An Ode to the Pinoy in the midst of Yolanda
My friend Pio Goco wrote this Ode. Exceptional insight that captures the truth about our land and our people and how to respond to this trying moment in our history.
When one builds his house within an earthquake fault, one should not blame God when there is an earthquake and his house is consequently destroyed.
We live in a typhoon belt..
Yearly as much as twenty typhoons if not more passes through our country. If a deadly storm passes by, it is not an act of God punishing us for our sins.. it is but an act of nature taking its due course.
By the choices that were made, either by those who have borne us here or by us because of our love for this land, we are thus enjoined in this cycle of losing and regaining.. building and rebuilding.. We start over again and again knowing that we live amid beauty, mystery, danger and disaster at the same time...
We by geography are always in the front lines.. Our environment shapes our character as a people. We have faith like a child because only a God could assuage the pain we go through and heal us so we can continue building...
We are a people of tender graces, shaped by common suffering. We sometimes cope by smiling or laughing at our misfortunes because its too heartbreaking to cry and take it all in so seriously. We do not live on the facts or the realities of this beautiful but restless land for if we did, we would soon leave.
We have come to understand we live in the midst of wild dragons which at any moment can engulf us and cause us our lives, our families, our possessions, dreams and hopes.
And so, we do not attach ourselves to the temporal material things to make sense of our lives, rather with a stoic, gentle and resolute spirit, of "Bayanihan", "Pamilya", "Awa nang Diyos" and "Pakikisama", we go forward...
Yolanda, you may have beaten us to a pulp, but we will rise up again and again because that is who we are. We are determined to pursue our happiness despite the ever present dangers. Acts of God or not, we will survive.
Pio is a businessman who was based in Washington, DC and returned to the Philippines to help see his country fulfill it's destiny. Pio is a long time member of Victory and was a member of the Every Nation church in Virginia.
Pio. Thank you very much. Keep writing.
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