Sunday, March 31, 2024

Cryptobiology: Evolving Art in Driftwood (Article in Progress)

Evolving Art Series 15 
Cryptobiology* in Driftwood Art
Is the mythical Hydra a true creature?

Dr Abe V Rotor


Cryptobiology: Study of creatures around myths and beliefs 
*Cryptobiology is the study of cryptids, creatures around which myths exist but whose current existence has never been verified. Some famous cryptids include bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, and the chupacabra. Cryptids are elusive creatures that dance on the fringes of human perception, whose existence has not been proven by science, but has been reported by many eye-witnesses. Modern science has proved the existence to creatures that existed only in imagination and fantasy.

Evolving Art Series 16 
Ghost of the Galleon in Driftwood 

Dr Abe V Rotor

"The longest trading fleet over two centuries,
across two oceans, linking three continents,
riding on wind currents, gyres and eddies, 
imprimatur then of power and wealth." - avr

Saturday, March 30, 2024

Easter 2024 Reflection: 25 Ways to cope up with great loss

Easter 2024* Reflection:
25 Ways to cope up with great loss

Dr Abe V Rotor

“Every day is a renewal, every morning the daily miracle. This joy you feel is life.” — Gertrude Stein

“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness.”- Floyd W. Tomkins:

 At one time or another, we face the harsh reality following the loss of a loved one, or something very important, such as job, property, elective position, court case. Here are some ways to overcome deep feelings arising from such great loss.

Pieta by Michelangelo: Mary and her dead son Jesus, a scene of the deepest grief and pain of a mother. 
  1. Turn to friends and family members
  2. Plan ahead for grief “triggers.”
  3. Get enough sleep or at least enough rest.
  4. Try and maintain some type of a normal routine.
  5. Remember that regular exercise helps relieve stress and tension.
  6. Eat a balanced diet. Limit high calorie and junk food. Drink plenty of water.
  7. Avoid using alcohol, medications or other drugs in excess or to mask the pain.
  8. Do those things and be with those people who comfort, sustain and recharge you.
  9. Find creative ways - journal, paint, photograph, build, woodwork, quilt, knit, collage or draw to express intense feelings.
  10. Remember coping skills you have used to survive past losses. Draw upon these inner strengths again.
  11. Draw comfort from your faith
  12. Join a support group
  13. Talk to a therapist or grief counselor
  14. Be kind to others.
  15. Perform random acts of kindness.
  16. Volunteer your services or skills. Offer your assistance to someone in need.
  17. Express your feelings in a tangible or creative way
  18. Talk to others, especially those who have lived through and survived similar experiences.
  19. Create a Memorial or a Foundation
  20. Plant a tree or flowers in a garden in memory of the person.
  21. Donate money, time, food, clothing or other needed items.
  22. Donate to a charity, homeless shelter, home for abused women.
  23. Donate blood at your local blood center.
  24. Write sympathy and condolence notes, letters of encouragement and support to those affected by the loss.
  25. Remember to tell your loved ones, friends and family how much you care about them often.
Please add cases you may have encountered to this list.  Share this lesson with your family, friends, and  followers and viewers of this blog and its extension: 
avrotor.blogspot.com and 
Naturalism - the Eighth Sense.

Apo Resurreccion - Life size icon of the Risen Christ at the author's residence, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Josh McDowell:
“No matter how devastating our struggles, disappointments, and troubles are, they are only temporary. No matter what happens to you, no matter the depth of tragedy or pain you face, no matter how death stalks you and your loved ones, the Resurrection promises you a future of immeasurable good.”

Reference: Healthy Living, HelpGuide Org, Internet
LESSON on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio DZRB 738 KHz 8 to 9 evening, Monday to Friday


Where has the fisherboy gone?

                                      Where has the fisherboy gone? 

Dr Abe V Rotor

By the stream under a tree (wall mural detail) in acrylic by the author

By a stream on a rock ledge many a dream grew with the water flowing, the clouds rising, the breeze whispering in a nearby tree, its shade creating images of art and fantasy.

Hours lazily passed, but how short was a day fishing, from sunrise to noon and back again when the fish would return, the bamboo pole suddenly becoming heavy with a big catch.   

Other boys join the cheer, the louder the bigger the fish was, or fading with a whimper when it got away, and it was always "the big fish that got away," an adage of every fisher folk.

Away from town, away from school, away from home for a while - this freedom in innocence and adventure, the elders would call laziness, stubbornness and aimlessness in growing up.

Boys don't know the difference grownups want them to be, but wait for their own time, when childhood yields to the demands of the world, the world though big is "prison" to grownups. 

They too, were children before - the "man in the boy" comes later when there are no more big fish to catch, the tree has overgrown the rock ledge and other boys are longer around. 

Like birds migrating and returning, season after season in Vivaldi's refrain, and Mozart's lament, life goes on in rhythm, but time couldn't wait, while dreams sought for reality. 

There are many fish in the world, the biggest to catch always a dream - fame, ideas, wealth, sacrifice, honor, popularity - aiming at these to the end, in triumph, surrender or defeat. 

Years later a man in gray hair appeared, he saw a familiar boy fishing, his thoughts seemed far away, his fishing pole bending to his excitement, then snapped - it was the big fish that got away. ~

Thursday, March 28, 2024

A Practical Exercise on Admiring People

 A Practical Exercise on Admiring People 

 "Tell me the people you admire and I'll tell you who you are." 
Dr Abe V Rotor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ad·mire
ədˈmī(ə)r/ verb = regard (an object, quality, or person) with respect or warm approval. Example: "I admire your courage

Synonyms:esteem, approve of, respect, think highly of, rate highly, hold in high regard, applaud, praise, commend, acclaim 
  1.                            ------------------------------------------------------------------------
More than the definition given by most dictionaries, there is something deeper when we admire somebody.  It is a way of saying thank you, in silent gratitude.  It is modeling a person whose character has influenced us.  It is bringing back values in deference to ethics and morals, through a person (e.g., Nelson Mandela (photo) as an epitome of leadership), or a thing (e.g., Statue of Liberty). Or a significant event like the end of the Cold War. 

But in this exercise we will focus on admiring people. Admiring is perhaps the most positive expression a person can offer.  It may be as simple as a prayer, or candid as a citation. It is emulation; it is inspiration. We live with it everyday the whole of our rational life. When we admire, our thoughts turn positive, our pulse slows down, our face shines a smile that emanates from deep inside. Because admiration comes from the heart and soul. Which is its true proof and measure.

Here is an exercise you can conduct in your class, among your peers, or in an outreach group in your community.  You can start at home. 

Procedure

Take a break after reading the procedure of this exercise. 

With a piece of paper, ask and join your audience or class to write the names of ten persons (real), whom they most admire. This will take ten minutes.  Conduct the exercise in complete silence. Because it is an individual exercise conferring should be avoided. You may provide a suitable music background, such as Mozart music; it is therapeutic (Mozart Effect). It is conducive to reflection and analysis.  

Review your work before continuing with this exercise.
Pope Francis - breaking centuries old traditions of the church
  
Can you identify who these persons are? (Answer below) Bonus of one point each. Add to your score.

Analysis 
There are five levels to which you classify the people you listed.
  • great men and women, living and dead  - 5
  • successful persons in their respective fields  - 4
  • members of the family, other relatives - 3
  • friends and colleagues - 2 
  • personalities, characters, in the entertainment world - 1 
Classify each person accordingly and give his or her due score. Get the total. 

Rating 
41 - 50   You are intelligent, idealistic, optimistic, success-conscious. 
              Admiring is  emulating
31 - 40   You are also success-conscious, friendly, loving and lovable. 
              Admiring is sharing,  
21 - 30   You are OK; you belong to the 60 percent in a population. 
              You can get well in life and with people. 
              Admiring is spontaneous  
20 and below  - You need to review what you admire in people, 
              and what people admire in you. 
              Admiring is formative (it can be improved)  
------------------------------------------------------
In December 1999, a survey came up with a list of 18 people from the 20th century who are "most admired" (Internet):
  • Mother Teresa.
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • John F. Kennedy.
  • Albert Einstein.
  • Helen Keller.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  • Billy Graham.
  • Pope John Paul II.
------------------------------------------------------
Photos
Nelson Mandela (top)
Fr James Reuter SJ with the author behind; Albert Einstein playing the violin, Rizal as a teenager (left and right, respectively)

Meditation Moods in Photographs

                               Meditation Moods in Photographs  

Dr Abe V Rotor

Old fisherman mending seine net at Barangay Camindoroan, San Juan, Ilocos Sur.

 I wonder what his thoughts are at his age.  Could he be thinking like the old man in Ernest Hemingway's famous novel, The Old Man and rthe Sea?  Why, he is still hoping to catch the biggest fish in his life.  The fact is, he already did.  The biggest fish in life.  That is, peace of mind  (Circa 2002)

A centenarian Paulinian sister writing a diary 

I took this photo at the St Paul of Chartres Vigil House which was formerly on the St Paul University campus in QC where I taught for several years. She told me she was listing down her activities for the day.  Then in the afternoon, she says, she would check and record what she was able to do.  But more importantly she was writing a diary. (Circa 1996)


 Candid photograph of a student in a very sad mood.  

I learned that she was still adjusting to a new environment away from home in the province. Studying in Manila is indeed a great sacrifice and may take time for young people like her to cope up with college life and living in a big city. (St Paul University, formerly St Paul College QC, circa 1997)     

Moving to a new home with his pet bird

What will their new home be? We can only guess what's in the mind of this young boy. Apparently his concern for his pet is great, and full of anxiety. Reverence for life that starts at a young age actually builds strong character. (Circa 1980)   

Lady standing dangerously on ledge  

I took this picture of a woman standing at the edge of a ledge over a river in Bangkok, in 2010.  She had been standing there for some time, apparently immersed in deep thoughts.  I didn't have the time to know what happened afterward. ~

Monday, March 25, 2024

Quo vadis, Homo? Where are we humans going?

 Quo vadis, Homo?

Where are we humans going?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Auguste Rodin's The Thinker
Quo vadis, Homo sapiens? Where is man gong?

A young man who was in love asked the computer, “What is love?”

Whereupon, came a prompt answer – in a number of definitions, technical and literary.

“How does it feel to be in love?” the young man continued. This time the computer did not respond. He entered his query once more, but still there was no response. After several attempts, the computer finally gave up, and printed: I cannot feel.

Spending more time with the computer deprives millions, mostly children, of participating in health promoting games and resistance-building exposure in nature. Our children are no longer children of nature; they are captives of education and media, of malls and cafes.

They like to think that the mind is like the computer, that the more information it acquires the better it is to the person.

This is not so. Not when it pertains to health, not with the ability to arrive at correct decisions, not when and where survival is needed. And not when it comes to matters of love.

And here are our children spending most of their waking hours with an “intelligent” thing in the shape of a box, a thing that has no feeling at all!

Even when the computer can tell us of all kinds of ailments in the world, it cannot comfort us. It cannot cure us. It will only worsen our allergies, our asthma.

It cannot reciprocate our friendship, our love, our compassion. Because a robot is a robot is a robot.

Diseases and many forms of human misery are masked by the Good Life. These are surreptitiously spreading around the world causing many complications, untold sufferings, and death. They turn into pandemic as they merge with other diseases – HIV-AIDS, obesity, diabetes, accidents, are becoming common cases.

The success of human beings and all living things today depends on fitness acquired through Evolution and Adaptation. Evolution refers to the “Survival of the Fittest,” through eons of time; while Adaptation is the ability of organisms to adjust to dynamic changes of the environment.

The Four Attributes of Man

• Homo sapiens “Man the Wise”
• Homo faber "Man the Maker” or “Working Man"
• Homo ludens “Playing Man” or "Sportsman"
• Homo spiritus “Praying Man” or "Reverent"

(Deus faber “God the Creator”) Should Man also play the role of God?

Homo sapiens, the Patient
(From The Men Who Play God by Dr Arturo B Rotor)

“Of all God’s creatures, there is no species more guilt-ridden, confused and self-destructive than man. Fear, remorse and frustration underlie his basic behavior probably as a result of his forbears having been driven out of the Garden of Eden…”

A corner of Eden, in acrylic by Abe V Rotor

“Man kills not for food, he eats when he is not hungry, he mates in and out of season. His suicidal tendencies are unique. While the lemmings drown themselves as a result of reduced food supplies, man will willingly cultivate cancer of his lungs by smoking poisonous plants, convert his liver into a hobnailed atrophic mass of dead tissues with alcohol, or remove himself from the control of his mind with narcotics…

“An important feature of his personality is that the more developed the creature and the more successful, the more likely is he to suffer of neurosis.” The genes bearing these characteristics have not been identified, but seems to be transmitted paternally and maternally.

“While among all other species, infection heads mortality and morbidity lists, among Homo sapiens, neurosis is the underlying cause of ninety percent of all illnesses.”

"As a matter of fact, in the big cities and centers of population, the archetype of the successful executive in the hypertensive, the ulcer-patient, the tranquilizer-dependent. We believe that for an in-depth study of tension or anxiety, in all its typical and atypical manifestations, man is a better subject to study than any other organism.”

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Triumph Over the Ebb of Life

 Triumph Over the Ebb of Life

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Victor E Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning                                                      
                                          
                                                      Dr Abe V Rotor

Ebb of Life wall mural in acrylic by the author at his residence, 
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur. 

Feature a person you personally know who triumphed in the midst of crisis. Cite his achievement and the lesson which we derive from him and his experience.

When suddenly we see a shooting star we grasp something to wish for. But before our thoughts are organized our lucky charm is gone.
 
There are times we search the sky for a speck of moving light, a wish ready at hand.  But the stars, thousands of them simply hang on flickering, and none of them falling out. When we are in this situation we must be in the Ebb of Life.  What is this strange land?

Soon enough we realize we are orphans of the universe.  An orphan often talks to himself, for there is no one else around.  He thinks and feels that the world has shrunk.  It is indeed a lonely place.

But this is the place where Michelangelo single handedly made his masterpiece, the huge paintings of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  In solitude and meditation he saw God, His angels and saints, and he made them models of his art.

It is here where Dr Jose P Rizal PHOTO wrote the famous Noli Me Tangere which ignited the Philippine Revolution.  He saw meaning in the death of a moth that singed into his lamp -  to become the symbol of martyrdom.     

Helen Keller, in her solace of total blindness wrote, If I were given three days to see, a moving essay which made people see the world better.  Frederick Handel composed The Messiah, the greatest religious composition ever made, without food and sleep for days.

Robert the Bruce, the great Scottish hero hid in a cave and learned his lessons on persistence and strategy from a spider while waiting for a chance to escape his pursuers.  Later he formed a huge army which defeated the English army, the latter to grant Scotland full independence.

What could have happened to Dantes, the count of Monte Cristo, in the novel of the same title by Alexander Dumas if he simply gave in to despair in the dungeon? From an old fellow prisoner he found wisdom in facing the harsh realities of life – and a secret of a hidden treasure. He escaped from prison, and with tremendous wealth, succeeded in avenging his plotters.  At the end of the story, he realized that revenge does not bring true peace.

Helen Keller
Here are other men and women who capitalized on the ebb of their lives to emerge with great achievements:

·         Victor E Frankl – Europe’s leading psychiatrist, founded a new theory, logotherapy, while detained in a Nazi concentration camp during WW II. He became the most significant modern thinker in the field of psychotherapy. His book Man’s Search for Meaning sold more than two millions copies.

Victor E Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
                                                                     
·        John Milton wrote Paradise Lost when he had normal eyesight and Paradise Regained after losing it.  His works comprise the greatest epic poem in English literature, a profound exploration of the moral problems of God’s justice, through the poet’s genius in fusing classicism and innovation, narrative and drama. 
·         
Captain Scott, the great English explorer, had already reached the South Pole, and was on the way back to camp when he and his team were caught in a blizzard. In freezing cold, He managed to write, “Had we lived, I would have had a tale of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman.  These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.”

·         Albert Schweitzer – philosopher, medical doctor, writer, teacher, philanthropist, musician, rolled into one, stands tall among the world’s greatest humanitarians. Instead of enjoying fame and the comfort of high society, he chose to spend most of his life in a remote village in the Dark Continent – Africa - healing the sick, spreading the gospel, fighting ignorance through education, and bridging the civilized and primitive world.
·      Florence Nightingale renounced “good life” in her native country, England, to join volunteers to serve in an army hospital during the Crimean War. It was extremely dangerous for women to be at the battlefront, but she persisted and brought to the eyes of the world the importance and dignity of the nursing profession. The Lady with a Lamp making her rounds among the wounded and sick to the wee hours became the symbol of nursing. 
                                                                                   Florence Nightingale
          Mahatma Gandhi, one-man against the British empire, underwent extreme personal sacrifice - from humiliation to self-impose fasting – until India was granted independence.    

There are many men and women who labored under great pains and odds, who rose to significance and fame.  And there are even more who lived and died like the Unknown Soldier.
Mahatma Gandhi, Man of the last Millenium

Young Darwin was a disgrace to his prominent family. He chose to be a naturalist defying his father wish to become a doctor. He suffered much at sea for nearly five years as a naturalist, lived in complete isolation because of his radical view of evolution which is contrary to the Doctrine of Creation. He was ridiculed as a monkey for this Ascent of Man, other publications of the same concept of evolution, notwithstanding.

Great works, great deeds, are distilled from hardship and misfortune.  They bring out the best in a person.  Often the battle is but our own, and the enemy is us, yet the victor is us, too.

It is no wonder that if we look up long enough, and think of the enormous reserve in us waiting to be tapped, while keeping faith in the Almighty to whom we owe it, all the stars will hang on shining and twinkling as if to tell us we are not orphans of the universe. ~

“Life is a dance between heaven and earth, the ebb and flow of life.” - Maurice Spees
Acknowledgement: Photos from Internet., Wikipedia, Google

MEDITATION Reflection and Relaxation

                                                        MEDITATION

Reflection and Relaxation

"When the sun is in its zenith, half the day is gone, half of the work done, half of life's stirrings over, yet the joy of living, its challenges and rewards are whole and forever." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor 
A Paulinian student takes time out to meditate over a landscape mural painted by the author for St Paul College of Ilocos Sur, February 26, 2018. 

W
hen things seem to be overwhelming, the road long and rough, the horizon far and dim, and you feel powerless under this situation, give yourself time to meditate;

When the wind stops to blow, the treetops still, birds no longer fly, the fields lay bare after harvest time, summer creeps in, and you feel the false calm of doldrums, meditate;

When the first rain is but a shower, shy and naïve over the parched landscape and the dry riverbed, listen to the distant thunder, watch the gathering cloud, meditate;

When the mountains are blue in the distance, as blue as the azure sky and the sea resting after tempest, the valley deep and green, be part of the scenery, meditate;

When the birds migrate to the south before winter sets in and return in springtime, imagine the magnificence of the view from above, the adventure of travel, meditate;

When the trees proudly stand together to form a living fort, bastion against the vagaries of nature, abode and domicile of creation to which you are a part, meditate;

When the habagat is in its peak with days and days of rain, the fields now a huge lake, joining the rivers and lakes, it's nature's process of dynamic balance, meditate;

When the amihan sets in, cold wind from the north sweeps over the ripening grains, golden in the sun, undulating, lilting with kids flying kites - you're with them, meditate;

When the world seems to be moving too fast, on a chartless path, you feel you are adrift and part of a bandwagon, move out before it's too late, meditate;

When the trees come alive with music at dawn, mists settle into dewdrops, sparkling like diamonds as the sun rises, the curtain opens a new day - awake, meditate; 


When the sun is in its zenith, half the day is gone, half of the work done, half of life's stirrings over, yet the joy of living, its challenges and rewards are whole, meditate;

When the sun sets, dusk the prelude to rest, Angelus prayer itself in silence, peace and harmony set in, be at the center of Home, Family and Creator, meditate. ~



--------------
Poetry reading is an art. In fact, poetry is intended to be read before an audience to fully appreciate it, its theme and message,  its rhyme and rhythm, style and meter cum expression of the reader. For this particular piece, the author suggests as a background music, Meditation, a symphonic intermezzo from the opera Thaïs by French composer Jules Massenet. The piece is written for solo violin and orchestra. The opera premiered at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on March 16, 1894.

Evolving Art Series 21: Heritage Tree Art and GMO Tame and Wild

Heritage Tree Art
Dr Abe V Rotor

 Wood shards from a heritage tree against a forest 
background AV Rotor (16” x 24.5”) 2023

I sing the dirge of the Narra and Acacia,
     heritage trees our children shall miss
at the verge of extinction like Sequoia;
     save some epitaphs and memories.

If only art can take over their absence,
     in monuments and legends they live,
but where is sanctity, what is reverence,
     what can man to his Creator give?

GMO Tame and Wild
Dr Abe V Rotor
  Genetically Modified Organisms In our midst,  AV Rotor 2023

Splicing genes of the tame and the wild,
     progeny from the laboratory;
whatever glory to pest and pet combined,
     affront to man’s rationality.

Could Pied Piper the hero come to the task,
     save us from folly, greed and remiss
for our children and their future we ask,
     before they vanish in our midst. ~     

Friday, March 22, 2024

Have Peace of Mind this Lenten Season

                               Have Peace of Mind this Lenten Season 

POM (Peace of Mind) Square
Dr Abe V Rotor

Of course you do not think of POM while you are running. Then you start to walk, exhausted, and you look around. You are back to your senses. You realize you have not been a “square”. Your sense of dimension is lost and you don't even care what shape you are in. Because you have lost the integrated balance of the four pillars of a happy, fulfilled life.
  • Intellectual/mental
  • Spiritual
  • Physical
  • Psychological/Emotional
1. Physical – It's your health, body physiology, the machine and prime mover that keeps you going biologically. When was the last time you visited your doctor? Is your food balance? Maybe you are not getting enough exercise. Driving for hours does not constitute an exercise. Are you having difficulty to sleep, even only to rest? Imagine a machine breaking down because of strain.

2. Intellectual or mental – Your thoughts are assigned to two parts – the left for reasoning and the right for creativity. Either you have overtaxed the whole of your brain, or you failed to balance the two hemispheres. That's why it is important to attend to hobbies like painting and music (right brain) to balance the left which you use more often in office and home. As the body is subject to fatigue, so with the brain. A fatigued brain may lead to psychiatric condition that can not be relieved as easy as that of the body. Quite often extreme conditions are irreversible.

3. Psychological or emotional – Our psyche absorbs the impact of stress coming from the body and the mind – and from our spiritual being. Like a funnel the residues are accumulated here. Imagine a man staring at an artificial waterfall at a New York park. How many promising people are ruined by emotional problems? Jungian psychology explains that as we continue to repress our thoughts, our feelings, particularly those that are negative, the more we bury them deeper, storing them in our sub-conscious.

It means two things. First, we thought we have eliminated them. No, they come out in our dreams, they seep out into the unconscious in trickles that spoil many happy thoughts. Second, as we keep filling up the unconscious with more repressed thoughts, there comes a time that the tank so to speak, is likely to burst. There on a couch the potential victim, with the help of a psychiatrist, releases the pressure by withdrawing from the unconscious into the conscious chamber of the brain and flows out to his relief. Such rehabilitation requires rest and expurgation of the negative thoughts and experiences. It is only through this process that the psychiatric symptoms begin to cease.


4. Spiritual – The biblical Seventh Day is one for the spirit, a day of communication with our Creator, with Nature. It is a renewal of relationship between man and God, a re-invigoration of the soul. Emptiness can be easily felt, but quite often, it mingles with the kind of emptiness that is hard to fill. Our spiritual life suffers every time we act on something against our conscience. It becomes dull when we fail to do the things we should in accordance with our faith. I have heard of people complaining about the lack of “meaning in life.” For me, the answer lies not in our rationale thoughts, in our physical power or emotional or psychological makeup. In fact I believe that the lack of meaning is in the emptiness of the spirit. I recommend reading A Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl, founder of logotherapy - a field of psychology which helped prisoners in German prison camps in World War II to survive.

As I continue to write this article at Room 3031 at the UST hospital (September 20, 2001) I glimpse upon a Newsweek story about 30,000 Japanese a year have been killing themselves. The title of the article is “Death by Conformity.” It is about an epidemic of young Japanese pulling back from the world."

Take the case of a 29-year old salaryman. He described how he secluded himself for three years after resigning from his company. “I didn’t even know if it was day or night,” he confessed.
Another case is about a “corporate warrior” who became a victim of economic slump affecting his company in the late 1998. He became “spiritually” weakened by an anxiety he couldn’t comprehend. This is how the report pictured the fiftyish company executive.

“At first he couldn’t sleep. Then he grew physically weak each time the train neared the station nearest his office. On several occasions he rode to the end of the line. At one point, speaking on condition that he not be identified, he went to buy a rope, then put it in the trunk of his car to be prepared for the day when he would hang himself. Fortunately the day didn’t come. A doctor helped him in overcoming his depression.” ~

Have Peace of Mind this Lenten Season.