In Fish and In Love
"May likod ba ang isda?"
This one mind-boggling and pretty much stupid question was once the center of discussion in our block and during our PFP Combined Integration and Phases Training Seminar held in Oasis Hotel, Los Banos, Laguna.
It never fails to put a smile on the lips of the people whom I asked this question to. Imagine, a simple question, seemingly so easy to answer, could eat so much of your and your friends' time just thinking of the most logical answer. If you say that a fish's back is the one opposite its head, then your saying that the backside of the fish is its tail. However, if you would relate the backside of a vertebrate to its backbone, then the backside of the fish would be nowhere to be found, because a fish's backbone is in the middle. Actually, we even asked our Logic professor this question and he did not have any answer. It could go on for hours and hours of non-sense debating and in the end, you would still have no answer.
But that is not my point yet. One day, when I got home and started to think about that silly question, something struck my head. This question is no different from the question, "what is love?" Try this: meet with your barkada and ask the first question to them. After some time of talking, bring out the second question and you will notice that the discussion would be just as long and as unproductive as the first one.
All of us, I believe, have already seen a fish. Yet, it is very difficult for us to determine kung may likod nga ba talaga ang isda. The same way that all of us have already been in love and loved by, our parents, brothers and sisters, friends, and special someone. Yet, it is still difficult to comprehend the "meaning" of love. The same way that there are many species of fish, we also established different kinds of love, maternal and paternal love, unrequited love, suicidal love, and stupid love, among others.
But don't get me wrong, this does not mean that fish and love are the same. Seriously, what I mean here is that as human beings, God gave as a special gift, that is, reason. Unfortunately, sometimes, we tend to use it too much that's why we fail to answer the deeper questions of life. I'm not saying that reason is not a good tool in solving these questions. What I want to say is that there is something much more powerful and reliable than reason: FAITH. Imagine this: a world where each and every one of us has faith in one another. A world where you don't have to argue whether a fish has a backside or not, because deep inside of you, your faith tells you that yes, it does have a backside. A place where you would have no doubt if the people around you care and love you, because you know and believe that they do. I now consider this as our main duty: to encourage the people around us to have faith with one another. And when we finally reach the place mentioned above, then I can say that we have finally achieved our goal. Until then, there are still a lot of things to be done. Let this be our challenge.
Recognition goes to Mr. Benjamin Roque for formulating the question, "may likod ba ang isda?" If you think that you finally have the answer to this question, or if you have any comments, suggestions or reactions, please drop me a line!
This one mind-boggling and pretty much stupid question was once the center of discussion in our block and during our PFP Combined Integration and Phases Training Seminar held in Oasis Hotel, Los Banos, Laguna.
It never fails to put a smile on the lips of the people whom I asked this question to. Imagine, a simple question, seemingly so easy to answer, could eat so much of your and your friends' time just thinking of the most logical answer. If you say that a fish's back is the one opposite its head, then your saying that the backside of the fish is its tail. However, if you would relate the backside of a vertebrate to its backbone, then the backside of the fish would be nowhere to be found, because a fish's backbone is in the middle. Actually, we even asked our Logic professor this question and he did not have any answer. It could go on for hours and hours of non-sense debating and in the end, you would still have no answer.
But that is not my point yet. One day, when I got home and started to think about that silly question, something struck my head. This question is no different from the question, "what is love?" Try this: meet with your barkada and ask the first question to them. After some time of talking, bring out the second question and you will notice that the discussion would be just as long and as unproductive as the first one.
All of us, I believe, have already seen a fish. Yet, it is very difficult for us to determine kung may likod nga ba talaga ang isda. The same way that all of us have already been in love and loved by, our parents, brothers and sisters, friends, and special someone. Yet, it is still difficult to comprehend the "meaning" of love. The same way that there are many species of fish, we also established different kinds of love, maternal and paternal love, unrequited love, suicidal love, and stupid love, among others.
But don't get me wrong, this does not mean that fish and love are the same. Seriously, what I mean here is that as human beings, God gave as a special gift, that is, reason. Unfortunately, sometimes, we tend to use it too much that's why we fail to answer the deeper questions of life. I'm not saying that reason is not a good tool in solving these questions. What I want to say is that there is something much more powerful and reliable than reason: FAITH. Imagine this: a world where each and every one of us has faith in one another. A world where you don't have to argue whether a fish has a backside or not, because deep inside of you, your faith tells you that yes, it does have a backside. A place where you would have no doubt if the people around you care and love you, because you know and believe that they do. I now consider this as our main duty: to encourage the people around us to have faith with one another. And when we finally reach the place mentioned above, then I can say that we have finally achieved our goal. Until then, there are still a lot of things to be done. Let this be our challenge.
Recognition goes to Mr. Benjamin Roque for formulating the question, "may likod ba ang isda?" If you think that you finally have the answer to this question, or if you have any comments, suggestions or reactions, please drop me a line!
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