By Henrylito D. Tacio
“I have found life an enjoyable, enchanting, active, and sometimes terrifying experience, and I’ve enjoyed it completely. A lament in one ear, maybe, but always a song in the other.”
This statement, coming from the mouth of Sean O’Casey, summarizes what life is all about.
Life, as defined by biologists, is “the metabolic activity of protoplasm.” But there are times when it seems even worse than that. “My dear,” a father once told an impatient daughter, “If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.”
Jerold Savory said it aptly: “We may not prefer a world in which sorrow always seems to be so close to joy; in which heartbreak always seems so close to happiness; in which doubt always seems to be so close to faith. But this is the kind of world we’ve in.”
All of us came into this world, courtesy of our father and mother. The father supports while the mother cares and loves. To most parents, a baby is more than just a part of their lives. The world, it seems, revolves around the newborn.
Then, the baby grows and starts learning about his or her surroundings. He or she wants to know more. That’s where education comes in. “What you learn with just the mind is quickly forgotten; what you learn when you are emotionally involved remains imprinted in the nervous system and the first task of education is involvement, not mere learning,” Sydney Harris said.
Clifton L. Hall has this advice: “It is easy – even natural – to think of education as something that ends when one finishes school, or graduates from college, or is decorated with a doctorate. But it might be nearer to the truth to say that real education begins when formal education ends. I frequently recommend books to graduate students ‘to be read when you stop taking courses and begin to get an education.’”
Oftentimes, education is what a person needs to get real work. We are not put here on earth to play around. “Life is real; life is earnest,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow pointed out. We are not here to “have fun,” which seems to be the chief ambition of so many. There is work to be done.
Walter Hoving advises: “Find a job that’s suited to your talents and then do a lot more work than you’re paid for. In time, you’ll be paid much more for what you do. Workers who get what they can, as fast as they can, as easily as they can, are bound to be disillusioned. Such people fail to make progress simply because they aren’t profitable to the people who hire them.”
Once you have work, marriage would just be around the corner. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh,” Genesis 2:24 stated. “Marriage is not for a moment; it is for a lifetime,” Gina Cerminara said. “It requires long and serious preparation. It is not to be leaped into, but entered with solemn steps of deliberation. For one of the most intimate and difficult human relationships is that of marriage.”
God, through His servant Paul, also instructed what husband and wife must do to have a successful marriage. “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife… Also, wives should submit to their husbands in everything… Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies… Wives must respect their husbands.”
The general society holds that normal people are either married or wish to be – but single status is an appropriate option to marriage. “Singles should be accepted,” urged Mark Lee. “All persons live for a time as singles – so it must be a normal state.”
Those who get married become parents. “Parents are prone to give their children everything except the one thing they need most. That is time: time for listening, time for understanding, time for helping, and time for guiding,” reminds Emma K. Hulburt. “It sounds simple, but in reality, it is the most difficult, and the most sacrificial task of parenthood.”
The Hebrew word for parents is horim, and it comes from the same root as moreh, teacher. “The parent is, and remains, the first and most important teacher that the child will ever have,” Rabbi Kassel Abelson reminds.
And it came to pass: days become months and months become years. And before you know it, you are given your retirement benefits by the company you are working for.
“I’m against mandatory retirement,” declared Sam Ervin. “It ought to be left to individuals. It is a shame to assume that all fools are old fools. I’ve found that there are more young fools than old fools. Nature has a way of getting rid of old fools.”
Frankly, my dear, people retire. “If retirement is a part of your future, no matter how far in the future it may be, plan now to retire not from something but to something,” advises Betty Zachow. “It’s a state of mind, and there are extra years of zest ahead.”
Retirement may not be mandatory but no one can escape death. “People are always serious about death,” observed Bob Harrington. “I never met what you call tough people when they were dying.”
Tell that to Woody Allen. “It’s not that I’m afraid to die,” the Hollywood actor said. “I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
Whether you’re handsome, beautiful, fat, thin, or anything, all have the same destination – to face our Creator. “I’m not afraid to die,” declared Ethel Waters. “I’m kind of looking forward to it. I know the Lord has His arms wrapped around this big fat sparrow.”
As you exit this world, be sure to leave it with a big bag. As one sage puts it, “When you were born, you cried, and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a manner that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” – ###
