Emptiness at Sundown - a Challenge

Crowning glory, masterpieces were not at all born in bed,

so with man faced with the impossible to solve.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Sunset, Lemery Batangas, 2018

How can I be romantic when the world is sad and lonely, 

the sea in its ebb, the air still, save a passing breeze?
How can I love the classics, the timelessness of their beauty,  
the deafening silence, neither music nor of peace? 

How can I appreciate humanities, man's creativity,
peep into the biblical Garden of his birth?
How can I amend my evil ways, rise from human frailty
with the dying sun, soon to abandon the earth?

I am lesser than those who instead found opportunity
to explore the deep source where love and hope never cease. 
  Monet taming a fiery sunset into a lovely beauty,
and on wasteland Wangari planted a million trees.  

I wonder how Rodin created  from bare rock The Great Thinker;
Fleming by serendipity found from a moldy  culture -
the life-saving Penicillin,  a most potent drug ever,
while Thoreau alone wrote a treaty of man and nature.  

Crowning glory, masterpieces were not at all born in bed,
so with man faced with the impossible to solve,
when a tree stands alone leafless, the sea in ebb;    
and I, I wait for darkness envelop my world. ~  

Don't waste food, don't!

Food is Santa Gracia (sacred)
Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Excessive serving leads to food waste. If not, obesity.  Or both. 

Don't throw away food left on the table. Please don't.

• Food is Santa Gracia (holy grace) as old folks reverently call it.

• Food waste could otherwise go to millions who have not enough to eat.

• Food waste breeds pest and disease, sickens the air.

• Anything that goes to waste draws down the economy.

• Waste widens inequity in resources.

Here are some things to do with food leftovers.

1. Sinagag - fried rice mix with bits of bacon, ham, fried egg, fish, and the like.
2. Torta - tidbits like those mentioned in scramble egg. Include veggies like carrot and onion.
3. Pickle – excess veggies and fruits plus vinegar, sugar and salt, and spices. Good for carrot, bell pepper, cucumber, green papaya, yam (sinkamas), others.
4. Paksiw – if not consumed is fried, makes a new menu.
5. Daing – fish in season is dried, cooked with gata’ (coconut milk).
6. Suka – fruit vinegar from overripe pineapple, banana, others, but not tomato and kamias.
7. Pudding – bread not consumed on time is also made into pizza bread- bread crumbs, garlic bread.
8. Sopas – Grind bones, shrimp head for soup and broth. Bulalo for whole bone.
9. Pastillas – milk powder not consumed on time, also grated hardened cheese.

10. Veggie and fruit peelings – for animal feeds, composting. Include solids from brewing (coffee) and juicing fruits. Ultimately, inevitable food waste is collected for feeds in poultry and piggery.

Food waste also emanates from carelessness in handling, food preparation and serving. Much is also lost due to lack of proper processing, transport and storage facilities. Estimated loss in postharvest alone runs from 10 to 37 percent of actual harvest of crops.

In "Give us this day our daily bread..." in the Lord's Prayer, us here is regarded as thanksgiving and remembering the millions people around the world who may not have the food they need.

I believe in the wisdom of the old folk who reminds us of the value of food. They have experienced hunger during war, drought, flood, crop failure, pestilence - even in normal times. They have not lost sight of the presence ofSanta Gracia.

Yes, children there is a Santa Gracia . ~

Home, Sweet Home with Nature, AVR

Advocacy and Citizens' Action to the Present Water Crisis

In response to the present water crisis in the Philippines and other parts of the world.

Dr Abe V Rotor

Harvesting rain water at home

1. Use water wisely, limit consumption.
2. Plant trees, support the Greening Movement. 
3. Report illegal activities in the reservoir and watershed such as kaingin.
4. Support the move to close permanently the Payatas landfill. 
5. Strongly recommend reduction of water bill through Congress, local government leaders,  civic and church organizations.
6. Reduce pollution, do not burn plastic.  Plastic emits DIOXIN, the most poisonous man-made substance that can be carried by wind and rain which may find its way to our water supply. 
7. For those near and around the watersheds of the system, make your backyard an "extension of the watershed," and a wildlife sanctuary, too.    
8. Strongly support the "Save the Angat Dam" before anything catastrophic happens. 
9. Love Nature, take time out from office school and work. Develop Reverence for life as a personal philosophy.
10. Enjoin the family, church, and community in ensuring every citizen the right for clean, available and affordable water, as embodied in the Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations.~      

Living Rainbow in the Night

 Living Rainbow in the Night

Enigmatic, Ephemeral Mayfly  

 Dr Abe V Rotor

Highly magnified Mayfly (Order Ephemeroptera).  Acknowledgement: Internet photo by Melvyn Yeo 2015

On a dreary night comes a friendly guest cloaked with a rainbow, circles my table lamp and alights on a book I am reading;

It seems to tell me of many things in life I don't know or haven't experienced, things more that the book can tell, questions reason alone cannot answer;

On its two pairs of wings I read some pages of natural history and mythology, see them as cyber screen of strange scenery;

How beautiful you are. And she looks sad. Compliment and flatter I know have each a place. I repeat my praise. She is silent;

Beauty - real beauty doesn't last, I know. It is ephemeral - it's but for a day. That's what she gets her name and order - Ephemeroptera;

Then beauty is abandon else it will be a waste. Swarming for a mate, producing offspring  in a flash, displaying a kalaeidoscopic dress her last;

Then she dies, and the night once more is dark but no longer dreary, the book closes.
The rainbow joins the stars in sweet silence. ~

Psalm of Life buoys the spirit in these trying times

Psalm of Life buoys the spirit in these trying times
From sorrow rises a great triumph, and this is the testimony to greatness - to share not how the world should end, but how it must begin again.
Dr Abe V Rotor 

Psalm of Life is the perhaps the most important poem written by America's darling poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The poem is among the world's most quoted and recited pieces of literature; in fact, it is a prayer by and in itself. It speaks of universal values, feelings and compassion, of valor and sacrifice, and of victory over ones own battle.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)Longfellow himself, a victim of a family tragedy, rose to further fame and dignity. After the death of his wife in an accidental fire he went on raising his young children, and teaching in the university, experimenting with new forms and styles of poetry, producing Hiawatha and Evangeline that revolutionized poetry.

I found a very old publication, Longfellow's Evangeline (copyright 1883) with the author's biographical sketch. In describing Longfellow's trial in life, allow me to quote, "More than a score of years remained with the poet, and he had the love of his children and the comfort of his work, but the grief was so deep and lasting that he could not trust himself to speak the beloved name of his wife."

From sorrow rises a great triumph, and this is the testimony to greatness - to share not how the world should end, but how it must begin again. Not how one closes himself in, but opens himself to others. Not to "Go Gentle into the Night", but stand sentry to the "Light of Dawn".

Psalm of Life is dedicated to victims of calamities - force majeure and man-induced, circumstances beyond control, and all those who find life difficult to bear. May they find comfort, hope, and new meaning of life in Psalm of Life. ~

Craigie House where Longfellow lived as professor

at Harvard  in Cambridge, Massachusetts; his study room 

Psalm of Life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest! 

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art, to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 

Is our destined end or way;

But to act, that each tomorrow

Find us further than today.

Art is long, and time is fleeting, 

And our hearts, though stout and brave,

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle, 

In the bivouac of life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle,

Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, how'ver pleasant! 

Let the dead past bury its dead!

Act - act in the living present!

Heart within, and Good o'erhead.

Lives of great men all remind us 

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Footprints, that perhaps another, 

Sailing o'er life solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then, be up and doing, 

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labor and to wait. ~

Light passes through a prism,  its rays always fresh and bright to those 
who live  life beautifully. Painting by the author (2.5' x 3') 2017

Gregariousness - Biological Instinct of collective survival

110 Terms of Gregariousness

What is the plural of cattle? Herd. Fish? School. Why do living organisms occur in groups and populations?  Here are collective terms to describe such natural grouping.    

Dr Abe V Rotor 

   

School of carp fish (Oscar) in a home aquarium, QC 

Flock of migratory birds moving down south to evade the 

winter in the northern region.  

  
Colony of ants  on the move, and nest atop a tree. (Hantik 
or green tree ant). Novaliches QC

 
Colony of bacteria (Streptococcus) 

A floating mass of kiapo (Pistia crassipes); a stand of tree saplings

 

A brood of tussock moth caterpillars; a horde of red fire ants (Solenopsis geminata) attacking a fallen bee.

  

A mass of nata bacteria (Leuconostoc mesenteroides) in making nata de coco; 

nodules of Nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobium) on legume.   

 
A clump of bikal bamboo (Phylostachis) Tagaytay, and 
horsetail (Equisetum) Mt Makiling, Laguna.  

A community of squatters in Manila.  A congress of spiritual leaders. (UST Manila)

A carpet of epiphytes om acacia (Ateneo de Manila University QC); a grove of kamatchili (Pithecolobium dulce) across a farm road. Sagpat, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

A coalesce of galls in Erythrina tree caused by a parasitic wasp. 
A flush of mushrooms on a dead tree trunk. (St Paul University QC)

A pasture of plankton - phytoplankton and zooplankton - 

at the lighted (photic) zone of lakes and seas.    

Here is a long list of terms given to groups of animals and other organisms.

1. A COLONY of ants
2. An ARMY of ants
3. A STATE or SWARM of ants
4. A HERD of asses
5. A DROVE of asses.
6. A TROOP of baboons
7. A CONGRESS of baboons
8. A COLONY of bacteria
9. A CULTURE of bacteria
10. A BATTERY of barracudas
11. (A BATTERY of lawyers)
12. A SHOAL of bass
13. A COLONY of bats
14. A CLOUD of bats
15. A SLOTH or SLEUTH of bears
16. A COLONY of beavers
17. A FAMILY of beavers
18. A GRIST, HIVE, SWARM of bees
19. A CLUSTER or NEST of bees
20. A FLOCK or FLIGHT of birds.
21. A POD of birds (small flock)
22. A VOLARY of birds (in an aviary)
23. A BRACE (a pair of game birds or waterfowls)
24. A DROVE of bullocks
25. A KALEIDOSCOPE of butterflies
26. A FLUTTER of butterflies
27. A RAINBOW of butterflies
28. A CARAVAN, FLOCK or TRAIN of camels
29. An ARMY of caterpillars
30. A HERD, DROVE or DRIFT of cattle.
31. A MOB of cattle (US and Australia)
32. A POUNCE of cats
33. A KINDLE, LITTER OR INTRIGUE (for kittens)
34. A BROOD, FLOCK, RUN or PEEP of chicken
35. A CLUTCH OR CHATTERING of chicks
36. A HERD of cows
37. A KINE of cows (12 cows are a FLINK)
38. A PACK of coyotes
39. A TRAIN of coyotes
40. A BAND of coyotes
41. A ROUT of coyotes
42. A HERD, SIEGE or SEDGE* of cranes
43. A CAST of crabs
44. A CONGREGATION or NEST of crocodiles
45. A BASK or FLOAT of crocodiles.
46. A HOVER, MUSTER, or PARCEL of crows.
47. A MURDER of crows
48. A HORDE of crows
49. A PARLIAMENT of owls
50. A LITTER of cubs
51. A TROOP of dogfish
52. A PACK (wild dogs) or KENNEL of dogs
53. A LITTER of puppies
54. A FLIGHT or DOLE of doves
55. A TEAM, FLIGHT or FLOCK* of wild ducks in flight
56. A CONVOCATION of eagles
57. A CONGREGATION of eagles
58. An ARRAY of eels
59. A HERD or PARADE of elephants
60. A CRASH of elephants
61. A HERD of elks
62. A GANG of elks
63. A CHARM of finches
64. A SHOAL, DRAFT, NEST, SCHOOL of fish.
65. A RUN of fish in motion
66. A STAND of flamingos
67. A FLAMBOYANCE of flamingos
68. A CLOUD, HATCH or SWARM of flies
69. A SKULK of foxes
70. A CLOUD, TROOP or COMPANY of foxes
71. A GAGGLE or FLOCK of geese
72. A SKEIN, TEAM or WEDGE of geese (in the air)
73. A PLUMP of geese (on water)
74. A CLOUD OR HORDE of gnats
75. A FLOCK, HERD or TRIBE of goats
76. A TRIP of goats
77. A CLOUD of grasshoppers
78. A SWARM of locusts
79. A NEST of hornets
80. A SCATTERING, SEIGE or SEDGE* of herons
81. A CHARM of hummingbirds
82. A BEVY of larks
83. An EXALTATION of larks
84. An ASCENSION of larks
85. A PARTY or SCOLD of jays

86. A TROOP of lemurs
87. A SCOURGE of mosquitoes
88. A PACK or SPAN of mules
A cloud of bats 
89. A WATCH of nightingales
90. An ENCHANTMENT of nightingales
91. A TEAM or YOKE of oxen 
92. A DROVE or HERD of oxen 
93. A BED of oysters
94. A SQUADRON of pelicans
95. A FLOCK or FLIGHT of pigeons
96. A DROVE OR STRING of ponies.
97. A NURSERY of raccoons
98. A MURDER of ravens 
99. A CONSPIRACY of ravens 
100. A HERD, HAREM, TRIP or ROOKERY* of seals 

101. A DEN, BED, PIT or SLITHER of snakes.
102. A NEST or KNOT of snakes
103. A HOST of sparrows
104. A FLIGHT of swallows 
105. A BALLET of swans

106. An AMBUSH or STREAK* of tigers 
107. A COMMITTEE of vultures
108. A SCHOOL of whales
109. A HERD of whales
110. A ZEAL, HERD or DAZZLE of zebras

A rainbow of butterflies 

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Hint and Things Collective Nouns, Internet

 Wikipedia,

Silence of the Pond

Silence of the Pond

Dr Abe V Rotor

This is lyrical poetry.  View the painting and imagine you are in the landscape.  Sing with these words with the melody of your own as it comes naturally and spontaneously. Relax and detach yourself from cares and worries.  Get lost in the world of Nature.   

Silence of the Pond, painting by the author, circa 1989

Here true silence lies,

not eerie, not deafening,

for silence is communion

of self and surrounding.

Here true silence lies:

leaves quiver in the breeze,

ripples gently rise and fade,

buzz the honey bees.

Here true silence lies,

in the rhythm of the sky,

the rainbow a huge harp,

the trees by their bond.

Here true silence lies,

beyond the audible,

in magic waves in the air,

and the perceptible.

Here true silence lies,

giving in is acceptance,

the root of humility,

courage at any instance.

Here true silence lies,

when the heart longs, yet sings;

thoughts not to reason but flies

from the confines of living.

Here true silence lies,

sweet memories an art

in the silence of a pond,

 throbbing in the heart. ~