splendid moonlight

Sendong brought heavy rains to Cebu a few days ago and I, together with a few friends, were caught up in one of its little arms of fury traveling from Mactan Island back to Cebu City from the beach at about 6 PM. It was one scary ride and being paranoid of storms ever since bagyong Roping hit Cebu about 20 years ago, I was beginning to doubt whether we would reach our destination. Memories of being away from my immediate family during a storm that howled at night came flooding back.

Our car windows kept fogging up and we could hardly see beyond 2 - 3 meters outside (I'm very bad at estimating distance, for sure it was nowhere near clear as a normal day). But as we neared our destination, the heavy downpour and strong winds began to subside and I breathed a sigh of relief. Sadly for the people of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, the worst was yet to come.

Call me sentimental, but due to my nature and perhaps coupled with certain hormonal changes that occur on a consistent basis, I have shed tears more than a few times just thinking about the victims of Sendong; and knowing that whatever sorrow I feel over the catastrophe is nothing compared to theirs further wrenches my soul.

Aside from almost overwhelming sadness over what happened, I feel irked at the same time. I have read comments on the internet of people reacting to Sendong saying how they have nothing to complain about, how they are so exceedingly blessed to be alive today. I think it's very nice to appreciate life, I mean, truly, it’s very nice and there’s nothing wrong with it per se, but imagine saying that in front of all those people who have recently lost their love ones from the flash floods and you come off as tactless and pompous, even heartless. It reminds me of a phrase that was a huge hit years ago "ikaw na la'y pinangga sa Ginoo".

Although I was relieved that Cebu was safe, I cannot find it in my heart to say we are more special. In the light of what happened, it is not the time to bring out in particular the topic of how God loves you.

It is, however, time to make changes, to take a stand. The devastating effects of Sendong could have been minimized in more than a few ways including if there were leaders who were true advocates of the people.

Until such time that we choose our actions and decisions carefully, mistakes that could've been avoided will be made again. I'm not merely talking about voting wisely. I'm talking about making decisions - whether everyday decisions or huge decisions - that really matter; the results of which we may never see because they have such far-reaching effects; decisions that future generations can benefit from and take advantage of.

When Jose Rizal said that the youth is the hope of our nation, I don't think he merely meant that the youth will run the country or that the youth will solve the problems of the generation before them. I think he meant that the youth shall be the culmination of our dreams, or most of our dreams, come true - of everything we did right today so that whatever bad or evil befalls them during their time they have a better capacity to know what to do and a better capacity to lead mankind towards other adventures. Sounds very idealistic, but a girl can always dream and hope for a better future.

On a side note, I do not mean to insult religious people out there. But there are those who can memorize more lines from the Bible than they can be tactful - something somewhat surprising as tactfulness does not require a lot of memorization and should be easier. “Tact is the intelligence of the heart,” someone once said.

Indeed sometimes people, and I do not exclude myself from this, can get too preoccupied with what God can do for them rather than what they can do for God through his people.