FRESH PERSPECTIVES ON TWILIGHT YEARS

 

“When will you leave for the US?” my daughter Dionne PMed her mom.

Many times before, she raised such a question, bathed with anticipation, right after my wife and I had gotten our visas. We kept on holding off our travel plan due to the hassles of getting ready particularly putting in order what we would leave behind – house, car, and pets, among others -- until, double-quick, our plan was shut off by the pandemic.

This time our daughter asked the same question but tinged with apprehension. It was a day after the elections when she was a first-time voter. The results dismayed her just as Ethan, another first-time voter, was so distressed that he wrote a piece in Manila Standard, which I am excerpting below:

“Yes, we had months and countless conversations of preparing, promoting, and theorizing on how the results will be yet, especially to me, a first-time voter. The silence only brought an eerie realization. The thought stayed on my mind even as I drifted to sleep – that the fate of my future, those around me, and the unborn children of tomorrow, now hangs in a balance.”

            My daughter’s emotionally loaded question not only did remind us of our trip running behind but also has opened our eyes to fresh perspectives on life’s hourglass -- ebbing with time.

SECOND WIND

“Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second. Give your dreams all you’ve got, and you’ll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you.” (William James, philosopher, historian, and psychologist)

Surfing the internet, I came across five remarkable seniors who ran far enough and got their dreams with amazing energy coming out of them.

Harry Bernstein spent a long life writing in obscurity but finally achieved fame at age 96 for his 2007 memoir “The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers.”

Tom Allen is Britain’s oldest yoga instructor who still teaches at 90 years old.

Laura Ingalls Wilder spent her later years writing semi-autobiographical stories and published the first in the “Little House” books at age 65. They became children’s literary classics and the basis for the TV show “Little House on the Prairie.”

Frank McCourt only took up writing at the age of 65. His book “Angela’s Ashes” won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Award.

Toni Morrison did not become famous in public until she became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature at 62.

Interestingly, four of them plunged into writing – my present passion – which speaks volumes about the enduring power of our brain in the thinking process.

Presently, although I am happy in writing articles for my ATABAY blog in my basement, I feel I have not run far enough. To find out I’ve got a second wind on my thinking and writing career, I figure out I have to run farther in the land of the free and the home of the brave -- the U.S. of A. Like the five remarkable seniors above, I look forward to that amazing energy to come out of me.

UNTAPPED POTENTIAL

“With U.S. unemployment near its lowest rate in 50 years, companies are adopting creative strategies for pursuing talent, from hiring people with criminal records to recruiting high school students... But one segment of the population remains relatively untapped: older adults.” (Excerpted from Kellogg Insight’s “In the Hunt for Top Talent, Don’t Overlook Older Workers”)

Just as the U.S. companies are being encouraged to tap the potential of the older people, so too I am saying to myself: “You need to put to good use your untapped potential. So go to where your school of fish is; it’s where the fishermen fish.”

Before the day I launched my ATABAY blog last year, I had surfed the internet multiple times for legit offered writing jobs, especially in the US market that pays in dollars. But before I could even look into the scope of some of the jobs I chose and sized up – to ensure I could tackle the task -- all at once, this in-your-face requisite barred me: you must live in the U.S. After mulling over, right then and there, I said to myself, “You must live where the action is with the green card.” Thanks to my daughter-nurse Jan Kristy, a newly-naturalized American citizen for filing the petition for her dad and mom to become green card holders.

The untapped potential that I gained during my corporate heyday has remained untapped, due to the nature of the corporate rat race then, which I narrated, with a heavy heart, in my previous ATABAY article “Seventy-Seven Times” which I am excerpting below:

“For the next four years, I boosted my credentials with three postgraduate studies: Master of Business Management in Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, Diploma in Research and Development Management in the University of the Philippines-Los Banos, and Master Program of Management Studies in the Institute of Certified Professional Managers (ICPM) in Virginia, USA.

“ICPM conducted the class online (a precursor of what’s happening today) by sending me 20 management books. At my own pace, I read the first book, from cover to cover, answered a set of more than a hundred questions, and then sent the set of my answers to ICPM. Then, I read the second book, and so on, until I read the whole 20 books in 3 months and ultimately received a highly sought-after international ICPM certificate. Being one of the three only in the whole country who completed the course then, showed how I was too determined in boosting my race car’s horsepower.”

Sad to say, though boosted, my corporate race car was never engine-started. As I narrated in my article then, the corporate rat race rules suddenly changed. This time, with God’s grace, I look forward to harnessing such boosted knowledge in my US trip.

SUCCESSFUL AGING

“There is a term, ‘successful aging,’ that has come to define a certain type of senior, one who accomplishes astonishing tasks in the final gasp of one’s life… like the ninety-six-year old who ran the New York City Marathon or the 101-year-old who released her first collection of poems.” (Emily Urquhart, How Creativity Changes as We Age)

I will go to the US neither to run the New York City Marathon (but who knows?) nor publish there my first collection of ATABAY articles (wow!); nor will such a trip be my last hurrah (PH will always be my country). I will go to the US to live a life and do work that will bring personal fulfillment and lasting relationships, and in a little good way, to make some difference. I could not achieve such “successful aging,” here and now, under our nation’s grueling plight that I wrote eight months before the election in my previous ATABAY article “What Do I See?” which I am excerpting below:

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The Future

Question: Why did God give PH, the “Light of Asia” (Pope John Paul II prayer) a ruler who insulted Pope Francis and called God stupid?

Answer: “[God] PUNISHED [His people] by delivering them to their attackers…” (2 Kings 17:20, emphasis mine); “When God wants to judge a nation, He gives them wicked rulers.” (John Calvin). Cardinal Sin affirmed Calvin’s assertion with Marcos and his Martial Law as Exhibit A. Thus, to punish, God has given PH such kind of ruler today.

Why? 1 in 4 Pinoys is below the poverty line. PH, for being the “Light of Asia,” has angered God as He was with Sodom that “DID NOT HELP THE POOR.” (Ezekiel 16:49, emphasis mine)

What will happen in the [May 9] election? If God is still angry, He will give us another Punisher.

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“Akala ko magma-migrate ka ‘pag nanalo ang Marcos,” Senator Imee Marcos asked journalist Karen Davila. I would have replied:

“Wish me luck, Senator Imee, and may God have mercy on our country!”

Head still photo courtesy of Hernan Pauccara from pexeldotcom