We in the Metro have been locked up now for 57 days since the community quarantine was enforced, keeping our own homes and ourselves intact from the contagious disease called the novel coronavirus. I first wrote about this back on March 26, discussing the initial effects on the future of our education, faith, and humanity itself — how we respond to the different effects of COVID which is not simply a matter of considering “health is wealth” (indeed, it has become sacrosanct all the more during this trying time), for example, work-from-home arrangements pose a challenge for workers to be able to sanctify their work despite their circumstances at home, or, a number of schools have already declared the next semester or the entire academic year will be done on-line.
How we miss already to be “young, wild, and free,” but in the same way, it has pointed us, the entire humanity, towards a single direction, a single virtue we ought to consider and deepen our growth: resilience. I’ve repeated this in countless situations, essays, and requirements — from academic submissions to conversations with colleagues — the need for this especially now that we’ve been forced to confront it even though we may not be fully up to it. The call to freedom calls for the person’s growth in resilience, something we value as a virtue needed at this time.
As the Father wrote, “‘In the human realm, I want to leave you as an inheritance love for freedom and good humor.’ — These two things can seem quite distinct, but they are actually closely connected, since realizing that we are free to love floods our soul with joy, and with it good humor. Our vision of the world deepens beyond the merely natural and we learn to grasp the positive — and, sometimes, amusing — side of things and situations.”
All the more we need to be forgiving as He is merciful and loving with us — we cannot help but realize the reality where we can easily fall and falter due to the lack of access to our basic needs, even in the spiritual realm, we may not realize how long has it been since my last encounter with the person I’ve entrusted my soul or the very author of grace himself who can replenish and restore our interior lives. It is a call to be merciful with ourselves, that we may respond with the resilience we need to make the most of this “pandemic vacation” which we never expected or desired in the first place. How often do we fall into overthinking now, and perhaps, I would add, over-criticizing of how those who offered their lives to protect us are twisting our trust — all the more we need to pray for the way we respond, or how we assume, with regards to the statements and directives released by our beloved government. Even if we do despise our beloved father, the President, we have to recognize our duty and responsibility in learning how to follow, obey, and be docile — to be receptive with warmth and affection, how we ought to be like the Person we look up to.
No matter how many issues are out there even before the pandemic, we must always be directing ourselves towards unity, especially with what happened two days after #WorldPressFreedomDay2020. I personally have not been following any shows or series on the television, but when I heard about the shutting down of the ABS-CBN network, it was disheartening not simply because I recall all those memories of watching May Bukas Pa or Gandang Gabi Vice when I was a kid (the kind of show we would binge-watch before Netflix or Hulu became available to the Philippines), but because, as several media workers have claimed, they serve as our front-liners in the dissemination of information, the kind of news we have to hear, regardless if it’s positive or negative. There is a call for public and critical discourse, a scrutinization of the facts done in a charitable manner; and this requires a lot of good use of freedom, resilience when needed especially in correcting facts.
I only hope for the best to those eleven thousand workers from the aforementioned network that they as well may be able to face this pandemic with the courage to face their own situation as a national threat not only to our health but the wealth found in protecting the freedom everyone is gifted with — an innate quality and reality we ought to live in the best possible way, with formation. With that being said, we can somehow picture how the Philippines is coping with this global emergency — young, wild, and free. I know many will argue that our country is not young anymore, and a number of people believe that we lose our youth because of exposure to many great things.
I argue that we actually grow our inner spirit when we learn to confront situations we’ve seen in the past, such as what was mentioned: growing on the inside. We’ve encountered different life experiences — losing someone we love, experiencing something new (maybe even scandalous?) in our youth, or anything you and I can think of. But having an inner perspective on the things we get to experience means recognizing and living that call to maturity, which eventually leads back to resilience.
Wild, because there’s a lot to take in. All at once are we facing POGO scandals, Maguindanao massacre ruling, Kobe Bryant and his daughter’s passing, Taal volcano eruption back in January, and now, COVID-19 global emergency. A totally new coronavirus appearing back in December 2019, killing thousands of people around the world. In the Philippines, we are divided into different stances with regards to our economy, businesses, education, health situations, and of course, that way we react to the decisions of our government and the agency tasked to assist us in responding to this emergency. It is a call to go back to the basics, not simply starting over (unless if we need to do so), but to return to those values we truly hold on to
The Bishop of Rome said last March: “You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing. It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others.”
And of course, free. When you are young, wild, and free, the circumstances present a multitude of opportunities each one can seize, but to put it simply, there are only two choices we can actually do: to choose good or bad. It is important to recognize the pressure, the anxiety, and the restlessness in, then, each and everyone must recognize our place as front-liners (in reality, we are the ones who are confronting the virus — or as a friend put it, “home-liners”) so that we may empathize (and also sympathize with those who have already lost the battle) with those facing more difficult situations that we are in. We all play a part in this war against the invisible but not invincible enemy.
May our resilience lead us to recognize the beauty of our freedom, the aesthetic value in choosing the good, but all the more, to discover its moral roots in defending the truth, which is what we need to fight for along with the changes happening in our society. With regards to the history of our Philippine mass media, may people learn to rediscover the value of authentic freedom and the power of truth which we may find difficult to confront but learn to value.
“So what we go out
That’s how it’s supposed to be
Living young and wild and free”
-Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
