What was I thinking?

Commencement Exercises, Promises 13 May 2008

It is the season for graduations. In fact, it is just about over for most schools. The summer break is in full swing.

Promises abound at times similar to this in the past. Students in every school or university are simultaneously hopeful and fearful. This is true just about every year and everywhere.

Whatever it is that we wish for, it is highly probable that someone in the past may have had the same. The accumulated hopes and determination of these graduates were not enough to make everyone’s life more bearable. There are still a lot of the same old problems: hunger, corruption, crime, poverty, hopelessness, and injustice, among others. They do overlap and are interrelated. Some would even argue that many of these problems are acquired by choice!

These old problems have always been a challenge that everyone is aware of. The accumulated indifference to them has made them almost nonexistent. It will be good to remind people whom we label “achievers” of these problems. Then again, they are probably not the relevant ingredients to the solution. We have always had them, and these riddles persist.

Did all the promising students all over the world address only trivial questions? I am inclined to think that many of them do, but certainly even a small fraction did address some of these persistent problems. Or are they just made silent by the majority that select or vote individuals to positions of high impact in society on the basis only of self-advancement? Or were they made silent in a more direct manner?

Saturday just before the commencement exercises at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, we find a practically deserted parking lot at the 6th level of the Metroeast branch of Robinson’s. This was around noon too! At other times this would have been at least half-full.

Many family budgets have been busted by the season. Most of them are preparing for the expenses of the coming school year. Only the cries of children wanting to see “Iron man” may force parents to spend a bit more.

Nagging human obstacles/challenges we do promise to address after a break from attempting to pose the problem in a manner that we can trivialize and successfully ignore. Much in the same manner that successful people have in the past.

Here is a bromeliad that flower only at intervals of four to five years. Just about the same amount of time utilized by a college student to obtain a degree. It is more honest though. It doesn’t promise anything save for the drying of the blossom and possibly a copy of itself at the designated interval.

Nothing “better” is anticipated, just a resurrection.