As long as there is life, there is hope. In the King James Version of Ecclesiastes 9:4, it reads: “For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.”
It is good to live. This is a general statement of many people in the world, especially Filipinos. Although he has extensive experience as a seaman, Mac-mac met an accident at the age of 35 when he fell off the ship with a height of 15 feet, and his back was crushed by railings. This is his exact words in the Jejemon-like chat: “Parang ang hirap non ha para sken kaya habang may buhay may pag-asa para sken kc muntik nako mamatay ng na accident ako cguro my purpose pako sa mundo ito kaya binigyan ako ni God na mabuhay pa at cguro dipa tpos yung journey ko.” [It seems like it is hard…for me, so as long as there is life, there is hope. It is because I almost died in an accident. I think I still have a purpose in this world, so God gave me (a second chance) to live and, maybe my journey is not over yet.]
Mac-mac’s ship was going to Egypt, traversing the Indian Ocean, when the accident happened. He was dropped off in India and was hospitalized there for a month. Fortunately, five years have passed and not only is he happy at work, he has also regained his energy and has a strong physique (matipuno), although he still has some tingles (ngilo) when it is cold at times.
The accident aggravated the situation of his loved ones who later also got better. Like other Filipino families who want at least one of their parents or family members to have a stable income, instability has also been consecutively intense in what Mac-mac considers “sa kanila” or “theirs” (which plainly means home and national economics) – the disease COVID-19 that hit so many people, with the World Health Organization considering it later as a pandemic, calamities, killings and other crimes, rotten or dysfunctional government systems, waste of the public treasury, rice crisis, unstoppable increase of commodity prices, the lingering war between Russia and Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of 2021 and 2023, Chinese bullying and its unlawful claims to the West Philippine Sea, and stolen wealth by people in government.
It is more painful for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and overseas Filipinos (OFs) trapped by the clashes between the countries. By experience in the course of some three decades, there is no “immediate” repatriation that is thought of today and then tomorrow the affected Filipinos will go home.
But there are real areas for some not to be sad: It is good, in their own volition, that they are not in the countries that are fighting with bombs, tanks, and ready-to-kill armed forces.
They can watch movies on Netflix, eat out or at the shopping mall, have Internet access to use social media, watch their favorite television shows, or dance themselves and be watched on TikTok. There are people who make money using Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Shopee, and Lazada. Joining the politicians’ troll armies has also become lucrative with the onslaught of fabrications and fake news online. There are also many children who can play noisy game apps (as opposed to some children who hear every night and day the bombings that are happening or are being carried out by their countries and some of them have already died.)
And there are others with the right motive for rejoicing: those who have graduated, those who have received awards, those who have succeeded in business, those who have been healed by God, or those who have been strengthened by the challenges of life, those who have married and given birth, women who have escaped from violence against them and their children, and those who have savored the joy of salvation.
If there is “no hope” for anything and anyone, such a situation cannot be fully explained. Because a situation or condition enters the human mind, there is hope. Because of the tiredness experienced, there is hope. Because one is with a nation, there is hope. Because there is a neighbor, there is hope. Because there is rest and breath, there is hope. (May pahinga at hininga, may pag-asa.) So let us always hope that our hearts and minds can do something. When it comes to the point “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,” still be happy because of the received truth there is something to think about: We have good intentions, but we fail to live up to them. Not only should we feel happy but also have peace of mind by receiving that truth.
So, no matter how Jerusalem was destroyed, it is said in Lamentations 3:21-24 (penned in 586/587 BC, during or nearly after such destruction): “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”
Hope then was similar to today. Mabuhay.
DC Alviar
Professor DC Alviar serves as a member of the steering committee of the Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO). He was part of National University’s community extension project that imparted the five disciplines of a learning organization (Senge, 1990) to communities in a local government unit. He writes and edits local reports for Mega Scene. He graduated with a master’s degree in development communication from the University of the Philippines Open University in Los Baños. He recently defended a dissertation proposal for his doctorate degree in communication at the same graduate school under a Philippine government scholarship grant. He was editor-in-chief of his high school paper Ang Ugat and the Adamson News.
