The Reasons I Write
Abercio V. Rotor, Ph.D.
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| "Thoughts come beautifully in the morning of a new day - and a new life." Painting (36"x48") by Dr AV Rotor. Courtesy of former Congressman DV Savellano of the First District of Ilocos Sur |
Twenty-two years ago I was scheduled to deliver a response being the author of a book published by the University of Santo Tomas, Light from the Old Arch. My daughter Anna stood before the audience on that occasion and gave the response while I was recuperating in the hospital. Since that day, and everyday thereafter I would rise before the sun does, and write my thoughts. Thoughts come beautifully in the morning of a new day - and a new life.
It was then that I began to understand who and what is to be a
writer, and why should one write.
I read the book Walden Pond of Henry David Thoreau, a treatise
of man and society. How powerful is the theme of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea. I did not expect how his life tragically ended had I not
read what Van Gogh did when “he had painted everything”, except death. Hellen
Keller wrote If I Were Given Three Days to See, guided by an inner
light, so with John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost, and later Paradise
Regained when he was already blind. How could Rachel Carson have
written Silent Spring if she didn’t see Nature like a woman
being raped and trampled?
. I write because I believe in Robert Ruark’s Something of
Value. He said: “If a man does away with his traditional way
of living and throws away his good customs, he had better first make certain
that he has something of value to replace them.”
· I write because I am fascinated by the folklores and fairy tales of Severino
Reyes (a.k.a. Lola Basiang). I imagine around a campfire, our ancestors
recounting their experiences, rich in imagination and superstition. It was a
prototype "open university".
·
I write because I believe in the timelessness of Christ lessons in parables - The
Sermon on the Mount, The Prodigal Son, the Sower, The Good Samaritan -
these and many more, which continue to live in the home, school, and pulpit as
it persisted in the catacombs in the beginnings of Christianity.
· I write because I value basic scientific discoveries such as the Pythagorean
Theorem (all philosophies are resolved by the relations of numbers),
the Law of Buoyancy from Archimedes, the Ptolemaic concept
of the universe later modified by the Copernican model, Philosophy of
Aristotle of Natural History, not to mention the Hippocratic Oath,
the ethics that guide doctors in their practice of medicine, which our modern
doctors adhere to this day.
· I write about history of civilization, tradition and heritage. Other than the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, remote and lesser ancient civilizations like the Aztecs and the Mayas had their own cultural heritage, so have we in our humble ways. Panday Pira attests to early warfare technology, the Code of Kalantiao, an early codification of law and order, the Herbolario, who to the present is looked up with authority as village doctor. And of course, we should not fail to mention the greatest manifestation of our architectural genius and grandiose aesthetic sense – the Banawe Rice Terraces.
. I write because I want to preserve the sweet memories of childhood. Like many boys in my time, boyhood could not have been spent in any better way without the science fictions of Jules Vernes – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in Eighty Days– and the adventures of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It is the universality of human thoughts and values that is the key to the timelessness of tradition.
· I write
about children’s stories. I wonder with awe at the determination of the Grimm
Brothers roaming the villages of Europe as the Dark Age began to light up, the
two scholars retrieving the fragments and remnants of stories that survived the
darkest period of history of mankind. And what do we know? These stories,
together with the stories from the 1001 Arabian Nights, and those
of Hans Christian Anderson have kept the flame of human hope and joy alive in
cradles, around the hearth, and by the bedside.
. I write because I often ask myself if it is only truth that can withstand
the test of time. Or, if only events that really happened constitute history.
And if there were any tinge that these stories were based on the culture of a
people in their own time, would we not find them too, we who live on the other
side of the globe and in another time?
· I write to explore and retrieve traditional knowledge from records of the
past, archaeology, and testimonies of old folks. It is indeed an enormous task
not only what but how we can gather the fragments of knowledge,
distinguish facts from myths, reality from imagination, and draw out the
threads of wisdom and weave them into a fabric we call science. Today with
modern science and technology, we create virtual reality scenarios on the screen
and dioramas, reliving the past and delivering them right in the living room,
in the school and community.
· I write to rediscover indigenous knowledge and folk wisdom. Even beliefs
and practices, which we may not be able to explain scientifically, are
important materials for research. If in our judgment they fail to meet such
test, still they are valuable to us because they are part of our culture and
they contribute immensely to the joy and quaintness of living.
· I write because I am inspired by the beautiful novel Swiss Family
Robinson by Johann Wyss written nearly two centuries ago about a
family stranded in an unknown island somewhere near New Guinea, During the many
years they lived on the island, they learned to adapt to a life entirely
disconnected from society and devoid of the amenities of modern living. When finally,
they were rescued, the family chose to stay on the island – except the younger son
who wished to go back home to England to study, promising that he would return
to the island someday.
· I write because of similar stories of the same plot such as Robinson
Crusoe, a classic novel by Daniel Defoe, and lately, Castaway,
a modern version of a lone survivor shown on the screen. We can only imagine
what we could have done if we were the survivors ourselves.
· I write because I hope to help stop the tide of exodus of people moving into cities, whether in one’s own country or abroad, and the lure that is so great nearly half of the world’s population is now living in urban centers. Ironically the present population explosion is not being absorbed by the rural areas but by cities, bloating them into metropolises and megapolises where millions of people as precariously and uncomfortably ensconced. And now globalization is bringing us all to one village linked in cyberspace and shrunk in distance by modern transportation. We have indeed entered the age of global homogenization and worldwide acculturation.
· I write to take a good look and compare ourselves with our ancestors from
the viewpoint of how life is well lived. Were our ancestors happier and more
contented in life? Did they have more time for themselves and with their
family, and more things to share with their community? Were they endowed - more
than we are - with the good life brought about by the bounty and beauty of
nature?
· I write to raise these questions that analyze ten major concerns about living.
In the midst of socio-cultural and economic transformation from traditional to
modern to globalization - an experience that is sweeping all over the world
today. These concerns serve as
parameters to know how well we are "living with life,” particularly
on these ten aspects.
1.
Simple lifestyle
2.
Environment-friendly
3.
Peace of mind
4.
Functional literacy
5.
Good health and longer active life
6.
Family and community commitment
7.
Self-managed time
8.
Self-employment
9.
Cooperation (bayanihan) and unity
10.
Sustainable development
·
Twenty-two years ago, I began to gather and put into writing many things about
living, particularly living with nature, which is the theme of my series of
books. Primarily these are ethnic or indigenous, socio-cultural, and ecological
oriented, including their commonalities with those in other countries,
particularly in Asia, in their local versions and adaptations. I wonder at the
richness of cultures shared between and among peoples and countries even in
early times. Ironically postmodernism has set tradition far apart, and many of
these beliefs and practices have been either lost or forgotten, and even those
that have survived have no guarantee in the future.
Twenty-two years ago I was scheduled to deliver a response being the author of a book published by the University of Santo Tomas, Light from the Old Arch. My daughter Anna stood before the audience on that occasion and gave the response while I was recuperating in the hospital. Since that day, and everyday thereafter I would rise before the sun does, and write my thoughts. Thoughts come beautifully in the morning of a new day - and a new life. ~
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