IF we want to have a truly global picture of our life, we should develop a sense of time that is connected to eternity. We need to remind ourselves of this basic truth about this human condition of ours since we tend to ignore it or give it little importance and due concern.

We are somehow reminded of this aspect of our life in that gospel episode where Christ talked about how a temple, so lavishly adorned, would be destroyed at the end of time. (cfr. Lk 21,5-11) Considering that we are now ending the liturgical year, this truth about our human condition is truly worthwhile to be given a thorough review.

We need to be keenly aware of this dual dimension of our life. In fact, I believe this aspect refers to the ultimate status of our life. We should not be too immersed in the here and now as to forget that time is meant for eternity, and we have a role to play in their connection.

We live both in time and eternity for now, and later, in a definitive state, in eternity with God or separated from him forever, since time would be completely taken up by eternity the moment time runs its course through our death or through the world’s end.

But at any instant, our earthly life spent in time is actually also in eternity. The flow of time is always within the sea of eternity, since eternity is both outside and inside time. Whatever we do now, no matter how transient, always leaves an effect in eternity.

This is because being both material and spiritual, with body and soul as constituent elements of our nature, we can’t help but live in both time and eternity. Time is when we are tested as to our correspondence, or lack of it, to God’s love. As St. Augustine said, “God created you without you, but he cannot save you without you.”

In short, what would truly connect time with eternity is when whatever we do here on earth is done with faith, hope and charity with God as the main object and all the others as an unavoidable accompaniment of the exercise of these virtues.

We should not be doing things with purely earthly and temporal goals only. We need to refer them to our eternal goal with God. That is why, St. Paul said, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10,31).

That is also why we are asked to make everything we do as a form of prayer. St. Paul articulated this truth when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thes 5,17) And this is always possible and practicable since all that is needed is the awareness that everything we do is done with God and for God. We need not say anything or do some special thing.

We need to make so many pit stops during the day, so to speak, to see if we still have love of God and others as our inspiration, motive and goal in everything we do, for that is how we connect our earthly time with our heavenly eternity which is our definitive life. Our life here on earth is only transitory, meant to test us if we truly want to be with God as he wants us and designed us to be.

Positions and leadership are finite. The long-serving and sturdiest leaders knew that they can only last for a certain period of time. And whatever weapons and backing they have on their arsenal, they won’t defeat the reality of entropy. The weapons and intellect cannot overcome the reality that Father Time had put in place, all must end even those who never for a moment paused to accept that they will also pass.

But wherever you are in these interconnected realities, you will be certain that you have an expiry date. As the Bible had said , there is a time for everything.

The Royalty in United Kingdom, in the incumbency of Queen Elizabeth 2, saw a sturdy metallic butterfly who passed through World Wars, Falkland War, disintegration of the Commonwealth with its empire getting out of grip and nations like India and the rest of that 15 Countries establishing a destiny of their own.

We also saw the fall of strong dictators and their sons. We are witnessing how a weaker country is surviving the onslaught of an invasion from one superpower. Proving that what is obviously a mismatch of power can be an irony.

In all, good leadership is like a life well-lived it has its righteous existence and it will have its righteous end – like a well-lived life.

Thus, for a leader to deny and ward off that certainly of finite existence is not only a blunder it is outright foolish and ultimately, a disaster.

Lessons and reality tallied by history and recorded by the world, shows that leadership and positions are only good while it lasts.

For anyone leading and holding a position of responsibility it must be that they have to do its best , all the time they can, all chances they will have.

Thus, if we are given an opportunity, then we must start a mission of goodness based on the context of positive actions . Then we must engage in the best way possible. Hopefully, we can uplift the condition where we can. And lastly, end it all well, with the most goodwill and good results for the next leader to step- on and start the good cycle to help our people.

If one had done its best today, sunset should not be a thing to worry about, its a reward for a job well done.

An amount equivalent to P84.15, coming from the High Value Crop Development Program (HVCDP), Department of Agriculture (DA) has been allocated “to boost coffee production in the country”.

Specifically, “aims to improve productivity, product quality and profitability of Filipino coffee growers for the long term” – coffee being considered one of the most traded agricultural produce in the world, and a major contributor to the country’s economy.

It was learned from DA that from the above amount. P30.37 million will be spent to rehabilitate 486.450 old coffee trees while P10.56 million will be for the acquisition of planting materials to be distributed to local growers.

Further, P7.79 million will be for the maintenance of production facilities in DA stations, and P5.84 million for R and D. Finally, the same fund will be for capability enhancement and training of stakeholders, construction of storage facilities, roasting centers, and other production equipment as well as various farm inputs.

Lately, the Philippines is 15 percent self-sufficient in coffee – bulk coming from Mindanao with a share of 83.65 percent, Luzon with 9.18 percent and Visayas at 7.2 percent. Sadly, though, coffee production has been on a downtrend in recent years as reported DA.
In June, the Coffeee Inustry Road Map 2021-2015 was laiunched by DA,along with other commodity roadmaps as guide to improve other agri-sectors.

MY COMMENT:
As experienced in the family backyard farm with coffee trees, I found that the trees to be among the easy to maintain agri-plants. The 77 barangays of Burauen offer a veritable farmland to coffee plantation to augment the socio-economic lives of upland barangay farmers. Indeed, Batangas’ coffee barako compares to the world’s preferred coffee beverages and should be popularized in the other provinces of the Philippines.
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If nowadays, children and young people are addicted to modern gadgetry such as cellphones, tablets, and laptops, I in my boyhood and early teens was also addicted. But it was to a different thing–they called it‘komiks’.

Not just me, of course; I simply represented the generation of komiks addicts, then. In fact, children and adults alike were then glued to these illustrated magazines—browsing and reading the stories that they liked the most. Sometimes, they were so engrossed in reading that they no longer knew what was going on around them.

Some parents whose children could no longer help with household chores kept scolding their kids, critical of this komiks thing. “I will let you eat this stuff,” they would say. “What good will it give you?” our mother, I remember, once asked me.

But it did me good, in fairness. Among others, these komiks magazines improved my Tagalog, as they were written in it. They enhanced my reading comprehension, reading speed, eye movements, vocabulary, grammar, etc., including my Tagalog speaking ability. This language used to be my handicap. I preferred English to it. But with my exposure to komiks magazines, my Tagalog improved.

Not only that but my love for literature was also developed. Why, Komiks magazines contain stories, primarily fictional, that have been illustrated. In literature, these stories belong to the narratives, one of the major classifications of literature, the other ones being poetry, drama, and essay. As stories, they develop the elements of fiction such as characters, setting, conflict, point of view, theme, and plot.

Aside from boosting my passion for literature, Komiks magazines also reinforced my inclination toward visual arts, particularly drawing and painting. Before I entered Grade 1, I was already doing caricatures of various objects, people, places, and animals. When komiks came my way, all the more that my instinctive urge to sketch things intensified.

How I appreciated the beauty and elegance of komiks illustrations. I still remember the names of my favorite illustrators: Mar Santana, Hal Santiago, Nar Castro, Ben Maniklang, Rod Santiago, Karl Comendador, Vic Celerio, and many more. In fact, I have memorized their styles so that, at a glance, I could already identify who the illustrator is even without seeing his name. I learned a lot from their sketching techniques.

Unfortunately, the komiks magazines that used to ornament sari-sari stores, to abound in homes and offices, to entertain people from all walks of life had died down, replaced with technological gadgets that had addicted people next. Today, those magazines no longer see print or distributed throughout the archipelago. They had sadly become extinct, gone from bookshelves, homes, and offices.