We Are What We Believe

"To believe that the young do not feel deeply, desperately and wondrously is a grievous mistake." Robin Easton

We are what we believe and I believe I can sing. Well, not American Idol material (although I'm secretly dreaming I am the next Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood), but I can sing. I never thought I had the voice until one day my grade school teacher called me to sing for her a song. I couldn't remember what my "audition" piece was but I remember how she told me to tell my parents I will have to stay after school hours for the next couple of weeks for choir practice. Congratulations! We were going to have a school concert and I will be singing with the choir and just like that, I believed my teacher that I can sing. I was seven (7) years old then and singing opened up a whole new world for me- the world of music. I learned how to sing better and even directed a  few chorus in high school(and won contests for that). I even learned how to play the piano, guitar, and a little flute.

Reading Robin Easton's story made me appreciate my childhood more. Looking back now I didn't realize then that I was blessed to have grade school teachers who quickly identified my potential and pushed and groomed me to be the best that I can be. I still remember how they made me read stories from this machine which rolls out the sheets of paper of  a story going a hundred miles an hour! It turns out it was a speed reading instrument to gauge your reading ability and I passed it every time. The next thing I know I was accelerated to the first grade in just months (I think I was only 6 years old then). They made me memorize tons of texts, Bible passages and oratorical pieces. Oratorical pieces? I didn't even know what oration meant and I wasn't sure I even liked it, but I won 1st or 2nd place each time they made me join a contest. For something I thought I wouldn't like, it came as a surprise to me when I found myself joining oratorical contests in high school (and yes, I won a lot there, too). 

My mother always tells me that I can never know if I am good at something if I don’t even try. "You might fail", she says "and that is fine, but you won't know if you'll succeed if you don't try." That had always been my motivating factor whenever I have my "robin moments" to try new things and venture into unfamiliar territories. I do not always succeed, but I find that even disappointments can bring out your potentials.

"Got Goat?"

Let's say you are being charged of corruption but thanks to an amnesty deal, you are free to go about your business without any fear of prosecution. Suddenly that amnesty deal is nullified, made ineffective. What do you do? Well, sacrifice a goat of course!

Apparently, that is what President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is doing (at least in the eyes of his critics). Sadaqah, an Islamic term for "voluntary charity" is any act of generosity which may be in a form of money or meat of a slaughtered animal given out to the poor to ward off evil or misfortune.

President Zardari is the husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. In 2007, an agreement for amnesty also known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance, was made between Benazir Bhutto and then-President Pervez Musharraf allowing Bhutto and Zardari, to return to Pakistan without facing prosecution over alleged corruption. Last December 2009, the Washington Post reported the decision of the Supreme Court nullifying the amnesty deal.

As far as slaughtering animals for good luck, I know that some people in the Philippines still do slaughter animals for good luck, as in slaughtering chicken and letting the blood drip on foundations of houses or buildings before they are built.

Blogging my Way Out of Limbo

I'm back! I'm sorry to have been gone so long. It's partly because I don't know what to blog about and partly because I don't really know how to blog. So, I have been reading a lot about blogging and I have never been overwhelmed in my life on such a topic! There is blogging for fun, blogging for a cause and to my surprise- blogging for money. I want to learn how to blog in this time where I am neither here nor there. I recently resigned from my job. I am looking for a better job now and in the meantime I decided to make blogging my new hobby.

So, what is blogging and how far has this trend gone? I have been reading this article by Mark Penn and I think blogging has opened up a window for people to uncover the hidden writer within themselves. It's true that not everybody can write, but at least everybody can try. It's also true that not all bloggers out there make money online but whether or not blogging has financial benefits to the blogger, the effort that one makes in blogging refines writing as an art as well as the individual. That in itself defines culture and that makes blogging an important tool in establishing civility.

Although, we cannot discredit the fact that some bloggers only care how to make money even if it means posting low quality blogs or even employing things to cheat the system for them to earn money, still there are those who take time to create blogs with unique, engaging and memorable contents. I take my hat off to these group.I agree that this group needs to be recognized and yes, to have more laws made for their protection and benefit.

Writing a blog takes so much  time. From choosing a topic to researching, one needs not only to be resourceful but also creative to get your point across. Even if you are not blogging to make money, what every blogger has  in mind is how to get traffic- how to get people to hear (or read) what you have to say every time. Whether you are a big corporation blogging about your products or a simple lady letting everyone in on the secret ingredient to your best recipe, it's important to know how to present your ideas effectively.

As for me, blogging has proven that being in limbo is not such a bad thing. With all the pros (polishing my writing skills, social interaction with a wider audience, and hopefully make money online, etc.) and the cons ("no enforced ethics code" according to Mark Penn, no stability for those trying to  make blogging a living, and unclear legal protection for free speech, etc.), blogging is a platform for one to continue educating himself or herself.

Be informed. Don't stop being curious. Preserve credibility. Become a better person. Blog your way up to a way of life. That is blogging for me.