MY friend Ammie and I were discussing the renovation she’s doing on her house.
“It seems to me that my family and I can’t move into our ‘new house’ before June 15. I wanted it to happen before school opens. I don’t want to drive back and forth from this house we’re temporarily renting to our own house, moving our stuff back in.”
“If I were a teacher, I might ask you what you learned.”
“So, you learned that learning to learn is a matter of focusing on something.”
“I have learned how to be a manager: assess carpenters, monitor the progress of the work, and all. I had to keep my focus.”
“And that this ‘moving in day’ delay is God’s will. I will have to submit to it,” she said.
“I see delays as a window that God opens—or it’s just plain delay and nothing more.”
She stopped long enough to sip her brewed coffee. “It’s man looking for meaning to everything that happens to him.”
I said, “Some people spend their whole life looking for meaning. I used to be like that, spending most of my teen years asking the ‘why’ questions. Then I graduated from university and found work. I learned that real life is outside the campus, and that too much looking inward was a sign of selfishness. I didn’t want to be selfish, so I learned to look at others instead, and I became a happier person.”
“So what can we learn about the Maute uprising and Martial Law that President Digong Duterte (Du30) imposed on Mindanao on May 23?”
“I’m not a political analyst. I learned that Pinoys indeed have brief memory. We forget easily so we can cope with the hardships, harshness and horrors of life.”
“Are you afraid of making an opinion? That’s what I learned about the Maute uprising. Some people are afraid of saying something that might sound like an affront on Du30, and get bashed,” Ammie said.
“I’m not afraid; I just don’t go to wars I didn’t declare, or dare where wise men fear to tread.”
“What else do you know now?”
“I learned that addiction to anything is easily formed. I’m into game apps Township and Farmville Tropic Escape. Just a few days of playing has me hooked. I have to force myself to get back my life. Think how tightly drugs, sex, love of money, need for power and so on can get hold of a person trapped in that pit.”