Wednesday, December 29, 2021

Personal Reflection of an Unknown Citizen

In remembrance of the 125th martyrdom of Philippine National Hero,
Dr Jose P Rizal, December 30, 2021

Personal Reflection of an Unknown Citizen on the lives of great men and women

Dr Abe V Rotor

Make your own personal reflection. Reflection brings out the inner person in you, like the inner eye of Heller Keller, the Little Prince of Antoine de Saint-Exupery', idealism of Longfellow and Alexander Pope, meditation in Michelangelo's Pieta, the mysticism of Venus de Milo, enigma of wildlife in Rosseau's painting, inner ear of Beethoven, waning light in Claude Monet's Waterlily Pond. 

I invite our viewers to this exercise. You may find this useful in retreats and seminars, specially in leadership, and in the fields of theology, philosophy, and humanities.

Jose Rizal 

One man fought a nation, and save a nation, abhorring violence.
His greatest weapon: peaceful protest and civil disobedience
in asceticism that swept the land;
people revering him as father and almost god.
His name is Gandhi.

His likes are the greatest specimens of mankind; they too, changed
the world forever, making it a better place to live in.
His name is Mao Tse Tung.
His name is Ho Chi Minh.
His name is Jose Rizal.
His name is Ramon Magsaysay
Her name is Princess Diana.
His name is Jose Burgos.
He is Maximilian Kolby

She is Mother Teresa.
He is Nelson Mandela
He is Pope John Paul II, et al

They are people for all seasons, for all ages, for all waves of change.

But little do we know of the unknown great man,
The Unknown Soldier -
unknown doctor, unknown teacher,
farmer, worker, entrepreneur,
old man, father, housewife, child;
The Unknowns in other fields of life, regardless.

They are whose deeds are also those of great men and women we revere today.
They are us – each one of us
in our own little way to make the world go round and around –
or make it slower, that we may taste better the true Good Life,
the sweet waters of the Pierian Spring, the cool breeze on the hill.
  
Nelson Mandela 

All of us - we have the capacity to be great.
Bringing up our children to become good citizens,
being Samaritan on a lonely road,
embracing a returning Prodigal Son, 
plugging a hole in the dike like the boy who saved Holland from the sea,
or living life the best way we can that makes other lives better.

St. Mother  Teresa

These and countless deeds make us great,
and if in this or that little way we may fall short of it,
then each and everyone of us putting each small deed together,
makes the greatest deed ever,
for the greatest thing humans can do is collective goodness –
the key to true unity and harmony,
and peace on earth. ~ avr

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