Wednesday, January 30, 2008 Getting out of poverty By Henrylito D. Tacio Regarding Henry
HENRY Ward Beecher readily admits, "Poverty is very good in poems, but it is very bad in a house. It is very good in maxims and sermons, but it is very bad in practical life."
So ask why? American statesman Benjamin Franklin has this answer: "Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright." A Latin proverb considers poverty as "death in another form."
On second thought, however, poverty is no hindrance to success.
Take the case of Serapion S. Metilla, the country's foremost expert on bonsai. He was born in 1928 in Tudela, Cebu, and the sixth of nine children. The family was so poor that when their teacher asked them a day before their graduation what their ambitions were, he never knew.
Here how Metilla recalled that day: "One of my classmates said she wanted to be a teacher so that she could help educate the poor people. Hearing her ambition, everyone clapped his or her hands. Another said he wanted to be an engineer while the third classmate dreamed of becoming a medical doctor. Several other occupations were mentioned like nurse, mayor, businessman, etc. Every time one mentioned his or her ambition, all of us clapped.
"When it was my turn, I just stood up but dumfounded. With truth and honesty in mind, I couldn't imagine how I will be able to acquire a higher education knowing there were no high schools or college institutions in all four municipalities of Camotes Island. Only those who can afford to pursue higher studies can go to Cebu City, which would take two days and one night by sailboat. My thoughts focused on our very poor family - with a 'no read, no write' mother and a father who can just barely read and write the local dialect."
But poverty did not deter Metilla to dream. He worked as a houseboy in Cebu City just to be able to study high school. And again, because of poverty, the Metillas moved to Bansalan, Davao del Sur through the Sacada, a government program offering lands to the landless people coming from the Visayas and Luzon.
God works in mysterious ways, indeed. When the teenager Metilla read a news item that emergency teachers were wanted in the province to be assigned anywhere and that high school graduates may apply, he immediately went to Davao City to take the qualifying exam.
Metilla was hired and taught in Dalawinon until he passed the civil service exam in 1955. And it was while teaching in Dalawinon that he started appreciating miniature plants. "I used to plant them in tin cans placed on the veranda ledge. Probably because of the limit of soil, they became dwarfed," he says.
Later on, Metilla came to know the art of bonsai. And because of his knowledge on bonsai growing and ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arrangement), he was able to travel not only in various parts of the country, but in such countries as Australia, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam.
"My principle in life is to work hard to achieve the goals not minding hardships, poverty and criticisms," he says. "I found out that poverty is not a hindrance to success, most especially if you put pride out of your mind."
Metilla words remind me of the statement of Hosea Ballou. It goes this way: "Few things in this world more trouble people than poverty, or the fear of poverty; and, indeed, it is a sore affliction; but, like all other ills that flesh is heir to, it has its antidote, its reliable remedy. The judicious application of industry, prudence and temperance is a certain cure."
