Monday, June 4, 2018
Communion with Nature – Ten Ways
"Here is seeing the world in dreams;
half awake, half asleep,
on two planes - fantasy and reality."avr
Parakeets, Safari World, Thailand
Lovely, friendly - kindest words ever be,
whereas their kin are wild and free;
lucky in man's judgment these pair may be
if only we understand their plea
for freedom to the wild, to their ancestry
and away from the artificial tree.
Tamboili shells, former St. Paul Museum
I'm standing on the world's narrowest isthmus,
among archives and fossils of history,
where I can hold the Pacific and the Atlantic
oceans half the world apart and free;
I cross the time and distance barrier
with these chroniclers singing to me
the unending roars of the tides,
tides on the street, tides of the sea.
Sunken Pier, Puerto, Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur
Behold! a jellyfish as looking glass
unfolds a third world scene:
half terrestrial, half aquatic,
solid and liquid in between,
third matter in colloidal form -
strange the world is ever seen.
Baby sitting: Fluppy, angora rabbit at home
Here is seeing the world in dreams;
half awake, half asleep,
on two planes - fantasy and reality,
rather than counting sheep,
to unload life's burden at the end of day -
a heaven sent li'l rabbit.
Rare walking stick insects, Museum of Natural History,
UPLB Laguna
Dragons in fairy tales and religious fictions -
they are fierce, they're enemies of mankind;
in fossils and movies they scare the children;
little do we think of them friendly and kind,
devouring pests, singing lullaby in dull air;
misjudged, they're harder and harder to find.
Baby orangutan, Avilon Zoo, San Mateo, Rizal
Monkey on my back, that's what people say
when what we say logic we lack;
genes may vary, yet the same to this day,
indeed, a monkey on our back.
Viewing telescope, Mall of Asia, Pasay Metro Manila
Yes, creatures but man, are getting fewer, farther apart;
changing the old game with art of glass and steel;
where you can't get near, when you can't touch and feel,
technology comes to fill, yet empty still.
Flaming red in the night and in bright light -
what secret have you Ganoderma?
and yet your light cannot make the dead rise
again, the tree felled by cold heart,
lying unknown and forgotten in its demise.
Crustose lichen on a tree trunk, Silang Cavite
Crust blankets the tree with powdery green,
strange indeed to the inquisitive,
that this is a model of symbiosis,
for tree and lichen together they live.
Music is universal - that is worthy of praise,
to all creatures the "Mozart Effect"
that brings us all together in work and ease,
friend and foe, master and subject,
sans division and color in war and peace.~
A Rocky Shore Comes Alive
"Wish the old days could come back in old age,
and exchange childhood from being a sage."
Painting and Poem by Abe V Rotor
Summer on a Rocky Shore, in acrylic by AVRotor 2012Wish the old days could come back in old age,
and exchange childhood from being a sage;
wish the unspoiled field and shore remain,
the simple life over richly domain.
Wish the sky is deep blue as the sea before,
the hills green and alive as the rocky shore;
wish the lilting joy of children fill the air,
the sweet cacophony of a country fair.
Wish the tide to recede and walk on the reef,
to be in the underworld for a time so brief,
wish the waves to be as calm as your thought,
yet wish the surf to keep coming back and forth.
Wish the child in you shall live forevermore,
as innocent and pure as he was before;
wish for the ideal, the sublime, and the free,
and the shore shall forever clap for thee. ~
Plastic bag at sea - a deadly prison
Environment Day June 5, 2018
Theme: Get rid of plastic.
Dr Abe V Rotor
April 27 2014
Plastics outlive humans, they are immortal. avr
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Children Fishing after a Heavy Rain
Painting and Verse by Abe V Rotor
Oh, how we love the fields like farmers do,
But not our classmates in school though;
And Nature more than our teachers know
What the sun and rain in childhood sow.
Painted from childhood memory, acrylic on canvas, 2002
Oh, how we love the fields like farmers do,
But not our classmates in school though;
And Nature more than our teachers know
What the sun and rain in childhood sow.
The Art of Diorama
Museum of Natural History, UPLB Laguna
Photographed and Photo Edited by Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Philippine Eagle lords over the vast landscape atop Mt Apo, its home. Fewer and fewer sightings tell us the bird may soon join the list of extinct animals - if we don't protect its remaining population estimated to be less than a thousand
The idea of a diorama is likened to a showcase in a mall. It is an enclosure of glass, multi-dimensional so that the viewer enjoys a natural panoramic scenery - foreground and background, ground and ceiling, and a spacious center view for the main subject. From one side to the other, and back, the viewer finds freedom of vision to explore the whole diorama.
Natural history dioramas gain attention to naturalness. The stuff animals look real, a pond reveals the secret of its bottom. Water always looks fresh and invigorating. Trees and the whole vegetation retain their freshness. Depth of field leads the eye to the farthest point disappearing in thin air.
Emphasis is given to interaction of the living with the non-living world, the interrelationships of organisms in food chains and food webs, and by the flow of energy from one organism to another.
A diorama artist is multi-skilled: he is a sculptor, a painter and an architect. Above all, he is a scientist who understands the working of biology and ecology. He must be a naturalist, and being one, must uphold the philosophy of reverence for life that makes man the custodian of creation.
The Museum of Natural History is an educational center with a sprawling natural setting - Mt. Makiling, a tropical rainforest reached in three hours from Manila. It is a world-famous center of studies and researches in agriculture, environment and many related sciences, including humanities.
I recommend the place for a whole day educational field trip. An itinerary includes the Mt Makiling Botanical Garden, tour of UPLB campus (agriculture and forestry) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Special lectures and guided tours may be arranged. Packed lunch under the trees is a rare experience. Nature photography, is at its best - so with on-the-spot composition (drawing, musical sketch, poetry).
Happy field trip!
.
The Hornbill is another endangered Philippine bird. The first and last time I saw hornbills was in the seventies at the tip of Luzon along the treacherous Patapat road joining the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley. They are a closely knit family moving on the forest canopy. Their call is heard far and wide. It is resonated by their big hollow bills and echoed by big trees and cliffs.
Cave bats in a simulated habitat. Being nocturnal, the bats hunt from flying insects in the dark locating their prey through echolocation, the principle of the radar.Their droppings make a huge guano deposit mined for agriculture.
Tree mushroom garden
A rare rodent that lives on trees in Palawan, the last bastion of rare animal species, among them the porcupine, mouse deer and anteater.
Nesting pigeons keep vigil for intruders and predators. Masters of camouflage they blend with the surroundings and remain extremely quiet and still at the sign of danger. But when imminent, the mother bird stealthily dashes to another place and decoys away the attention of the enemy.
A cluster of nature dioramas, each an ecosystem pristine and unspoiled
Instead of a diorama, the actual skeleton, and replica, of a whale are displayed for anatomical and morphological study. In the Smithsonian the blue whale, the biggest creature that ever lived on earth spans the length of a hall the size of a typical chapel.
Centennial celebration of UPLB, pictorials at the museum's lobby.
Author and wife are among the countless visitors. ~
Photographed and Photo Edited by Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Philippine Eagle lords over the vast landscape atop Mt Apo, its home. Fewer and fewer sightings tell us the bird may soon join the list of extinct animals - if we don't protect its remaining population estimated to be less than a thousand
The idea of a diorama is likened to a showcase in a mall. It is an enclosure of glass, multi-dimensional so that the viewer enjoys a natural panoramic scenery - foreground and background, ground and ceiling, and a spacious center view for the main subject. From one side to the other, and back, the viewer finds freedom of vision to explore the whole diorama.
Natural history dioramas gain attention to naturalness. The stuff animals look real, a pond reveals the secret of its bottom. Water always looks fresh and invigorating. Trees and the whole vegetation retain their freshness. Depth of field leads the eye to the farthest point disappearing in thin air.
Emphasis is given to interaction of the living with the non-living world, the interrelationships of organisms in food chains and food webs, and by the flow of energy from one organism to another.
A diorama artist is multi-skilled: he is a sculptor, a painter and an architect. Above all, he is a scientist who understands the working of biology and ecology. He must be a naturalist, and being one, must uphold the philosophy of reverence for life that makes man the custodian of creation.
The Museum of Natural History is an educational center with a sprawling natural setting - Mt. Makiling, a tropical rainforest reached in three hours from Manila. It is a world-famous center of studies and researches in agriculture, environment and many related sciences, including humanities.
I recommend the place for a whole day educational field trip. An itinerary includes the Mt Makiling Botanical Garden, tour of UPLB campus (agriculture and forestry) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). Special lectures and guided tours may be arranged. Packed lunch under the trees is a rare experience. Nature photography, is at its best - so with on-the-spot composition (drawing, musical sketch, poetry).
Happy field trip!
.
The Hornbill is another endangered Philippine bird. The first and last time I saw hornbills was in the seventies at the tip of Luzon along the treacherous Patapat road joining the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley. They are a closely knit family moving on the forest canopy. Their call is heard far and wide. It is resonated by their big hollow bills and echoed by big trees and cliffs.
Cave bats in a simulated habitat. Being nocturnal, the bats hunt from flying insects in the dark locating their prey through echolocation, the principle of the radar.Their droppings make a huge guano deposit mined for agriculture.
Tree mushroom garden
A rare rodent that lives on trees in Palawan, the last bastion of rare animal species, among them the porcupine, mouse deer and anteater.
Nesting pigeons keep vigil for intruders and predators. Masters of camouflage they blend with the surroundings and remain extremely quiet and still at the sign of danger. But when imminent, the mother bird stealthily dashes to another place and decoys away the attention of the enemy.
A cluster of nature dioramas, each an ecosystem pristine and unspoiled
Instead of a diorama, the actual skeleton, and replica, of a whale are displayed for anatomical and morphological study. In the Smithsonian the blue whale, the biggest creature that ever lived on earth spans the length of a hall the size of a typical chapel.
Centennial celebration of UPLB, pictorials at the museum's lobby.
Author and wife are among the countless visitors. ~
Recreating the Lost Garden through Art
"... at the foot of a hill, on the tip of a pen, by a river or lake, he contends, even only a piece of that Paradise lost, he regains..." avr
Paintings and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor
Come, come, let’s believe in the greatest mystery of creation,
Live it, live it well and we will not demand an explanation,
For the world’s still the same - nothing has been lost, nothing,
From the beginning, coasting through the unknown, coasting.
And we travel together in the greatest spaceship of all,
The only one we have, the only one of its kind; ephemeral
Our life could be in the vastness of space, darkness and time,
Yet in fullness we may live, leaving some glitter in our clime.
Worthy in our ways, though mortal we are, to rise after the Fall,
To rise with the Knowledge from the Fruit, to rise to the call,
To search once more for the Garden abandoned and forlorn,
Where happiness was first sown, and also, the first mourn.
And thence, man was forever vanished? It is not rightly so.
For a greater Man came to redeem us, greater than we know
In our praises, prayers and songs, bowing to a God on earth,
And we, reduced to penitents, sit in obedience by the hearth.
But prisoners in our faith have we become and our fate sealed
By rigid walls and dogmas we ought not question or bid,
But peep through a hole and believe in the destiny of our soul,
And there, Paradise is waiting, beautiful indeed is our goal.
It is a lifetime prize – and if that is so, is life but a tunnel?
We would rather see it on a horizon, its end no one can tell –
For the essence of exile is to seek beyond, and to explore
And find beauty and goodness out there and much more.
For the Fall, in God’s mystery, lies an ultimate purpose
Breaking boredom, opening the gate, to search for a cause,
For what is man’s purpose but to spread the Knowledge
That he too, can make another Paradise at its edge?
Where he makes a living, a garden by his hands he makes,
At the foot of a hill, on the tip of a pen, on rivers and lakes,
He contends, even only a piece of that Paradise lost, he regains;
From knowledge and disobedience, the whole world gains.~
Paintings and Poem by Dr Abe V Rotor
Top left, clockwise: fishing on a forest stream (wall mural, SPU-QC), autumn by a
mountain stream (painting, UST Publishing House), flame tree in bloom (painting, UST),, summer vacation (mural, San Vicente Municipal Hall, Ilocos Sur. .
Live it, live it well and we will not demand an explanation,
For the world’s still the same - nothing has been lost, nothing,
From the beginning, coasting through the unknown, coasting.
And we travel together in the greatest spaceship of all,
The only one we have, the only one of its kind; ephemeral
Our life could be in the vastness of space, darkness and time,
Yet in fullness we may live, leaving some glitter in our clime.
Worthy in our ways, though mortal we are, to rise after the Fall,
To rise with the Knowledge from the Fruit, to rise to the call,
To search once more for the Garden abandoned and forlorn,
Where happiness was first sown, and also, the first mourn.
And thence, man was forever vanished? It is not rightly so.
For a greater Man came to redeem us, greater than we know
In our praises, prayers and songs, bowing to a God on earth,
And we, reduced to penitents, sit in obedience by the hearth.
But prisoners in our faith have we become and our fate sealed
By rigid walls and dogmas we ought not question or bid,
But peep through a hole and believe in the destiny of our soul,
And there, Paradise is waiting, beautiful indeed is our goal.
It is a lifetime prize – and if that is so, is life but a tunnel?
We would rather see it on a horizon, its end no one can tell –
For the essence of exile is to seek beyond, and to explore
And find beauty and goodness out there and much more.
For the Fall, in God’s mystery, lies an ultimate purpose
Breaking boredom, opening the gate, to search for a cause,
For what is man’s purpose but to spread the Knowledge
That he too, can make another Paradise at its edge?
Where he makes a living, a garden by his hands he makes,
At the foot of a hill, on the tip of a pen, on rivers and lakes,
He contends, even only a piece of that Paradise lost, he regains;
From knowledge and disobedience, the whole world gains.~
Saturday, June 2, 2018
Quiapo in Manila is named after this plant – Kiapo (Pistia stratiotes)
Pistia is a genus of aquatic plant
in the arum family, Araceae. The single species Pistia comprises is often called
water cabbage, water lettuce, Nile cabbage, or shellflower. It is an invasive
plant in tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Dr
Abe V Rotor
Pistia stratiotes, as this floating plant is scientifically called, may cover an entire stream or waterway. Photo by Dr Abe V Rotor
It must have been abundant on the Pasig River
in the area where Quiapo is located, hence the name of the district. In the
same manner, Manila is derived from the name of a plant, maynilad a
cat-tail of the genus Typha and Family Cyperaceae. The plant must have
covered much of the shores and swampy areas of Pasig River.
Summary of Invasiveness
P. stratiotes is a perennial monocotyledonous aquatic plant present,
either naturally or through human introduction, in nearly all tropical and
subtropical fresh waterways. It floats on the water surface, with roots hanging
below floating leaves. Its growth habit can make it a weed in waterways, where
it can kill native submerged plants and reduce biodiversity. It is a common
aquatic weed in the USA, and may clog waterways in warmer states such as
Florida. It is listed as a noxious weed or invasive aquatic plant in some
states of the USA (USDA-NRCS, 2012).
Reference Philippine Medicinal Plants (Internet)
- Used as a famine food in India in 1877-1878.
- In China, young leaves are eaten cooked.
- Leaves added to soup; prior parboiling advised to removed acridity from calcium oxalate crystals.
- Infusion of leaves used for dropsy, bladder complaints, kidney afflictions, diabetes, hematuria, dysentery, and anemia.
- Used for dysuria and as an expectorant.
- Poultice of pounded leaves used in hemorrhoids, tumors and boils.
- The juice of leaves, mixed with coconut oil, is used for a variety of chronic skin conditions.
- Leaves mixed with rice and coconut milk, given for dysentery; with rose water and sugar, used for coughs and asthma.
- Ash of the plant applied to ringworm
- Powdered dry leaves mixed with a little honey used for syphilis, 3 to 4 teaspoons a day.
- Leaves used for treatment of ringworm of scalp, syphylitic eruptions, skin infections, boils and wounds.
- Oil extract used for worm infestations, tuberculosis, asthma, dysentery, piles, ulcers, burns.
- Used for menorrhagia.
- Ash of leaves applied to ringworm of the scalp.
- In Gambia, plant is used as an anodyne eyewash.
- In China, used in various prescriptions for boils, syphilitic eruptions and skin complaints.
- In the Peruvian Amazon, used for arthritis.
- In Indian traditional medicine, leaves are used for the treatment of ringworm infection of the scalp, syphilitic eruptions, skin infections, dysuria, boils and wounds. Oil extract used for worm infestations, TB, asthma, dysentery, hemorrhoids, ulcers, syphilitic infections and burns.
- Owing to high potash content, used as diuretic; also used for gonorrhea.
- Sometimes used for feeding hogs and ducks.
- Used for making soap in West Tropical Africa.
- Plant used with soap to removed stains out of clothing.
- Leaves considered insecticidal.
- Used as a famine food in India in 1877-1878.
- In China, young leaves are eaten cooked.
- Leaves added to soup; prior parboiling advised to removed acridity from calcium oxalate crystals.
- Infusion of leaves used for dropsy, bladder complaints, kidney afflictions, diabetes, hematuria, dysentery, and anemia.
- Used for dysuria and as an expectorant.
- Poultice of pounded leaves used in hemorrhoids, tumors and boils.
- The juice of leaves, mixed with coconut oil, is used for a variety of chronic skin conditions.
- Leaves mixed with rice and coconut milk, given for dysentery; with rose water and sugar, used for coughs and asthma.
- Ash of the plant applied to ringworm
- Powdered dry leaves mixed with a little honey used for syphilis, 3 to 4 teaspoons a day.
- Leaves used for treatment of ringworm of scalp, syphylitic eruptions, skin infections, boils and wounds.
- Oil extract used for worm infestations, tuberculosis, asthma, dysentery, piles, ulcers, burns.
- Used for menorrhagia.
- Ash of leaves applied to ringworm of the scalp.
- In Gambia, plant is used as an anodyne eyewash.
- In China, used in various prescriptions for boils, syphilitic eruptions and skin complaints.
- In the Peruvian Amazon, used for arthritis.
- In Indian traditional medicine, leaves are used for the treatment of ringworm infection of the scalp, syphilitic eruptions, skin infections, dysuria, boils and wounds. Oil extract used for worm infestations, TB, asthma, dysentery, hemorrhoids, ulcers, syphilitic infections and burns.
- Owing to high potash content, used as diuretic; also used for gonorrhea.
- Sometimes used for feeding hogs and ducks.
- Used for making soap in West Tropical Africa.
- Plant used with soap to removed stains out of clothing.
- Leaves considered insecticidal.
Flowers Anonymous
Painting and Verse by Dr Abe V Rotor
Flowers Anonymous in acrylic by AVR
2015.
Lady Gertrude Stein was correct after all;
You cannot define a flower but by itself;
Move over Linnaeus, Darwin, Mendel;
Science is gathering dust in the shelf.
Wonder the DNA, the code of heredity;
Prosaic, assuming, devoid of caress.
Neither seen nor measured nor certain
To judge the beauty of a patch of roses.
Why, a flowering weed by the roadside,
Or some lowly vine clinging in the open –
For they bring out the unseen to be seen
Of a whole new world, the Lost Garden.~
Landscapes to the Young Mind
"To the artist,
the creative mind
makes the sea live or die,
the creative mind
makes the sea live or die,
real or imaginary;
she is the master."
she is the master."
Paintings by Anna Christina R Rotor in the Grade School
Flowers are red and yellow,
trees are green, sky is blue;
true colors of pure thoughts,
colors of innocence, too.
Nature's curtain, let me count your ways:
waterfall of foaming white
down a cliff of verdant green;
stream in crystal shade and hue
among rocks and trees;
sky red and gray at sunset,
yellow and orange at sunrise;
black and gray before a storm,
dull and gray as rains pour;
lightning in the darkness of night,
pictures the world at rest;
watershed, nature's wall of trees,
life of lakes, mirror of the sky.
the aurora - borealis in the north
australis in the southern realm;
Nature's curtain, I haven't painted you enough.
; 
To the young, the sea plays among the rocks and children,
joyous in their games and laughter;
To the grownups, it's tidal wave spawning on the shore,
in fear, warn of a coming disaster.
To the artist, the creative mind makes the sea live or die,
real or imaginary, she is the master. ~
Friday, June 1, 2018
Can we compress love of a lifetime?
Dr Abe V Rotor
I wrote this article a long time ago. I thought I would not come across it again. But there it popped out from my old files. By coincidence the issue of Dengvaxia stormed media and caused deep grief and anxiety to the guardians of 800,000 - perhaps a million - school children (and adults as well}, who were vaccinated with this controversial anti-Dengue vaccine.
The whole nation was shocked while the whole world stood on its toes.The issue is recurrent, and the wound does not heal easily.
I wish to share in this article my experience during the dark hours I had gone through. It is however incomparable to the indescribable agony my fellow guardians and their loved ones. I am aware of the essence of humanity of sharing pain and sorrow on the other side of love and joy. I firmly believe in the redeeming power of a Higher Principle.
All of us in one way or the other has experienced fear of losing a loved one because of a disease or extreme risk in profession.
It may come as a shock and there's so little time to compress so to speak, the opportunity to express a whole life's love. No wonder wakes are extremely emotional, regrets often come as apologies, and dirges the saddest personal expressions. We find ourselves unprepared to face the dark hours of our lives.
I remember auntie Nathaniel, a religious sister (SPC) called me on the phone one Sunday morning. "I'm here in a hospital, Abe. Can you play the violin for me?" She had pneumonia.
"Gladly, Auntie, I'll be on my way."
"Can you play now?"
My wife held the handset as I played Meditation by Massenet, On Wings of Song by Mendelsohn, and O Naraniag a Bulan (Oh, Bright Moon), a popular Ilocano serenade. Auntie and I come from the same hometown - San Vicente, near Vigan.
"Thank you, Abe, I'm going to sleep now."
I visited her the next day at the hospital. She was no longer there. She died soon after I had played, and after saying, "Have a good rest, Auntie. We all love you."
(Sister Nathaniel, together with her sister, Sister Mamerta, and a cousin of mine Sister Trinidad, guided me back to continue my schooling during my stormy life as a teenager.)
My dad at 78 was rushed from our hometown to Manila on a helicopter. He was suffering of a complicated case of diabetes. It was his first time he ever left home since he returned from the US before WWII, and after the death of my mother.
After undergoing a major operation, he stayed with us in the city. It was the most fulfilling moment of our lives as a family, and as father and son, in particular. It was also during this time my wife gave birth to our second child. I saw Dad's face glow as he held baby Marlo in his arms. Three months after, he died peacefully.
My eldest son, who was a forceps baby, died a year after Dad left us. During his brief life I read for him chapter by chapter the life of the great Dr Albert Schweitzer. Pao did not become a doctor as we dreamed of. Memory of our beloved Pao inspires us during trying times; It has also a humbling effect when things seem to go so well.
Here is a story of The Christmas Tree, one of the most moving movies I ever watched. It is as fresh in my memory as it was forty years ago.
The Christmas Tree is a story of a father and son trapped in a dilemma: Can you compress love of a lifetime?
The Christmas Tree, the movie 1969 (Synopsis)
Laurent, a widowed French-American millionaire, and his 10-year-old son, Pascal, are fishing near a desolate Corsican beach when a plane carrying an atomic weapon explodes overhead. Because Laurent is swimming underwater at the time, he suffers no harmful effects, but Pascal is exposed to radiation and develops leukemia.
Upon learning that his son has only a few months to live, Laurent stops working and takes Pascal to his country chateau. With the aid of his fiancée, Catherine, an art director for Paris Match, his wartime friend Verdun, who works as a caretaker at the chateau, and Verdun's wife, Marinette, Laurent tries to indulge the child's every whim. It soon becomes apparent that Pascal is aware of his fatal illness and calmly accepts the approach of death.
Pascal loves his surroundings, and his father buys him a blue tractor and trailer to drive around the chateau grounds. Because the boy shows an interest in wolves, Laurent and Verdun break into a Paris zoo and steal two of the animals so that Pascal may train them as pets. After one of the wolves is rescued from a fall into a well, the boy nurses the animal. Later, a wild stallion colt attacks Pascal while he plays, and the wolves come to his rescue.
On Christmas Eve, while Verdun is dressing for dinner and Laurent and Catherine are out doing last-minute shopping, Pascal begins to weaken. Upon returning to the chateau, Laurent discovers that his son has died at the foot of the Christmas tree, surrounded by his opened presents and guarded by his two howling pet wolves. Pascal's last gift to his father is a hand-carved wooden plaque wishing him and his friends good luck. ~
I visited her the next day at the hospital. She was no longer there. She died soon after I had played, and after saying, "Have a good rest, Auntie. We all love you."
(Sister Nathaniel, together with her sister, Sister Mamerta, and a cousin of mine Sister Trinidad, guided me back to continue my schooling during my stormy life as a teenager.)
My dad at 78 was rushed from our hometown to Manila on a helicopter. He was suffering of a complicated case of diabetes. It was his first time he ever left home since he returned from the US before WWII, and after the death of my mother.
After undergoing a major operation, he stayed with us in the city. It was the most fulfilling moment of our lives as a family, and as father and son, in particular. It was also during this time my wife gave birth to our second child. I saw Dad's face glow as he held baby Marlo in his arms. Three months after, he died peacefully.
My eldest son, who was a forceps baby, died a year after Dad left us. During his brief life I read for him chapter by chapter the life of the great Dr Albert Schweitzer. Pao did not become a doctor as we dreamed of. Memory of our beloved Pao inspires us during trying times; It has also a humbling effect when things seem to go so well.
Here is a story of The Christmas Tree, one of the most moving movies I ever watched. It is as fresh in my memory as it was forty years ago.
The Christmas Tree is a story of a father and son trapped in a dilemma: Can you compress love of a lifetime?
The Christmas Tree, the movie 1969 (Synopsis)
Laurent, a widowed French-American millionaire, and his 10-year-old son, Pascal, are fishing near a desolate Corsican beach when a plane carrying an atomic weapon explodes overhead. Because Laurent is swimming underwater at the time, he suffers no harmful effects, but Pascal is exposed to radiation and develops leukemia.
Upon learning that his son has only a few months to live, Laurent stops working and takes Pascal to his country chateau. With the aid of his fiancée, Catherine, an art director for Paris Match, his wartime friend Verdun, who works as a caretaker at the chateau, and Verdun's wife, Marinette, Laurent tries to indulge the child's every whim. It soon becomes apparent that Pascal is aware of his fatal illness and calmly accepts the approach of death.
Pascal loves his surroundings, and his father buys him a blue tractor and trailer to drive around the chateau grounds. Because the boy shows an interest in wolves, Laurent and Verdun break into a Paris zoo and steal two of the animals so that Pascal may train them as pets. After one of the wolves is rescued from a fall into a well, the boy nurses the animal. Later, a wild stallion colt attacks Pascal while he plays, and the wolves come to his rescue.
On Christmas Eve, while Verdun is dressing for dinner and Laurent and Catherine are out doing last-minute shopping, Pascal begins to weaken. Upon returning to the chateau, Laurent discovers that his son has died at the foot of the Christmas tree, surrounded by his opened presents and guarded by his two howling pet wolves. Pascal's last gift to his father is a hand-carved wooden plaque wishing him and his friends good luck. ~
Acknowledgement: Internet Photos
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