the identity of these associated oganisms can be obtained  by blasting their DNA sequence with the extensive database that are available.

Here is a nature's way of making transgenic animals!

The Faces of Morality

A religious couple, who has been married for over ten years, patiently kept on trying to have a baby. When they were about to surrender their childlessness up to their god, the wife found out she was pregnant. That was the best news ever for the couple. As the wife's pregnancy  progressed, she noticed something seemed not right. She developed pregnancy-induced hypertension (preeclampsia) due to mother-fetus serologic incompatilbility, putting hers and the fetus' life in danger. Sonographic examination and amniocentesis reveal the fetus suffers lethal genetic malformation and the chance for  survival is very nil. The physician recommended for immediate termination of  pregnancy for her safety. The couple did not heed the physician's advice for they don't want to  murder their unborn child!

S. P. is an intelligent, outgoing, happy-go-lucky teenaged girl who simply enjoys life. She has a boyfriend her age. They love  hanging-out and chilling with other teens, their age. As many curious teens would do, they experiment on stuff like pot, alcohol and sex. S.P. got impregnated and was in a dilemma. She did not want to inform her parents about the pregnancy, and she certainly was not ready for the daunting responsibility of raising a child as a single mom. The boyfriend deserted her after finding out she got impregnated. S.P.  terminated the pregnancy! To her, it was the best thing to do!

To kill or not to kill? There are only two answers, neither is  right nor  wrong!

Morality is a very delicate yet a very subjective topic. Just like beauty, being moral (or immoral) lies in the eyes of the beholder! That's because there is not a single standard to measure morality. It is looked at differently by different groups of people.

This bring us to the question on what serves as the basis for morality For christians, morality stands on a solid ground rooted in the Bible. Any act done against or in contradiction with the doctrines of their church could be hailed immoral! The Mosaic Law provides a long list of Dos and Don'ts for christians to observe. But even among the different christian groups, people are divided as to what acts are considered immoral, which ones not! In the two cases presented earlier, is killing considered an immoral act? The ultraconservatives would say yes outrightly! For the act itself is in defiance of the Mosaic Law 'thou shall not kill.'  But killing people were rampant in the days of the bible just as the present days. Even god himself caused massive killing of people, the highest form of genocide, when Noah refused people to let them in in their ark during the Great Flood. Innocent babies were killed as consequence with the parents  not painting their  front doors with the sacrificial lamb's blood for the Passover!

The muslim religious extremists hold on to their belief that killing people who they consider as 'infidels' would merit them great rewards in the afterlife. What motivates a young and just-after-puberty suicide bomber to sacrifice his earthly life in killing people is the reward of being with 42 virgins in the afterlife! Killing is not regarded as immoral, in this case!

The non-believers got their system of calling morality. Being not under any church doctrines makes their notion of morality a little more pragmatic and more than philosophical.

Morality has been invented by man. Whatever it is based on, morality deals with what is the right thing to do! It is laced with elements of subjectivity. For there is no clear cut black- and- white in morality,  many things are in the gray zone.

I see the evolution of practical morality in the future. Where terminally-ill patience with nothing but hopelessness on top of their constant suffering  and excruciating pains can openly opt for physician-assisted end-of-life care without the fears and apprehensions of not going to heaven (for those who believe!) and with full support by their church. For doing so seems to be the right thing to do if only to make their sufferings a little less unbearable. Furthermore, I see a society that recognizes and embraces people's diversity. As it is now, morality digs that  deep and big gap which divides the people. Self-proclaimed moralists are easy to render judgments, and cause indignation among others.  Living in harmony seems to be the right to do, and that implies being tolerant instead of judgmental to others. This means respecting and accepting other people for who they are,  regardless of race, creed and belief systems, and most importantly, sexual orientation!

I see this coming! But probably not in my lifetime...



As the Earth's Land Area Is Shrinking

Global warming is blamed for the rising of sea water levels which sinks islands under water. Droughts and rampant forest denudation choked watershed areas and aquatifers  slowly killing the lakes, rivers and streams. More and more areas are slowly becoming deserts. With urbanization and industrialization, large areas of tractable lands are converted into residential areas,  developed into recreaction facilities or commercial establishments. These are causing the earth's land surface to keep on shrinking.

Food production hinges largely on how much land area is available to grow crops and raise animals. Menaced by the shrinking acreage of arable lands and the ever increasing demand for food due to the ever-increasing human population worldwide, scientists are left with the only option of producing more food within less available land. This was the major driving force in the so-called  'agricultural revolution'!

I could still remember, when  I was a young, farmers used to plant traditional varieties of rice in their fields. The rice grew tall, and the winds could easily knocked them down to the ground especially during the booting stage when the grains started to fill. This explained why traditional varieties yield way too low per acreage. In the 1970's, the International Rice Research Institute released new rice varieties, one of which was dubbed  the 'miracle' rice. The rice plants grew up to only knee high, and were resistant to shattering. Being stout and short, normally the plants were able to support the grains at booting until up to harvest. True to its name, a huge increase in yield,  amazingly up to 10 times, were enjoyed by the farmers.

Scientists have developed ways to close in the gap between food production and the increasing global demand for food. They developed genetic engineering or recombinant DNA, a tool which radically changed the way scientists develop new and superior varieties of plants and animals. This technique cuts short generation times needed in the conventional breeding methods. In a nutschell, through this technology, scientists can source out good genes from different plant or animals species, and have them pieced together in a new breed, just like a designer jean. These newly-designed plant or animal varieties will go to the farmers' field or ranch for mass production. A visit to the produce aisle in any huge grocery, one could easily admire the good-looking red, green and yellow bell peppers, huge bright red seedless watermelon, huge ears of freshly-picked sweet corn, and a wide variety of potatoes and tomatoes. Many of them are designer products, now known as 'genetically-modified' crops.

In addition to designing high yielding varieties of crop plants, agriculture is taking a second look at promoting 'hanging gardens'. Vertical structures are built,  on each side, layers of  horizontal 'plots' are planted with crops. Growing some vegetables hang upside down is another practice in consideration.

It's not only the planting of crops that is affected by the shrinkage of agricultural lands. Raising cattle, lamb or goat suffers the same fate as ranches and grazing lands get smaller. As such,  animal breeders came up with rather grain-feeding instead of mostly grazing kinds. In the news lately, a scientist is trying to grow meat in the laboratory. Cultured meat, anyone? Why not?

It has become common practice now using stem cells  to replace certain defective adult body part.s On the same premise, one scientist is using myoblasts, the embryonic stem cells which give rise to the muscles in the body, to start with his meat culture. Pork myoblast for pork, beef myoblast for beef, lamb myoblast for lamb. A beef myoblast made to grow around a T-shaped streak of osteoblast (the stem cells for making bones) , given the right mix of growth substances.... voila, a T-bone steak!  So why raise a whole cow when one needs only the meat? This is called tissue engineering!

Engineering has infiltrated and significantly re-designed the architectural lansdcape of  biological science. There is genetic engineering, protein engineering, food engineering, tissue engineering... Engineering will continue to adulterate the minds of biologists in response to the increasing challenge of life sustainability  amidst the different adversities.

An image in my crystal ball, I see  'green' humans and animals in the future. No, am not thinking about Shrek or the green-haired ompa lompas! Another brave-new-world scenario is predicted where humans and other animals are engineered to contain chlorophyll in their skins instead of or in addition to the usual melanin. This seems very interesting and, apparently, a win-win situation . Imagine, our body producing food through photosynthesis as we walk or jog under the morning sun! We won't go hungry then! Probably thirsty, as the body's demand for water may be doubled - in photosynthesis and perspiration!

A Tribute To A Dear Mother

'The future destiny of a child is always the work of the mother'
                                                                    ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

I love my nanay. She is one woman I adored a lot! She has all my respect and admiration. She is a no ordinary person. She is my mother!

I am so glad and privileged  having our great mother still with us in this mortal journey. Though kinda frail as the years keep taking some serious toll on her health, I could sense how proud she is watching  the family, she and my late father started, branching out. I am sure, with a sharp memory at her age, she could still keep track of her greatgrandchildren! She is a picture of a 'self-accomplished' woman, emulated by many as a 'mother like no other'. 

My nanay, though may be considered as 'uneducated' in today's standard,  is not an unintelligent person. She possesses a sharp vision (literally, after the removal her cataracts) which she shared with my father. That vision was for the future of her children, who were born into this earth with nothing but their parental love. To us her children, she was the beacon which carries the light as we  navigated through our waters in conquering ignorance and uncertainty. And today, she stands as our guiding post, a spring of inspiration as we  continue to walk though life with our respective families.

My nanay's bio may well be worth  making it through the story board of a tear-jerking movie. Born and raised by a single mother, she was orphaned at an early age. She was left under the care of an uncle until about her early teens and was later on moved to live with another uncle until she was 16. Her growing up years was characteristically arduous, and it did not get any better living during theWorld War II. These unwelcome predicaments though turned her into a strong woman as she developed tenacity and resilience - strengths which made her through life's difficulties and adversities.

She got married at age 16, after a whirlwind romance which ended up in an altar date in a war time. Just as she gained independence from her uncle's ward, her life transitioned into a more complicated one when they started a family. Babies came.. one, another one, then another one....after another one, ten total! In my present situation, I could not imagine raising ten kids, nurturing them to become responsible individuals, and  help securing for their future. They did. I came a little later in the family pipeline, six siblings before me. Life was not easy for me. Must be extremely difficult for my parents!

The abyssmal situation we're in could not bring down our family any further. When  one hits the rock bottom, there's no other way but up!   Nanay went through a kind of life she did not want us to experience. This was her vision,  one which she shared and worked out along with our father. Not an easy one! Hardships, sacrifices, sweat, tears and ,yes,  tons of persistence and resilience- these spiced up the road our family trekked. To many, it is a road less traveled. If anyone in our family lacked the strength and the tenacity to endure, one could've broken loose and be bound to continual poverty.  And we could have not done it all without the generosity of so many people who believed in my parents' vision and did see our strong determination to succeed.

Truth to reckon, our nanay's earthly journey is like a late afternoon sun. Sooner or later, sunset will come. I find it so rewarding having her with us until this time. I know she's rightfully seated on the pinnacle of her life. The bittersweet memories of the arduously tortuous good-old-days in her ascent to the summit are awe-inspiring. We draw so much inspiration from them, and we are always proud to share them with anybody.

To my dear nanay, this one is for you as you welcome and celebrate another year of your life! Yours is a life well-lived! Happy Birthday!!

Signs Of The Time

Just very lately, birds falling from the skies in Beebe, Arkansas just about after new year's day was first reported. Then similar cases of astonishing birds dying and falling were reported in Louisiana, spreading to Kentucy, Texas and even about halfway across the globe, in Sweden  and Italy, and reportedly  somewhere over in Australia. This mysterious incidence of birds kill, dubbed as 'aflockalypse', puzzled biologists and ornithologists. At about the same time, massive tilapia fish kill  (about 150 tons) was reported in Vietnam and about 40,000 crabs were washed up in the shorelines of England!

Incidents of massive death (i.e fish kills, bird falling) did occur in the past. Scientists thought that 'trauma caused by fireworks' during the new years eve revelry or damage due to 'high-altitude hail', among others, may be the culprit. The search for the explanation for these incidence, however, is far from over. However, some people out there, among them the 'self-proclaimed prophets' are quick to say that these mysterious events are few indicators of the second coming of the Lord. One 'prophet' boldly said that the death of the birds is caused by the current repeal of the Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) policy in the military which displeased the Lord.

In Australia, a massive flooding in areas as big as the state of Texas, has caused deaths and extensive damage to the area. Power supplies were out and communication system knocked out in some areas. Strong water currents brought down bridges, washing away sidewalks and kept people isolated. Severe flooding was also reported in  Bangladesh. Here at home, monstrous snowstorms came one after the other, causing power outages in area where snow accumulated to massive amounts that knocked down power lines and caused loss of some lives.

It would be a small wonder that these events could be attributed as one of the signs of the time.

Several reasons could be cited to possibly cause deaths of birds - bad weather, high tension line collisions, electrocutions, diseases caused by parasite infestation or bacterial infection to name a few. Indeed, this could be a sign of the time. That natural selection is going on, as it has been since life begun.

Cataclysmic events are part of the daily affairs of the earth. Vocanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes and, yes, floodings. The increasing global climate is thought to be the major trigger of the flooding And scientists warn that this could just be a prelude to the future. Natural calamities are one  set of agents that can, likewise, lead to natural selection.

Viewed from either the mystical or the natural vantage points, these events can be considerably argued as signs of the times. To me, they represent part of the continuing process of natural selection, which is the major driving force of evolution!

As the Years Keep Coming

I came into this earth filled with nothing. Completely unclothed, unlearned, helpless! Also, completely dependent on other people.  All through the past 50 years of my life, I learned to live as the years kept coming. I learned that life is not fair. Life is, at times, a wonderful and beautiful bliss. Other times, it is filled with brazen and ruthless indignations. 'Life is what we make it', a friend told me when, at one time, I was wallowing in self pity. True, indeed! But not all the time. Historically, life endured catastrophes of seismic proportions before humans walked on the face of this planet. And the string of cataclysmic events will continue the daunting task of natural selection, either they are nature's unwelcome wrath or as consequence of human's rampant and selfish indiscretions.

So while there was no instruction manual that came with my birth, I learned to live my life, thanks to the evolution of parental instinct - the care of the young. I know my parents would hate me and label me  ingrate for equating the attention and the love they showered upon me to instinct. For it is all instinct, only an exaggerated type!

And then cultures and traditions evolved, becoming more complex with  human evolution. Their origins were quite ambiguous. Many of them based on early human imaginings and perceptions about what, later on, seemed to be ordinary events in nature. Some of them are evolutionary legacy bequeathed by those who came before us. Deities, superstitions, myths all popular in the not-so-distant past have continued to contaminate some of the cultures and traditions that were handed down to our present generation. There is an apparent admixture of  truths, half-truths and myths in the social environment I grew up. I must admit, with a brain like an empty memory computer, my brain took all of what'd been fed on me  as truths - sinker, hook and line. No questions asked. By then, my cerebral cortex was not completely ready to sort out those that make sense from those that don't! And these endlessly continued to inundate my innocent brain as the years kept coming.

Belief systems are part of the traditions humans continue to hold. There is a parade of gods listed in the Roman and Greek mythology books. Fancy celebrations were held and lavish offerings were offered to honor their sacredness. And there is the God of the bible, Allah of the Qu'ran, or some Higher Beings in other religions. Growing up, I started to grasp faith, to a point that I grappled to it so tightly,  and into believing that God is the great provider of everything! There was a time I was deeply indoctrinated that I felt the inner peace and harmony within myself. Ahh the god gene at work! Heaven on earth! But that was ephemeral. My brain, later, was engaged in some higher order functions and questions started queuing up. Time has come to pass the ' faith does not give answers but it just stops me from asking questions' mode.  And I can no longer take the 'God works in mysterious ways' end of it.

Logic and critical thinking, two attributes that positioned man on top of the animal kingdom. Two mental faculties that emancipated man from the empowering clout of ignorance. I hate to say this but I am inclined to believe that 'Ignorance of nature gave birth to gods. The knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them'. For a long time, the Catholic Church advocated the earth-centered universe, that the earth is only about 10,000 years old, that the species is immutable. Things have changed. Science has provided and will continue to provide logical expanations to events in nature,  events used  to be considered mysterious in the past. Mysterious events may continue to appear or be reported but that does not mean they really are mysterious. For nature is light years away ahead of the human intellect. And so, the explanations will come in due time. Long before scientists were able to combine genes from different species, nature was already engaged in genetic engineering! With the loads of new information endlessly surfacing, I thought I need to re-examine my faith and the belief system I am in. And this I will do as the years  keep coming.

Goodbye 2010 and Welcome 2011!

Two thousand ten (2010) has just faded to history. Here I am, trying to bring back to mind the highlights of the year gone by and how it influenced, in anyway, my life, socially, spiritually,  and professionally. It is kinda hard to remember the events as they unfolded, especially if each day just seemed to be not unlike any other passing day.

Thanks to social networking apps like facebook, I got the chance to reconnect with a lot of people- relatives, former students, former classmates and friends from the world over. It feels great to get some updates from them, after years of temporal separation. Nothing was even sweeter than the opportunity to visit my younger sister and her family in Toronto, Canada, after eleven long years. In Toronto, I met new relatives who were warm and gracious. I also got the chance to visit few old friends. I accompanied my wife to her faculty development meeting in San Diego, CA.  While in there, I got the chance to visit fellow Plaridelians around the area, met their extended families, and experienced their warm hospitality. More hometown (Plaridelian) friends we were connected to when my family spent the Christmas holidays in Houston. Our visit with them was very pleasant and memorable as we made more friends in the parties we went to. In addition, we got the chance to swing by a family in Houston we knew so well back to my post-doc days in Kansas State University. Of course, our facebook friends list gets longer. Late this year, when I was about to turn 50, I developed strong interest in blogging. Blogging has become an outlet for me to express opinions, all of my own. I looked forward to having a blog published every week.

My spiritual life took a topsy-turvy turn as the year was unfolding. As it seems now, my belief system is sitting on a shaky ground. Recently, I've been reading the atheist's views as I have been in continuous search of the rationality of faith and reason. I know this sounds eccentric and weird. My take is... as I get older, I become more inclined in the mechanistic rather than vitalistic point of view of things. All through the years, I've fed myself enough with information related to spirituality. Now is the time to explore the other side. Many things just don't make sense. And these are just  left to 'the god of the gap' to be a piece and at peace with sense and sensibility. Being informed requires a second look at things (practices, beliefs, etc) that have been held for a long time. The powerful human intellect has unearthed volumes of novel  information which never existed when traditional belief systems flourished back to the days. It gives new meaning to the saying 'examine your conscience'.

On the professional note, 2010 was a highly productive year for me as a teacher. Two semesters and two summer sessions of teaching gave me the opportunity to reach out and mentor to about 300 sudents. Teaching as a job is a lifetime vocation. It requires being abreast knowing the tricks of dealing effectively with the millennials. As such, I was privileged to attend a professional development on teaching excellence and leadership. I find it quite delightful and gratifying  as a teacher, to be able to inspire a few students among so many who just want to get  high grades without exerting some efforts on their part. And I get this clue when these few students wish to take more of my classes and from the rumors that spread around the  campus student world. Of course, I take so much pride hearing from my students from the not-so-distant past,  some now famed medical doctors, college professors, high school teachers, or somebody respected in their chosen professions - all telling me I was a bit part, no matter how small, of who they are now. From them I draw the inspiration which energizes my proclivity to continue to teach and inspire few students at a time.

Overall, 2010 was a wonderful year! 

I am person of the present. I take lessons from yesterday to make my today a little better. I could care less about the details for  tomorrow. For no one knows what the future holds. 

For 2011, I will just embrace what each day brings...

Happy New Year everyone!