Language

As we celebrate this month the importance of our national language, Filipino, the question came to me-how can I give importance and contribute to enrich it?

There must be numerous ways. One thing I am sure of is by using it the right way, expressing my thoughts and letting others feel that our language is beautiful. Simply using it everyday is preserving it, but more to that is how we translate our words into actions, I believe this is the truest way to enrich it. A noble idea can be appreciated but putting it into action is giving life to every letter and words which makes it alive inside of us. The most powerful collective result language can achieve is to motivate each person to participate in social action.

Being a student, I know the possibilities are endless but again, it lies in my own understanding of why I need to do it and how, which leads me back to my purpose as a part of this human family created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization.

The Carpenter's Story

This is indeed a heart-warming story of a carpenter who made a bridge to unite two estranged brothers instead of following the older brother's order to build a fence separating him farther away from his younger brother. He used his skills and his wisdom to accomplish his task. He made them realize that people can always have choices with our actions-either to just do something that benefits one person or reach out and see more beyond the words of people, not acceding to their shallow needs but letting them reflect on what their divine needs and responsibilities are.

In our society now, how many people have the carpenter's perspective?to conquer the hatred with a more powerful thought of love to bring more light in this world. Would the most knowledgeable engineer think the way the carpenter did? As a member of the greater human family, how can I contribute to building bridges in this world that has become too small to be filled with fences?
Just like the carpenter, I should have some skills to contribute to building something, and that skill is developed through education. If in each community, education is given the most importance where the members can use their talents and skills to help others and improve their conditions, the world by now must have become one country.

Education is just one of the strong foundations to build bridges that I will mention here. We know that knowledge is acquired through science(understanding our physical environment) and religion(spiritual reality and its relation to the individual and community life-in its pure form the source of unity). These two are both needed because they help us understand the world we live in. If science is without religion, it becomes dogmatic materialism; and religion without science becomes superstition. The forces of these two work together to overcome superstition so that humanity can advance free from the limitations on the human mind.

As a student I hope that my education will help me fulfill my purpose: to be like the carpenter building bridges to make the world just one homeland for everyone.

Mysterious Mountain

I found the text very informative and it is presented chronologically. Mt. Apo was described through the order of time. Also a great deal of information was given in various fields like how it was named, it's geological truths and spiritual beliefs about Mt. Apo.

The text is also easy to understand because the vocabularies are easy and the text is objective, it adds to the interest of the reader because it gives him a vivid picture of Mount Apo in his thought.

Therefore, descriptive type of narration can point the scene of the story, the appearance or characters. It also makes places more concrete and through imagination it is presented to the reader and through descriptive writing and wide scope of informatiuon and creativity it can light the fire of interest to a person or whatnot.

No One Stops To Say "Thank You" Anymore

The world in which we live is now on it's transitory stage, humanity just got to the stage of maturity and the advancement of science is fast approaching. Sometimes we tend to forget to acquire spiritual qualities and focus only on acquisition of material things,even depriving our little ones with these immeasurable gifts. These qualities although inherent to us need to be practiced in order for them to become active. One should guide one another especially the little ones because these pure-hearted children are still free from the world's impurities,their hearts should be polished constantly with the help of the parents especially the mother, then eventually by himself/herself and continue to pass on the gifts she/he had received to other people and become a polished mirror that completely reflects the attributes of God and attracts like a radiant lamp that guides others to the straight path.

As society advances materially, it should be accompanied by spiritual progress. It's like the wing of a bird that it can neither fly without each other, when these two are intertwined only then that humans can attain true advancement. We should always harmonize our earthly goals with the laws of God. Meaing we should focus our strength, vigor and intelligence for the benefit of civilization, not on our personal pursuit.

We should start building this civilization by appreciating and doing simple courtesies, for the acquisition of these qualities depend on the person's capacity to receive them. We must strive day and night to expand our capacity to receive these bounties by offering a hand to the needy and by simply saying "thank you" to a person who helped us along the way.

The difference between the impossible and possible lies in the person's determination.

We all have our own dreams to achieve in life. These are built for the benefit of people we love and our community but the question is how can we make an impossible dream possible? And where does that feeling of deep striving come from? We know that striving for something is always a part of our nature, not just striving to simply acquire something but striving for excellence. People who have given so much and developed their potentials to the fullest made a difference. I believe each of us is born to make a difference. So how can we achieve a dream that seems so far away?

Understanding is the greatest of all motivators. That knowledge of our own self capable of developing potentials to the fullest will then fill us with the ardent desire to work for it. Now that we have the knowledge and the ardent desire to develop our capacity, what else do we need? We should then possess that will to do it. Then we should make a constant effort to develop our capacity. What else do we need aside from these? Will we succeed now? The last and the most important is to supplicate to our Creator to grant us succor and grace in achieving our purpose. These steps will surely assist us in achieving our dreams in life, but as one person put it, it all lies in our determination to carry on with each step.

Life is so short that we should fill each moment with the acquisition of spiritual attributes that we need in the next world, this is the most impossible task that each of us was born to achieve. And the world is just waiting for us to make it possible.

Human as a distinct creature above all creatures on Earth

Still, some of us believe that humanity's ancestors are mammals, apes and chimps, but I do believe that

humans are already human from the beginning, millions of years ago. It is because of the environment they live in,

and thus, intellectual powers are still hidden, waiting to be discovered. They, the humans, have fur and also walk with their hands, because the strongest predators at that time walk with their hands(lions, tigers, mammoth, apes) and so they mimic them (sign of brain development). And humans that time have fur because, and of course, it's very logical to have some protection on skin million of years ago when fire is not yet discovered. He needs some sort of protection and thus fur is essential that time. And after millions of years humans discovered fire and slowly knew how to build houses to protect them from violent weathers, eventually the physical appearance of human adopted to the changes happening in their environment and the brain/intellectual powers are rapidly developing. They less and less needed the fur, they now need agility and dexterity, and thus resulting in using their hands in combat for effective hunting. But now our physical appearance is on it's perfection, we are not adopting physically to the environment anymore, on the other hand we are using the environment to accommodate our needs.

Thus I conclude that our physical evolution is at it's perfection.

All things either make progress or lose ground. Everything moves forward or backward, nothing is without motion. From his birth, a man progresses physically until he reaches maturity, then, having arrived at the prime of his life, he begins to decline, the strength and powers of his body decrease, and he gradually arrives at the hour of death. Likewise the plant progresses from the seed to maturity, then it's life begins to lessen until it fades and dies. A bird soars to a certain height and having reached the highest possible point in it's flight, begins its descent to earth.

Thus it is evident that movement is essential to all existence. All material things progress to a certain point and then begin to decline. This is the law which governs the whole physical creation.

Now let us consider our distinct feature that no creatures on earth have, the rational soul or so I say, our intellectual powers or the Mind. How can humanity progress this much or the so-called ancestors of humans, the apes are still monkeys? If humans are from the apes, there shouldn't be a single ape right now because they should have evolved as humans.

Let us say the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdom have also their spirits/powers. For example the mineral kingdom have the power of existence. The vegetable kingdom the power of growth. The animals have the power of the senses, also for humans the intellectual powers or powers of the mind.

Our human spirit/rational soul embraces all beings, and as for our human ability it permits discovery of the realities of things and become cognizant to their peculiarities and effects.For however much the mineral can progress, it can never comprehend the vegetable world, now that lack of comprehension does not prove the non-existence of plants.To however great a degree a plant may evolve it is unable to understand the animal world; this ignorance is no proof that animals do not exist. The animal be he never so highly developed cannot imagine the intelligence of man, neither can he realize the nature of his soul. But again, this does not prove that man is without intellect or without soul. It only demonstrate this, that one form of existence is incapable of comprehending a form superior to itself.

My main point here is not about evolution or motions: forward and backward but the distinction of our existence that no other creatures on earth have.Next topic if I have the chance I'll discuss the nature of the next form of existence a world above ours, the spiritual world and the continuity of our existence which is our destined goal, inevitable to alter.

My hope for you, is that you will progress in your acquisition and developing spiritual powers in this world of matter, that your intelligence will develop, your knowledge will augment, and your understanding be widened. You must ever press forward never standing still; avoid stagnation the first step to a backward movement, to decay.

Good day.

SERIOUSLY!!

SHORT SUMMARY:

Edmond Dantes, a young and innocent sailor from Marseilles, whom after being betrayed by his jealous best friend Fernand Mondego is imprisoned in the infamous Chateau d'If. During his stay in this hardly hospitable prison—his warden whips him for each anniversary of his stay—he befriends inmate Abbe Farria who teaches him philosophy, science and the art of fencing. Before dying, the priest gives him the location of an immense treasure that Dantes recovers after a daring escape. Returning to France under the name of the lavish Count Monte Cristo, he uses his fortune to get back at those who sent him to jail and meets again with his former fiancee Mercedès now married to Mondego.

SPOILER ALERT!

Seriously I've been looking forward for this movie (before). I'm not a novel reader but I really like

how Alexander Dumas wrote his novels. It's kinda disappointing because lots of subplots from the

novel aren't present or have loose ends in the movie which doesn't give us enough time to fully enjoy

all the subtle mechanism of the count's vengeance. But still, it is a great movie and I applaud them from

being to summarize the novel to a short 2 hour movie.

To further add, I really like how the director change some of the encounters and conversations, like

Fernand and Edmund battle for the first time with the swords in the movie. That is really awesome.

And of course I like how it ends in the movie; in the novel, Fernand took his life and Edmond is alone

and never to be with Mercedes, but in the movie Fernand and Edmond had a clash in the ending and

thus resulting Fernand's Death.

I really urge you to watch this great movie even though it lacks some of the detailed tasks the count

had made.

And oh, by the way' I really liked how he flashily come to the party from a balloon and only said

"Greetings." with such a soft and cunning voice. '-'