20090703

Dear darlingest Annelies Marie,

A Higher School

Another thing down the line that we should like to address within our fair (like you, my love) city of Miyangersjia in the near term is our local public school system.

A high school graduate over here in the Philippines being almost universally considered to be too green to enter the work force to have a decent career path most of the time enters into college only to become overqualified with some of the jobs available locally - or worse unemployed.

Honest work gives dignity back to the honest worker, my love.

Labor is a punishment of God, it's true. But we must now know to trust our God enough now to understand that all of our LORD's punishments intended for those who love and fear Him are of a nature that far, far transcends the understanding of the children of Mankind and so therefore, have faith enough in Divine Providence to see us through to the good.

For God's punishments meant for those He loves are better and more ennobling than man's anger or the Devil's hatred so we must, like little children, freely as well as humanly submit to them - especially to an honest day's work - with all of our love and trust.

I have seen some out of school youths in our own local area sniffing "rugby" or contact cement - not our vaunted footy game - while trying to sell what service they can provide to jeepney drivers cleaning their windshields with pieces of cloth.

A lot of people I see scoff at this but I have known (and still know - for he is my dear friend) a man who works as a janitor who is a happier man than most others who work as CEO's of major companies or even some of those movie stars whose particular stations in life most common folks hold close to their dreams as a measure of their own success.

A Republic and her Liberty can afford to be very forbearing in her hope but materialism, once it becomes rampant, is not a healthy pursuit for a city or for a nation and shall soon imperil the well-being of any egalitarian democracy - for we must understand that the happiness that is universally sought by the heart of the children of Mankind is not a material kind of happiness.

If we scoff at what labors we consider lowly, we shall never be able to build an economy that is sustainable because all human forms of economy, having inherited from our humanity those human weakness peculiar to our being, must be sustained first and foremost by virtues that empower and enable man to succeed in God - for a city that God does not build shall not be built.

Shall we scoff at the soldier and the civil servant, the teacher and the common worker and think no more about the very foundations that keep our nation strong and sovereign? Shall we scoff at the farmer and the fisherman too, and bite the very hands that feed our civilization?

If we consider only great things to be praiseworthy and do not consider the little things that make the great truly great, how can heaven bless us? Shall we then turn to crime and say that we admire virtue in criminals when virtue can only be found in the good? For it is vice and not virtue that likes to play the part of Goliath to the little David in each of our souls.

We shall have to introduce - down the line - within our own local public school system - an option for higher school consisting of years 10-12 - which is principally the 1st two years of college over here and shall be the equivalent of a full high school education overseas. For we must prepare our youth to succeed and give them every possible support toward this end - as it is their natural right.

While we're at it, I also believe it better serves the good of the people to re-introduce Spanish as well as Arabic in our curriculum as secondary (elective) to Filipino and English.

Note added 20090714: Speaking more of languages, I had a dream a couple of nights back which indicates to me that if necessary we should also be willing to add Hebrew to the mix.

Personally, I would also like to see German, French, Chinese and Japanese - and other world languages made available to our local school system. Because for as long as the people maintain in themselves truthfulness as a virtue, the languages of our world will serve their original purpose which is to maintain our nations in humility before God and not serve as an instrument of war.

Latin which now serves a purely ecclesial function within my Holy Mother Church is a language more suitably taught in Catholic schools. But the living (i.e. capable of evolving) languages that are in use within our present day world, Hebrew included, if they are made available to our local school system, I am personally convinced, will only help broaden the horizons of our youth.

Now, let us first point out that our first intention when teaching languages in the secondary level is not proficiency but the acquisition of an openness to different human cultures; that our youth may begin to understand with an understanding necessary to bridge the tension between nations. Proficiency then follows in the tertiary level.

The tension between words uttered by the different tongues of Mankind are a tension of justice that remind our hearts to reach out with tolerance and understanding with one another and not to strike out in fear and mistrust. It is the same tension that is present between families, tribes and nations of the children of Mankind. This tension of justice indicates the presence of the virtue hope which is why hope may also be felt as a tension. Racial tension is another example of the tension of justice. The false image of this tension is the tension of war.

Truthfulness was the main theme in our message to the graduates of 2009. We shall treat this virtue also in a separate entry.

The Mail in Miyangersjia

I have had a previous idea about the Philippine Mail and how it could more efficiently deliver its mission by interfacing, when necessary, with our barangay halls as alternate mail pick-up facilities for those areas where the Philippine Mail can not or is having difficulty reaching.

Anything that gathers together the people as the Philippine Postal System does is vital to the community. I do not know why little importance has been given to Philippine Mail to have to see private couriers taking over its normal routes.

Therefore, we shall work to incorporate mail routing and centralization into our building and infrastructure (as well as biking and pedestrian paths for local health nuts and our citizen soldiers) because whether it is delivered right to your door or to your personal mail box at your local barangay hall "the mail always arrives in Miyangersjia" and we shall also expect no less quality of service for our outgoing mail.
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A little confession, my loveliest love - "Beauty and Industry" - while I named it after your fragrance, my darlingest - I wrote for Britney and Lindsay whose lives I could not help but follow while I was in America. It is also written for our darling Starshine - all of our youth who works hard to be happy - young cats like you, my Yang-yang Marie.

And "Unrequited Love" has nothing to do with us, my love - it is a cautionary work which I was having some second thoughts about but decided to publish anyway after I saw another serving of "Closer" starring our Calico Kikay, of course.

I love you.

Always to always,

Pusing

Note: This was written yesterday afternoon but I only had the chance to post it this morning today.