Reinvigorating Cultures

 

"To See You Again" sung by Ebe Dancel

            I come from the Philippines, we have the ancient tradition of the Harana or serenade, a dying artform in light of the great westernization and technological evolution that is griping the entire world. Despite all this, a part of me believes and knows that music can never be a dying art form in this world; it is merely an unused one. We listen to our favorite musicians and songs day in and day out. We hear them on the radio and expect to hear our favorite melodies. But where is the substance, the live expression in society that music is supposed to create?

            Who is the author of music, of sound, except the one who created the universe? If God created man to have ears and voices of which to sing, then God intended music to be alive, to be an expression of man’s soul. Have you ever asked yourself, why in stories, there is always singing in heaven? The highest seraphim themselves continually sing their praises to God. Once upon a time in many countries, song was used to court and yes, it didn’t always work for the one doing the courting, but it was a beautiful form of expression nonetheless. Now, the Harana itself in Philippine culture is almost completely dead. Long gone are the days when men would sing to try and win the hearts of their beloved and vice versa.

            It is almost completely dead except for the few Filipino masters of this lost art form who keep the tradition alive, masters such as Florate Aguilar and Celestino Aniel from the documentary, “Harana.” In a way, that effort to keep the “Harana” alive even as a musical artifact has re-ignited my own vision of music in the realm of the romantic. The night I envisioned this website, I realized that the “Harana” could live again, by injecting it into the mainstream culture, and into the land cyberspace and media. Besides, practiced art forms are merely reflections of the practices a culture possesses, or a part of its soul. To not see the beauty and utility of a God given gift is to be blind and apathetic to the ideal that God has asked each and every one of us to strive for.

            That brings me to the next point. “Thy Kingdom come, they Will be done, on earth as it is done in Heaven.” If there singing in heaven, then one day, there must be singing on earth, whether it is to God or to one’s beloved, music should never be seen as corny or out of date. We sing at Church do we not? Many of us sing like robots or have learned to sing like robots. And our children sing as robots as well because that is what the culture turns them into, turns us into, not saints, because the greatest utility of a saint is to live love, to show love, to sing love. To express love in suffering, or joy, in gladness, or hardship is the path of love if it performed as such for the love of God. To take a love ballad and offer it up to God, where has that gone? It has been relegated to rote and repetitive practice. And as long as things are that way, the Victory of God in the human soul will never be complete as long as we never learn how to sing.

             We must take the old tradition of the serenade and reinvigorate it and raise it to new life and a higher standard. Gone are the old lyrical styles and standards that those forms of music utilized. But life is such is it not. We have songs so beautiful and amazing that people in the past have never heard. We have technology and advancements today that those before us never were able to experience. God has revealed numerous secrets to his people that are yet to be revealed to many for the benefit of bringing his people even closer to him. If so many advancements are being made in all areas, then the art form of music must be advanced as well. It must be brought back. We must utilize this dying art into what God intended it to be used for, in order to create beauty in the human soul, an entire universe and kingdom unto itself. We do this now, by teaching. That is how I envision this, our future, so let us make it a good one. God bless.

To Follow Christ

            We have forgotten how to follow Christ, that is why many seem to be losing the battle against evil in the world. Christ said “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to the mountain, move and it would obey you.” One night, I was watching the last remaining scenes to “Ben Hur” and it made me remember. It made me remember exactly what I had forgotten. I had forgotten how to love Christ. What do I mean by this? When I was younger, I remember having so much more strength, and grace from God than I do today. It wasn’t until I saw the ending scenes to Ben-Hur that I realized, it was because I had forgotten how to follow Christ. I no longer really loved him, and instead; I had replaced him with myself.

            I had received so much over the years, answered prayers, a wonderful life, good friends, graces and knowledge beyond measure, and how was I living my life? I had forgotten to put Christ first, by slowly forgetting how to love him. To love someone means to follow that person in one’s heart, mind, and soul, and to assimilate them into yourself, and they become a part of you. By doing that, one acquires wisdom, grace, knowledge, the light of truth, and true strength of the beloved. I was starting to become merely a shadow of who I was, the child who loved God. The world had offered me idols and they slowly took the place of Christ.

            There was a time, when I had the courage to say no to those idols. But Satan plays a cruel war on souls, and slowly, the deceptions he places in front of our souls become idols of worship. The world itself is an idol. Friends, encounters, something as small as conversation, they all become idols without Christ. There was a time when I heard more clearly the voice of God, and it flowed more easily through me. And years later, more often than not, it seems I had but the mere memory of that voice. The life of grace in me had been replaced. It had been replaced by the world, a world that at one time, had obviously offered no sense of truth or life. It did not possess the water that would never make one go thirsty again. That water flows only from Christ. To drink of that water means to follow him.

            To follow Christ, we must love Christ more than anything else. We must love him enough to destroy every idol the world puts before us for love of him. We must follow in the manner that a true Christian follows their God, that is to Golgotha and to the cross, but not with sadness, but with joy because there is no greater strength, no greater wisdom, no greater purpose than to possess God in oneself. We do not follow others, we do not follow music, we do not follow our self, and we do not follow the world. We must stand where Christ stood, walk as Christ walked, looked as Christ looked, think as Christ thought, and give as Christ gave, that is to say, our whole heart. And we should deal with the world the way Christ did, that is with true wisdom and love.       

            I had forgotten that truth, and without it, God's Will would have found no purpose with me. If I was born as an only child, with no siblings, It was because my friends were siblings, and that this was, is, and has always my mission, to tell them to love Christ by reminding them how to love him, and by doing that, showing them the path to his Will. That by loving him, we become like him, and we are able to pick up our crosses and while kissing the wood, say to God, “Father, not my will, but thine be done.”

Internet dating, a world of possiblities and long distance relationships

            Ok, let’s talk about something I don’t usually indulge in, the world of internet dating. I recently decided to give internet dating a go and for the most part, it has been an exciting experience. As a Filipino living in the United States, it gives you such a large pool to choose from and you can essentially get rejected to your heart’s extent. In the real world, a rejection is a major setback because of the type of world we live.  It’s not that people aren’t as social, but everything is moved towards cyberspace and smart phones. We have choices and options that weren’t available back in the day. People like what’s convenient and so going online opens up a whole world of possibilities. Why settle when you can network and meet someone better or meet several people at once to find the right one?

          If you’re trying to find someone and haven’t had much luck in the physical world, then you’d be surprised how effective internet dating can be. For me, it used to carry a sour note in that it felt synonymous with the word “desperation”. So about three weeks ago, I decided to give internet dating a go. I went to Catholic match and made up an account and paid for a trial subscription. I still don’t know if I want to re-subscribe. Once I started using it, I realized, "this is tons of fun." You can message anything you want to anyone you want. And you can see who looks at your profile and they can see if you looked at theirs. It gives actual function to the term creeper, which we do in Facebook and other social networking sites.

            On the downside, you get no responses often, but sometimes you do and that’s when you get lucky. That rate differs from person to person, and the reason is obvious.  You also end up being immediately critical of how the person looks, which is a negative for me, even though that is the main criteria a lot of us look at, at least at first, then we check to see if they are a 7 out of 7 Catholic, and basically whether they agree with the teachings of the Church, etc. So a few weeks back, I was chatting with this one girl and she suddenly disappears, this is what is termed as the “lame exit”. They just disappear. Online dating does give you an ego boost though when you get a notification in your email that someone viewed you profile or sent you an emotigram or message.

           

            You can communicate two ways, emotigram with a very short message or a long message, at least on Catholic Match. That’s not a guarantee they will respond though. The other day, I received an emotigram from a mom with three kids, lol. To be nice, I responded with, "thank you for the emotigram." I think it’s good to respond, unless of course, you receive a hundred messages or emotigrams at a time. Then she replies with “how are you?” Unfortunately, I was currently chatting with someone from the Philippines. This was before meeting my current long distance girlfriend on another site, who we will just name as C.C.  So back to the point, I’m going to have to let that person know that I’m not trying to lead them on. But still, responding is still better than not when it comes to courtesy. It always good to make new friends. So on to the tricky part, long distance relationships.

 

          That being said, internet dating is not for everyone. You almost always need to be careful of what site you're using or who you're talking to. Safety is always a top priority so when you decide to meet that special someone. Pick a place that is in the area of the general public, and if needed, bring someone who can watch from afar if you really want to be safe. That being said, you can be anyone you want to be, although if you create a complete deception about yourself, you will be coined the title of "catfish" which is someone who uses social media or other internet services to create a false identity with the intention to deceive, often for romantic or cruel purposes.

            Aside from that, express yourself. Show who you are or who you would like to be. Thus the possibilities are limitless so long as you remember to create an authentic version of yourself. Have fun, be daring, but be good. Always remember, you're talking to a real person at the other end of the screen, people who have real feelings and emotions just like you. Internet dating can be just as heartbreaking and stressful as in real life. So leaving final suggestion, present yourself any way you like, but be most of all, be kind. Words are some of the most powerful gifts we possess, whether we use speech, or a keyboard we always have the capacity to touch someone's heart or destroy it. Good luck, happy hunting, and God speed. :) xoxo