Just recently, the news features the release of one Ericson Acosta. The said man is a researcher, a community worker, and an activist making use of poems and songs to convey his views. However, it is also speculated that Ericson is a member of the New People’s Army, a rebel group in the Philippines, and the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
It was February 13th of 2011 when members of the 34th Infantry Battalion arrested Ericson somewhere in Samar. The charge was illegal possession of explosives. He was said to be bringing a grenade with him when the military caught him on that fateful day. He denied the allegation saying the evidence found on him was a planted one by the military.
He was wallowing in jail for several months, but he didn’t stop writing poems in line with his activist leaning. In jail, he gradually became weak and sickly, having acquired “nephritis, a condition characterized by blood in the urine (hematuria), lower back pains, high fever and painful urination (dysuria).”
On the day he was told that he will be released soon, Ericson, an artist and activist, said these words:
“In jail, I yearned for sea and sky. Freedom cannot be achieved by mere yearning, only by struggle.”
Although it is quite interesting to share a little more about his condition in jail and subsequently in the National Kidney and Transplant Institute where he gets medical attention, and how the military gets overboard in his case, I’d rather stop at this point. I want to shift and give more focus to what he said, “freedom cannot be achieved by mere yearning.”
_______ cannot be achieved by mere yearning.
Fill it out with almost everything you have in mind right now and such statement remains to be so true and valid. You put their peace, justice, safety, a comfortable life or a meaningful one, a college degree, a sustainable development, a healthy environment, and so on ad infinitum. It remains correct.
I’ve heard and seen people discuss generously about how lovely this world would become if there is peace, or safety, or a healthy environment, etc. The question would always be “What do you do to achieve it?”
Let’s be more specific.
Here in the city I’m living right now, flashfloods are always expected after heavy rains. People complain over and over again. And yet, I’ve seen many of them throw garbage everywhere, even in the sidewalk. Most of this garbage, mostly made of plastic, will of course clog the drainage later on, adding to the causes of flashfloods.
I’ve heard, even talked to, young people thinking about how beautiful their lives would become if they have a lot of money. But they do not even persevere in their schooling. They do not even spare a little time to study their lessons.
No doubt, people yearn to have a healthy and happy family where everyone takes care and respect one another. But many of them beat, yell, and curse their spouses and children and parents when family hardships or misunderstanding arise.
The rule is quite simple. You want that lady to be with you? Stop talking and daydreaming, move! You want that award? Stop whining, move! You want that rank? Stop grumbling, move! You want to survive? Stop looking at yourself with pity, move!
This is life, kiddo! Slug it out! It simply does not suffice to yearn to achieve something. Do something for it; struggle for it; even fight for it.
Yessir, noted! Yearning+action=results.
You mention the struggle. Yes, I guess that’s why people can’t move past yearning, even rationalizing and romanticizing it. Acting on our desires more often than not requires exerting effort, venturing into the unfamiliar, or facing the risk of failure, ridicule, loss. So I guess to the equation I gave earlier, I need to add a missing “something” (sorry, the exact mathematical term escapes me right now, hehe): courage. That, and recognizing that the rewards from trying (and its accompanying pains) far outweigh the risks of failure or, worse, staying where we are.
Hah, I’m one to talk! Anyway, thanks for the “pep talk.” I’ll keep it in mind as I prepare to take on the struggle.
Let x be yearning, y action, and results z. Here it goes. If x and y, then z. If x alone, there wouldn’t be z. If y alone, z might prove to be very hard to achieve. So x and y must go together. And then let’s add a for struggle and b for courage. Somehow, y can be equated with a, therefore to achieve z, b is absolutely necessary. For without b, the x+y=z formula may not even be possible. The results may either be success (let this be m) or failure (let this be n) but it will always be worth it in the end (let this be o). So z may either be m or n. In particular it can be x+y=m or x+y=n, but it will always be x+y=z(m or n)=o.
There ya go arithmetic. To sum it all up, the result will always be lol raised to the nth power. =) lol!
So, are we talking about striving for what we need or what we desire? As you must know, if you’ve read the post inspired by our recent conversations, I don’t think they’re the same.
And to strive for the positive we must be the positive. And to be the positive we must overcome the negative. And to overcome the negative we must first identify it and then dispense with it.
Because if we somehow believe, without question, that what we see around us is what we need, what is positive, then, chances are, we are striving for the negative.
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”
Mahatma Gandhi, from a paragraph of one of his 98 volumes; Vol. 13, Ch. 153, page 241