seven pounds

i have no idea when the movie "seven pounds" was released, i just saw it last night. the movie starred will smith. i'm not a movie buff, all  i know is that w. smith movies are all worth watching, i could be wrong. if you haven't seen the movie yet and hate spoilers please don't read this.
the film is about selfless giving, about making an impact to the hearts and lives of other people by being a blessing to them, a gift. random acts of kindness from people you know is heartwarming already, having experienced them from people you dont know just melts your heart. the film showed how the lead role, posing as a lowly tax collector, improved and even drastically changed the lives of seven strangers by giving them a surprising gift they didn't ask for but, nonetheless, they all deserve.
i am a believer in the innate goodness of the human heart and the power it brings to positively influence other people's lives. this movie depicted just that. the lead showed the ultimate act of kindness by giving all of his to people he didnt know and bringing light, love, hope and happiness in their lives.
he bestowed his house to shelter a broken family, to heal their shattered soul. he went beyond sharing. in a figurative and literal sense, he gave a piece of him to make others whole.
his brother, a lung cancer victim, needed a double-lobe transplant. he was the donor. six months later he donated the right part of his liver to a lady working under the department of children safety and family services. he endured the pain of bone-marrow extraction for a boy whose childhood's been blighted by his illness.
he donated a kidney to an old man, an ice-hockey coach whose endeavor extends beyond the boards and plexiglass of the ice-hockey rink. the coach helps send his players to college through solicitations.
he tested the heart of a blind meat-salesman who, despite the lead's being awfully rude on the phone, still remained kind and polite. the salesman finally saw the true beauty of the world. thanks to an unexpected gift, a present from a rather rude caller.
lastly, he met a lady who wanted to live life and experience things she'd so wanted to do-- travel, go backpacking, see the world. she wanted to know how it feels like to go running. a dying lady who experienced love and joy in his presence. she  only had weeks to live, a lady with a failing heart. he gave his.
seven pounds, seven heart beats i suppose. seven lives he touched, seven lives he saved, all strangers but one. "in seven days God created the world, and in seven seconds i shattered mine" said he. but in the end, he lives, he lives in the hearts of the people he helped.
an astonishingly good film.
how many of us are willing to help without being asked? how many are showing kindness because wewant to, not because we need to. are you a good man, even when people are not watching you? yes, no, maybe? even i can't totally say yes, cant tell if i'm among the kind ones, if i'm among those willing to help. but guess what, it doesn't matter. what matters is we could start now. start sharing our own seven pounds to others. regardless how little or big the act or deed you think it seems, to the people you're helping they are huge. if you are a recipient of any "seven pounds," just like in the movie, dont ask why you. just pay it forward and start sharing or showing your own seven pounds to others.

to our auntie bhie who's about to give a huge pound for our sis, thank you. with God's help let's hope it all goes well.

pulling the trigger

oh yes i pulled the trigger. probably not the best expression (awfully suggestive of self-slaughter) but that was how the boss put it, one clever man when it comes to double-meanings. a career suicide was how he saw it and i couldn't blame him. he put me where i am now. i recognized how determined he was in convincing me that what i'm about to do is impractical, insane and plain stupid. one who quits his job without having landed another one yet definitely falls under crazy or dumb. he tried talking me into reconsidering my decision, which i appreciated, but despite the superb sales man that he is, i just didn't buy it. so pull the trigger i did and i'm now two days away from officially hanging my admin hat or CS headset, whichever is official. for him, my giving up the post didn't make any sense, more like kicking the bucket but i just saw it differently. he may have assumed i haven't thought it through well enough. things happened so suddenly as though my resignation letter was one huge practical joke and i was waiting for him to freak out. except i was serious, and his reaction, just pure shock. i immediately felt sorry. but the corporate world knows no emotion, or so tin said. i believe her. they'll get by without me. and as for me, stupid or not stupid i have to be where i have to be. with my family. end of story.

buhay katutubo

minsan naisip ko, ano kayang kalagayan ng mundo kung lahat tayo'y mamumuhay ayon sa pamamaraan ng mga katutubo. pamumuhay na simple, buhay na payak. yung tipong lahat ng tao ay kontento, masaya at wala masyadong iniisip. napakasarap siguro mamuhay sa ganoong paligid. wala kang trabaho sa opisinang iniisip. hindi mo problema ang kawalan ng pamasahe o kawalan ng trabaho o kawalan ng pang-sine. mga pagkain ay lahat laan ng kalikasan. bahay na pawid sapat na sa mag-anak. nakakaaliw sigurong isipin. marahil ang mga sinauna, tanging problema ay kung saan pu-pwesto matapos ang merienda. papalipas oras kasama ang tropa, palitan ng kwento o mga kuro-kuro, kwentong kabayo o kwentong ninuno. tanging bisyo ay uminom ng lambanog o lumagok ng tuba. humigop ng sabaw sabay hilik sa dampa. pagsapit ng umaga, mamano ang anak, hahagkan ang sinta. hithit ng tabako pares na kapeng barako. tilaok ng manok, pang gising ng diwa. ang sarap siguro mamuhay ng ganito. subalit naging masmatalino ang tao. umusad ng umusad at nagsimulang magbago. makabagong sibilisasyon, ang makinaryang ngbigay daan sa kabihasnan at modernisasyon. ang dambuhalang lumamon sa kultura at pamumuhay na sinauna. pamumuhay na payak, pamumuhay na sapat, pamumuhay na payapa. ano kayang itsura ng mundo kung lahat tayo'y mamuhay ayon sa pamamaraan ng katutubo? maganda siguro. maganda siguro.

game face on

first quarter of my existence is slowly slipping past and what have i been up to all these years? let me see. i partition man's life into quarters. mine is ninety, i don't expect man to live over ninety, i just dont. so i take my entire ninety years of existence, divide it into three, refer to it as quarters--like in basketball--and figure out what to do with it. so it's three thirties all in all and the first quarter is almost up. i could almost hear the whistle blowing. life has no timeouts and i'm doing the analysis before the quarter ends--how am i doing, how good have i played the game, or how bad. jeez, never thought i'd be this bad a coach to myself. i'm fine alright, no ugly injuries so far, superb defense all through out. could've been a perfect game you know, except the defense. it has been pure defense all along and ironically almost nil in the offense department. i played safe, a little bit too safe to start an early lead in life. defense wins championships, or so they say, but one also needs to take his shots to light up the scoreboard. what good a tough defense is if the score is static. not to mention the possibility that the opponent could always hit a lucky shot.so its the offense then that's lacking. no wonder i'm stuck in this same ground. i've made myself too comfortable by taking advantage of the very court i've grown too familiar with. too much familiarity begets complacency. i've been fighting my battles in the same court using the same plays, the same smarts, the same defense which landed me right where i am now. little have i realized how small the playing ground have become and that i've been stuck in this same place for quite long already. no more growth, no more movement. now it's time to change strategy, need to do it soon to beat the buzzer. i've to work on my offense, develop it even more, put my gameface on, be bold, be agressive. it's just time to leave the familiar court behind and start to rattle cages that are bigger, better, and more competetive, if not cutthroat. starting all over again will never be easy, that's given, a gamble i need to take. but who knows, i might just hit my own lucky shot and start from there.

man's perfection (a universal tuth, just universally denied)

i've been constantly barraged by one man's unbelievable call, clamor, advocacy for perfection. any quest for attaining perfection is nothing but a wild-goose chase and that's how i see it. a thing which i've been having a hard time communicating to my boss. nobody's perfect, period. he thinks otherwise and i can not counter that. just one of the taboos in the corporate world i guess--not letting one's boss know he's totally wrong about one thing, especially if he strongly believes it to be true, solid as a pope to his faith. or monk or jew. so yeah, it's my boss who's expecting nothing less than perfection from me, in my work, in everything i do. he's all nuts about perfection and ever relentless in preaching and imbibing in me the doctrines of perfection that i'm slowly starting to accept that man's imperfection is horribly abnormal. this leads me to this question. is perfection even possible? i'd say yes. but to a certain degree. one could be a perfect cook who comes up with a perfect dish all the time, but he could also be a terrible driver at the same time, or basketball player, or liar or lover. see the point? man could be so damn good, even perfect in one thing or two, but not in everything. i'm pretty sure its just not doable, absolutely impossible. not that i'm finding an excuse for being imperfect, well maybe i am, but that's not the point. i can be ridiculously close to being perfect in some things but hey, i'm only human, and a man at that, raised as a kid and grew up believing that the idea that nobody's perfect is an absolute truth. but now, like a christian shattered by the news that there's no God, i am starting to doubt the assumed fact that no man is perfect. is man really capable of attaining perfection? or is he just too lazy to even attempt reaching it? had it been a conspiracy amongst early humans to just accept the idea about man's imperfection as truth to save them the enormous hassle of upholding perfection? all of this makes me wonder if any of what boss has been saying bear any truth to it. come to think of it, man may have the ability to achieve perfection. with the right motivation, the right outlook and extreme determination, hell, it could be possible.perhaps the sheer pressure of consistently being perfect is too enormous for man that it's preferable, convenient even, for everybody to just accept that man, despite it's ability to attain perfection, is just imperfect and will simply choose to be so. lets just say everything is possible, and one pessimistic lazy-ass came up with the word impossible, preached it to the crowd, turned it into a religion and successfully amassed a multitude of followers. i think same goes with perfection. it is attainable, a universal truth just universally denied. supposedly a fact effectively corrupted by the thought that nobody is perfect. on the other hand, man's imperfection could be doing us a huge favor. life would be less as fun as it is  now if everything and everybody is perfect, wouldn't it?

on PAL incident

putting aside the chaos left by the PAL pilots and crews who resigned without prior notice, what happened to the flag-carrier proved one thing. it's not the tons of jet fuels that put planes in the air, it's the workforce. treat them well--salary increase, better benefits, bonuses, etc.--and they take care of your business just as well. this goes out to all businesses whether you fly planes or sell Apples.

all for nothing

two hours of loud, animated, if not empty, discussion and explanation about careering and career path practically started out and ended in, well, silence. silence filled with meaningful, understood glances and gestures from disappointed employees. i, personally, have grown tired taking pride in my work and the company i'm working for. appreciation is good, giving out well-deserved recognitions. it sure keeps the motivation and the drive going. but drives and motivations could only do so much for a company, especially the people. without any hint of hypocrasy, just reality speaking in and of itself, what ultimately keeps people motivated to strive hard and continue showing excellence in his work is, you got it right, money. pride, recognition, lateral movements, learning of new skills are all good, nothing wrong with it, recognize people all you want, but at the end of the day, all of these become worthless, especially when the bills start pouring in. i wish i could fully understand what the management was trying to send across, some of it did make sense, but the thing is, many would simply prefer salary increase across the board over warm and, unfortunately, empty recognitions. it sure strokes the ego, but damn no good relieving an empty stomach.

so what's in it for me again?

interesting how after three and a half years of stay in the company i finally get to learn my career path. pretty late for something that should've been presented during orientation. had the PAL incident inspired this initiative? i mean, if i'm the boss, i'd let the workforce realize how secure their positions are in the company and the number of opportunities in store for them, real or imagined. opportunities. that's what comes to mind when i hear career paths. should i be expecting opportunities then? will find out tomorrow.