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| Photo: The Cross by Paik666 (DeviantArt.com) |
Quite a sad way for me to start 2011...
We had just finished celebrating Christmas when shocking news came to
the household a couple of days later: my grandmother figured in an accident and
suffered a major head injury. Day in and day out, my father continued to
communicate with the doctors on her condition. Sadly though, the mere fact was
this: she is already dying and there was nothing they could even do to prolong
it.
As I type this essay, instead of the year-end essay that should have
been posted days ago (sorry guys, it will not happen...), I could not help but wonder if I am still doing the right
thing in her honor. She has joined the Great Creator right now (actually, just
hours ago), yet instead of mourning, I chose to be indifferent and keep the
emotions to myself. While the midst of
the silence and sadness, my other siblings continued on their post-new-year revelry
like it was nothing. That begs me to ask this question: who is the heretic in
the scenario?
I leave that question amongst yourselves, as I wish to delve into my
short discussion of what life really is. A lot of people, mostly scientists,
philosophers, and preachers, have defined it in various conflicting ways. But
they do agree on two elements for that matter: existence and consciousness.
It is said that life means existence, in such a way that we can
appreciate it just by utilizing our primary senses. The moment that we
recognize something or someone either by sight, sound, scent, taste, or touch
(as applied accordingly), we can tell that it is alive. There’s a flaw into
this statement though, as the definition is quite broad.
That is where consciousness factors in. Wikipedia defined it as “a subjective
awareness, the ability to experience feeling, the understanding of the concept “self”,
or the executive control system of the mind.” Deducing this statement in
relation to existence, existence is what is outside; consciousness is what is
within. To put it in a much simpler way, existence is what ticks within us;
consciousness is what keeps it from ticking.
And judging from what I just said in the previous paragraph, both
elements must coexist in order for life to be appreciated. Without life, in
layman’s terms, everything we appreciate would be nothing.
Now what does this brief discussion about life have to do with my
grandmother? Plain and simple: like all mothers, she was a beacon of wisdom and
compassion, resonating her presence not just to her children, but through their
offspring as well. Most of all, and I am not making this up, because of her life,
and most importantly her endearing love for his family, my dad had a reason to keep on living, before
he had my family to begin with.
I will not ramble on with more mushiness lest I start drenching the
keyboards with my tears, but I will be staunch about this; if we do not start
valuing whatever life we still have, not just amongst ourselves but also with all
other entities around us, then we do not deserve to be called living beings in
the first place...
To close, I wish to leave this chorus for all those people who are at
their ‘twilight period’ – that point when they have forgotten what the concept
of life really is. This may not be related to what I just rambled on, but it
begs to beckon...
“When life leaves us blind,
Love keeps us kind...”
-Linkin Park, The Messenger
