Develop your NATIVE INTELLIGENCE

When the leaves of acacia start to fold and droop, it’s time to go home, else you will be walking in the dark. 

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Native Intelligence list

1. Animals are uneasy before an earthquake. They can sense the preliminary vibration before the final snap (tectonic break).

2.    Don’t gather all the eggs from the nest.  Leave some, otherwise the laying hen will not return to lay more eggs. (Applies in cottage poultry raising)

 Frogs croak for rain. Mating calls are heard at the start of the rainy season (habagat)

3.    Thunder and lightning spawn mushroom. Join the mushroom hunt a day or two after, in banana groves, termite mounds, haystacks.   

4.    Corn silk tea is good for the kidney. So with the pinaglagaan – water left in boiling green corn.

5.    Kapok laden with pods means there’s going to be a poor harvest. Kapok has shallow root system vulnerable to insufficient water.  

6.    Rub table salt on the cut stem of newly harvested fruits to hasten their ripening.
Also prevents rotting.

7.    Choose pakwan (watermelon) with wide, well-spaced “ribs.” It is sweeter and fleshier. Fruit has reached full maturity.  
 
8.    Poultice made of moss heals wounds and relieves pain. Antibiotic property.  

9.    Ring around the moon means a storm is coming. It means very high humidity (suspended water vapor).

    10. Red and gray sunsets are signs it’s going to rain.  Or a storm is coming. Rainclouds are forming.

11. Leaves of madre de cacao or kakawate hasten the ripening of fruits. Enclose green fruits in plastic to trap ethylene gas, ripens in a day or two.

12. Smudging induces flowering of fruit trees and protects fruits from pests. Secret of off-season fruiting.

13. Drosophila flies (mannuka) hasten vinegar making. They carry vinegar-making bacteria.

14. Chopped banana stalk makes a cold pack to reduce fever. Radiator principle.

15. Pruning induces growth and development of plants. A must in grapes.

16. To increase corn yield “decapitate” the standing crop. (detasseling)

17. When the leaves of acacia fold it’s time to go home. 

18. .Pinag-aasawa ang bulaklak ng kalabasa. (Pollination)

19. Sukang Iloko (Ilocos Vinegar) is home remedy for sore throat (gurgle), and fever (wipe gently forehead and body). Dilute with equal amount of water.

20. Old folks use garlic as insecticide. Crush and mix, one clove to a litter of tap water, filter and sprinkle on plants.
  
21. Sugar solution extends the life of cut flowers. At 10% for three hours immersion of freshly cut stem for better absorption.

22. Why mungo seeds won’t soften when cooked is due to a spell cast by deities in the field. Immature seeds are caramelized.  

23. Red or brown sugar is better than white or refined sugar. It’s natural with the original nutrients of cane sugar.  

24. It is a common practice of farmers to cover fruits with ash, sand or sawdust to delay their ripening and minimize losses. Controls atmospheric conditions like temperature, sunlight, humidity, microorganisms.  
  
25. Farmers plant tayum (Indigofera tinctoria) to fertilize their field. It is a legume and can fix Nitrogen into Nitrate.

26. Brown eggs are preferred over white eggs, especially in rural areas. Brown eggs are produced by native chicken raised on the farm without antibiotics and other chemicals.
 
27. Water remains cool in earthen pot (calamba or caramba) even in hot weather. Pores of the pot works on radiator principle.

28. Apply lime or alum on the butt end of cabbage to stay fresh and longer in the shelf.

29. To prevent glass from breaking, first put a metal spoon before pouring hot water.

30. Emergence of the June beetle ushers the start of rainy season.  Sometimes in comes out in May, hence also called May beetle.

31.  Dogs eat grass for self-medication, so with parrots eating clay - a biological instinct for survival.

32. To get better harvest, furrows must be parallel with the sun’s movement. Less overshadowing of plants enhances photosynthesis – and good harvest.

33. Ants on-the-move means a strong rain, if not a typhoon, is coming. Cockroaches come out of their abode and seek for shelter outside. They are Nature’s barometer.

34.  Mosquitoes bite more aggressively before rain - in preparation for egg laying.

Aedes egyptii female mosquito 

35. There are persons who are a favorite of mosquitoes. Please check if you belong to the favored group.

·         You don’t take a bath regularly. 

·         You wear dark clothes, especially black. 

·         Your body temperature is relatively higher.

·         Your rate of breathing is faster.

·         Your skin is relatively thin and tender. 

·         You love to stay in corners and poorly lighted places.

·         You are not protected by clothing, screen or off-lotion. ~

Seaweed Stained Glass

Painting and Verse by Abe V Rotor

Glass painting, AVR c. 2005

Plants are ascendant, tropism they call,

as they reach for the sun,

whether on the sea floor or on land,

else all life will be gone;

and as they grow they dance around,

a language beyond man;

and dress in kaleidoscope by season,

living a life of fun.

Wonder if man is ascendant as well,

cowering from the sun,

searching a heaven under a ceiling,

in the middle of town;

couldn’t he see through a stained glass

window the living bond,

beyond his faith in saints and angels,

a seaweed’s simple crown? ~

Are you at the Crossroads?

Quo vadis? (Where are you headed for?)
Dr Abe V Rotor 

"Looking outward, the world's a maze, infinity;

Looking inward, towards a goal, convergence; 

Crossroads inevitable, simple, complex, many; 

Crossroads in life, every road never ends." avr

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have had the rare honor and opportunity to work with a famous person - Sister Eva Fidela Maamo - as art instructor in summer workshops she organized for  children in marginal communities, including those living "under the bridge."  

I had then as focus of the workshops the development of skills, and in instilling the "humane aspect" of growing up, bridging social gap and building confidence through self expression in the arts. Teachers often aim at the ideal, which they should. To them them it is a great challenge of understanding that ideal in idealism, the real in realism.  In the same  way we seek the abstract in beauty, impressions and expression of values. They seek and sought for that human nature expressed through goodness, love and compassion.  

I discovered this poem of Sister Eva in my old file of two decades ago. It is to me a treasure of thought raised to the level of philosophy. Beyond its religious style and orientation, the message of Sister Eva's CROSSROADS is universal. It truly speaks of human nature, the core of which is the human spirit.  

By chance I found these two contrasting illustrations as shown above from the Internet.  These inspired me to write the opening verse.  As an advocate of naturalism, I find it fitting in trying to understand existentialism which governs much of our actions and beliefs. 

After reading this article, make your own interpretation or version of CROSSROADS, better still a reflection of your own. This topic may be introduced in workshops, or assigned as research or literary paper.  

Crossroads

Sister Eva Fidela Maamo SPC, MD

  
Sometimes when I look back and think

Of all the could-have-beens in my life,

I often wonder:

     Did I make the right choice?

     Did I miss a road sign?

     Am I on the right track?

Sister Eva Fidela Maamo SPC, MD

C-R O-S-S-R-O-A-D-S.

They happen at the time,

Saying goodbye to some,

Choosing only one.

Letting go, holding on... settling for now,

But facing what must come...

Yes, in life we all reach a crossroad some time,

We make painful decisions and take some risks

     as we pursue our dreams,

But one should not stay at the CROSSROADS too long,

For even the birds have to leave their nests sometime

     and learn how to fly,

Life's road is long and rough, and there are stretches

     when one has to do it all alone,

And should you meet the cross at the road, be consoled.

     Yes, more often than not, the road least traveled

     will surely bring you home.

Face the light and the shadow falls behind you,

Turn your back the shadow stays in front of you.

Indeed, the truth hurts, but it will surely set you free.

The bitter fangs of parting will give birth to another moment

     called GROWING.

So grow … until it's time for you to move on…

     and face the crossroads again,

Knowing that God loves you and is in control of everything.

Be strong at the crossroads.

Embrace the Cross at the Road

The Lord is at the Cross, at the road, at all your CROSSROADS.
-----------------
 SR. EVA FIDELA C. MAAMO, SPC, MD 

Sr. Eva is a recipient of The Outstanding Filipino Awardee for Community Service in 2003, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1997 and the Mother Theresa of the Philippines Award in 1992. She continues to be an inspiration of the partner communities and volunteers in their joint efforts to achieve the total development of the individual, families and communities.Sr. Eva is a recipient of The Outstanding Filipino Awardee for Community Service in 2003, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1997 and the Mother Theresa of the Philippines Award in 1992. She continues to be an inspiration of the partner communities and volunteers in their joint efforts to achieve the total development of the individual, families and communities.

Nature's Art Series: Nature's Embroidery

What's behind this embroidered talisay tree? 
Dr Abe V Rotor 

 

Talisay or umbrella tree (Terminalia catappa), Cebu 2013

Embroidered reddening leaves of the umbrella tree,
     of what use is it to a passerby to stay, 
to a poet writing autumn in a dry country,  
     a painter whose landscapes are always gay?    

The leaves fall to the ground one by one like confetti,
     tattered they are, more so, as they all dry;
to whose honor bestowed such singular treat, if any, 
     but a child whose curiosity doesn't die. 

And he greets the tiny artist ensconced in a bag.
    "Hello, do you like the embroidery I made?" 
Rough is its art, far from the finesse of veil or rug,
     yet opened a new world to a future sage. ~ 
  

Two species of bagwaorm: Crypthothelea fuscescens (upper photos); 

Crypthothelea heckmeyeri (lower photos), Family Psychidae, Order Lepidoptera

ART LESSON: Your unfinished work could be your masterpiece!

Remember those things you thought were "unfinished" could be your greatest treasures, and who knows - people some day will remember you because of them. 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Former professor in Humanities, St Paul University, QC; co-author Humanities Today: An Experiential Approach C and E Publiocation

Photos by Anna Christina R Rotor And Leo Carlo R Rotor

Art is like poetry, the meaning is hidden "between the lines." - avr

Lesson: Don't discard your unfinished work, say a painting, novel, sculpture. Try to get back to it. It could be your masterpiece. Maybe you were not able to complete it because you gave way to the priorities of living, or finding new interests, challenges, assignments, or simply you lost steam, so to speak. Or you say you've grown too old to complete it.

Take the case of the mysterious unfinished human figures at the University of the Philippines at Diliman, QC. Do they mean anything but abandonment? To me it's not. So with my daughter Anna and son Leo Carlo who took these photographs.

These unfinished life size human figures occupy the “less trodden” front yard of the UP College of Fine Arts in Diliman, QC. The artists may have in mind the portrayal of man more as a Homo faber - man the worker or maker rather than his attribute as the reasoning man (Homo sapiens) - and much less the playing man - Homo ludens. Here the figures appear to be workers of the land. In fact one resembles the Man with a Hoe by Markham. Another appears to be carrying an imaginary heavy load.

What is puzzling however, is the representation of peaceful death. While the living struggle, the dead lies in true rest, cradled by the earth. Which then changes the scenario if all the figures were to be directed to a solemn and sorrowful occasion of burying a departed member in thin ceremonious atmosphere. It now expresses the highest attribute of man - Homo spiritus - the praying man who places completely his fate to a Higher Being. The viewer now turns his thoughts to grief and compassion, and the scene is no longer the farm but a sacred ground. The imagined heavy load is a  burden of the heart, the figures are bent not by the burden of work but by the loss of a loved one.

The mystery of the human figures of UP Diliman emanates from the anonymity of their theme that stands at the crossroad of human imagination searching for the meaning of life, exacerbated by their unfinished, and apparent abandoned state.

Art is like that. It is like poetry, the meaning is hidden "between the lines." Like impressions in Impressionism; points in Pointillism. Or masked symbols in Pablo Picasso's plaza mural - Guernica. Unfinished works of masters often become their masterpieces like the Unfinished Symphony of Beethoven, and Mozart's Requiem, his last composition commissioned by a mysterious person. Mozart died before finishing it, and Requiem became his own. Claude Monet repeatedly painted his favorite Nymphaea Waterlilies until darkness took over his failing sight - so with the painting's clarity. Though half finished it is Monet's final signature. 

Auguste Renoir was one of the co-founders of Impressionism. Renoir's masterpieces like The Dancer (PHOTO) appears to be "unfinished" because of its sketchy appearance. Yet this gives an effect and motion to the figure. So with a number of Renoir's works. One reason for this impression is because Renoir's passion to paint did not diminish in old age. Art critics say, "He was so passionate about painting that he even continued when he was old and suffering from severe arthritis. Renoir then painted with the brush tied to his wrists."

  

 Venus de Milo is more beautiful with her arms missing. And for this, the best artists in the world gave up their attempt to supply her arms.

So what have you discovered about yourself by going back to those unfinished works? Share with us your experience. Remember those things you abandoned could be your greatest treasures, and who knows - people some day will remember you because of them. ~

Humanities weaves a beautiful tapestry of humanity

This article is intended to explain what Humanities is all about as a subject in senior high school and in college.  It is a term educators explain as Applied Aesthetics (which is even harder to comprehend), or Introduction to the Arts (when art is the first thing to learn in the Kinder). 

So on the first day of class in humanities, various reactions can be read on the faces of the students, with a blank stare in most.  And the teacher comes up with terms like spatial art, performing arts, auditory art, then the movements in art: impressionism, expressionism, surrealism - and the most puzzling of all, postmodernism, which is a contradiction in itself. 

These of course, are terms we can't escape in teaching humanities, but they come along as teaching progresses.  So how and where do we start? Here is a simple guide.

Dr Abe V Rotor
Former Professor in Humanities, and co-author of Humanities Today, An Experiential Approach (C&E Publishing Inc, Tel 9295088*)

 

 Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder. Children playing under a Kalumpang tree, QC: Prize winning kite UST; author's children: Leo and Marlo at the National Jamboree, Mt Makiling, Laguna 

1, Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder

Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder, specially to the young, of the things around , of life processes and cycles, the passing of seasons and ages. It makes one aware of even the minute existence of things, the transformation of the ordinary into something beautiful.

Wonder the summer night, camping by a lake, home outside of home,
no roof but the sky, no walls, no gate, stars and fireflies mingle as one;
Wonder the breeze blow and weave through the trees, comb the grass,
carry into the sky kites of many colors and make greeting the rainbow;

“The sense of wonder is indestructible, that it would last throughout life, an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years.” Says Rachel Carson, author of an all-time favorite novel, Silent Spring. It is true, the sense of wonder prepares the young to face and conquer the world.

2. Humanities builds on the framework of truth and values

Even with few words the mind is set to explore, giving way to imagination beyond mere reason. Brevity is the framework of the mind, the heart and spirit in the Lord’s Prayer and the Gettysburg Address of America’s most loved leader, Abraham Lincoln. It is also a path to humility in greatness, a union of the classical and the contemporary.

If the story of the Creation can be told in 400 words, if the Ten Commandments contain 297 words, if Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg Address was only 266 words, if an entire concept of freedom was set in the Declaration of Independence in about 1,300 words – it is up to some of us to use fewer words, and thus save the time energy, vitality, and nerves of those who must read or listen. (Jerome P Fleishman) 

3. Humanities brings out the human spirit

Guernica, a plaza mural made by the greatest modern painter Pablo Picasso, ignited popular revolt against the Nazi regime. On the huge mural were embedded hidden images that conveyed principles of truth and freedom.

Similarly, in an earlier era, our own hero Juan Luna painted Spolarium, (centerpiece of the National Museum), a mural depicting the Filipinos under Spanish rule suffering like the gladiators during the Roman times, a visual message for the people to realize their plight. Later Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, one of the greatest books ever written in the category of War and Peace by Tolstoy, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, extolled the coming of a new world order – post-colonialism and the birth of new nations.

4. Humanities brings tranquility in crisis

                                       Different cultures have different costumes.

Arts and religion are closely associated 

New Year's celebration; conflagration in Saigon during the Vietnam war. 

It may be strange to know that Winston Churchill, the great English hero of WWII, still found time to paint by the bank of the Thames. Arts bring tranquility in times of crisis, and elevate the senses on a higher vantage plane of vision. Putting down his brush and easel, he would then return to the battlefield with greater revolve to save Great Britain from the ravaging war. And to a greater surprise, what was it that Churchill painted? Peace.

It was the other way around five hundred years earlier when the great Michelangelo who single handedly painted the huge ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would descend from the scaffoldings, exchanged his paint brush with sword and fought side-by-side his benefactor the Pope, and when victory was apparent would climb back to finish his masterpiece. The result: the biggest composite mural that brought God, the angels and saints, down to earth., making the Sistine a microcosm of the Kingdom of Heaven.

5. Humanities is guardian of movements and schools 

The paintings of early man in the Lascaux caves in France, to the surrealism of Salvador Dali, humanities has kept faithful to the evolution of human creativity expressed in various aspects of human life, pouring out from palaces and cathedrals to the villages and streets. For arts no longer belong to selected societies and cultures. Impressionism took over Romanticism and translated Realism for the grassroots, subsequently bypassing standards of perception, and permeating into the unconscious seeking expression and catharsis. Expressionism founded by Vincent Van Gogh opened a wider door to abstractionism that subsequently spilled into post-modernism.

Fr James Reuter SJ, master dramatist-playwright, author, spiritual adviser. 

“What’s abstract? a young art enthusiast
once asked, dutifully I answered:
“When you look through the window of a car
running so fast that views are blurred.”

“What’s expressionism?” an elder one asked;
“When the car stops, or just about,
yet still running inside, seeking, searching
for the spring of life to pour out.”

“And what is impressionism?” a third asked,
and I said: It’s sitting on a fence -
On one side Amorsolo, the other Ocampo,
It’s the spirit of art past and hence. ~

 
6. Humanities aims at goodness and peace

Propagandism and license are perhaps the greatest enemy of Humanities. The world plunged into two global wars, followed by half a century of cold war - the polarization into opposite ideologies that froze mankind at the brink of Armageddon, awakening Humanities to a new dimension - the search for peace.

And as in the Renaissance, Humanities centered on rebirth and renewal of man’s faith in his destiny. Peace reigned the longest in contemporary times in spite of local conflicts. And for a century or so Humanities blossomed into wide popularity and acclaim, and rich diversity today, dominating media, commerce, industry and in practically all aspects of life, which often venture on the boundaries of humanities itself, among them pornography, religious extrememism, aculturation, among others.

7. Humanities is keeper and pioneer of the arts

Humanities gave the world the finest of human achievements and continues to do so - timeless classics from novel to cinema, painting to photography, colonial design to high rise structures, stage play to TV and Internet show. Man’s glory is akin to humanities - Venus de Milo, Taj Mahal, Borobodor, Eiffel Tower, Hallelujah, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, The Little Prince. to name a few.

Humanities discovered superstars like Elvis Priestley and Michael Jackson, and our own local sensations, Leah Salonga and Charisse Pempengco.

8. Humanities faces challenge of the cyber age

But arts has also plunged into a deep and unknown global pool bringing across the world cultures heretofore unknown and appreciated, and riding on postmodernism into the chartless world of cyberspoace. Which leads us to a puzzle, Quo vadis, Humanus?

9. Humanities elevates reverence for life and Nature  

And yet humanities is anchored on a strong foundation, none other than the place of his birth and his ascension into Homo sapiens - Nature.  Reverence to Nature is reverence for life, the highest expression of man through humanities.  From  this relationship he finds inspiration in his arts and technology, in seeking knowledge and wisdom, and in enhancing the unity and harmony of creation, and among mankind into a living network.  

10. Humanities is the custodian of the network of humanity

We are the World – the song that united the world by the compassion it created for the dying is perhaps the greatest humanitarian movement in recent times, originally USA to Africa in the eighties, and was repeated during the Haiti disaster twenty years later. Translated by different races, beliefs, ideologies into a common call, it brought consciousness to the whole world, that humanity is a network, a closely knit fabric beautifully expressed in the lyrics of the song -

There comes a time
When we heed a certain call,
When the world must come together as one.
There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life,
The greatest gift of all

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me .

It is a most fitting tribute to mankind through this song, that no man is an island, that when somebody dies, a part inside each of us also dies, and for every man’s victory, we too, feel triumphant. Humanity is a beautiful tapestry, and Humanities is Arachne on the loom.~.

“Humanities holds the greatest treasure of mankind.“
- AVR

Nationally renowned authors, poets and dramatists, among them Ofelia Dimalanta, Sedfrey Ordoñez, Jose Villa

In summary, Humanities

- is a beautiful tapestry of humanity
- brings out the sense of awe and wonder
- builds on the framework of truth and values
- brings out the human spirit
- brings tranquility in crisis
- is guardian of movements and schools
- aims at goodness and peace
- is keeper and pioneer of the arts
- faces challenge of the cyber age
- elevates reverence for life and Nature - is the custodian of the network of humanitiy 
- holds the greatest treasure of mankind ~