Mr. Toastmasters, everyone, good evening!
It was nearing midnight, in the olden days, when that was the deadline for reciting the Breviary. The priest pulled off to the shoulder of the highway, sat on the front bumper of his car and by the light of his headlights recited his “Compline”.
A truck pulled up and the driver shouted, “having trouble, buddy?”
“No trouble, thanks,” the priest responded and continued his silent prayers.
“All I can say,” the truck driver replied, “that must be one helluva good book.”
I have already met a lot of people. Few are divine, humane, salvators, inspirational, reformers, and intellectual giants. Some are partisan if not dyed-in-a-wool bigots, anarchist, imperialists, fascists, and putchists. The rest are philosophers, theologians, revolutionaries, and teachers. I met in them pages of books my eyes set upon.
Henny Penny is a hen, Henny Penny is a red hen. Ang baka ay bababa, bababa ang baka, ang baka ba ay bababa? Oo, bababa ang baka. These lines I have learned when I was in grade 1. During those days when reading a book is an adventure, an adventure I want to finish.
My parents sent me in a public school. The textbooks are the first books I have read and nothing else. Eager to get through this reading a book adventure, a boy who has just learned how to read, finish reading his textbooks by the first quarter. My father, upon learning my strong desire for books, was alarmed. He did not want his son to go insane. He told me that I should read the book only during class hours. He was not aware that I was already thirsting for other books.
When I was in grade 2, my Autie Linda gave me my cousins’ textbooks. She said I could use them when I reach high school. It was through these books that I first met O. Henry. His Last Leaf, a short story, made me cry when I was in grade 4. It was only during this time that I finally understood the story I began to read when I was in grade 2.
It was through books where I met those authors, forgetable and unforgetable, whose ideas influenced my thinking in one way or the other.
I met Dante but I have not been to Inferno and Paradiso. He left me in Purgatory. Shakespeare introduced me to Macbeth and made me understand why the world is so troublesome. They talked in languages I don’t fully understand up to these days.
Tolstoy made me appreciate life, love, and lust in War and Peace. Cervantes showed me that to be quixotic is not so bad at all. Only when people start getting rid of labels that we can see each person as what they are. _____________ made me see that man, no matter how great his thinking is is never above the law of consequences. For every crime there is punishment.
Herodutos, Engels, English, Marx , Zaide, Teodoro Agoncillo, Jose Ma. Sison, Ambeth Ocampo, and F. Sionil Jose lectured me on history. Marx said that our purpose in life is not to interpret history but to change it. I now dare say that we cannot change history because in the classroom no one is too patient to listen to it. So everything has to be said again and again. Events and people, and their deeds stay as facts, not an experience we can learn from.
Freud told me that most of actions are driven by our sexual desires. By the way most people equate sex with life, I cannot simply disagree. Isaac Asimov made me understand that impossible is nothing. No, Ali was not the originator of that principle. I first heard of it from Asimov.
I talked to them everywhere. As long as I have my books with me I can talk to Carl Jung, Plato, Aristotle, and my idol Socrates. I listened to Homer in his wonderful, sometimes foolish, stories. Through books I learned that Einstein and Darwin are school under achievers. Einstein was not really good in Math and was an ineffective teacher. Darwin, most maligned, died a Christian. Most science teachers today would say that Darwin proposed that we came from monkeys. Charles Darwin, if he were alive, wouldl surely say that it was not he but the priests who made such conclusion. Teachers now a days teach us that the first living thing is unicellular, and that natural selection is correct, but they certainly would stop when they reach the level of man. Man does not belong they say.
There are so many other great men and women whose ideas influenced the world. I promise I will share their thoughts to you some other time. I just want you to know that many of the things that I do are inspired by the thoughts shared by Rizal, Bonifacio, Che Guevarra, Mother Teresa, St. Augustine, Exupery, Mahatma Gandhi, Og Mandino, and that of the greatest author, the same who wrote helluva great book, the Bible.
Jef Menguin facilitates people skills seminars and teambuilding and leadership workshops in Metro Manila, Philippines. Visit his website at http://jefmenguin.com to learn more about his seminars.
It was nearing midnight, in the olden days, when that was the deadline for reciting the Breviary. The priest pulled off to the shoulder of the highway, sat on the front bumper of his car and by the light of his headlights recited his “Compline”.
A truck pulled up and the driver shouted, “having trouble, buddy?”
“No trouble, thanks,” the priest responded and continued his silent prayers.
“All I can say,” the truck driver replied, “that must be one helluva good book.”
I have already met a lot of people. Few are divine, humane, salvators, inspirational, reformers, and intellectual giants. Some are partisan if not dyed-in-a-wool bigots, anarchist, imperialists, fascists, and putchists. The rest are philosophers, theologians, revolutionaries, and teachers. I met in them pages of books my eyes set upon.
Henny Penny is a hen, Henny Penny is a red hen. Ang baka ay bababa, bababa ang baka, ang baka ba ay bababa? Oo, bababa ang baka. These lines I have learned when I was in grade 1. During those days when reading a book is an adventure, an adventure I want to finish.
My parents sent me in a public school. The textbooks are the first books I have read and nothing else. Eager to get through this reading a book adventure, a boy who has just learned how to read, finish reading his textbooks by the first quarter. My father, upon learning my strong desire for books, was alarmed. He did not want his son to go insane. He told me that I should read the book only during class hours. He was not aware that I was already thirsting for other books.
When I was in grade 2, my Autie Linda gave me my cousins’ textbooks. She said I could use them when I reach high school. It was through these books that I first met O. Henry. His Last Leaf, a short story, made me cry when I was in grade 4. It was only during this time that I finally understood the story I began to read when I was in grade 2.
It was through books where I met those authors, forgetable and unforgetable, whose ideas influenced my thinking in one way or the other.
I met Dante but I have not been to Inferno and Paradiso. He left me in Purgatory. Shakespeare introduced me to Macbeth and made me understand why the world is so troublesome. They talked in languages I don’t fully understand up to these days.
Tolstoy made me appreciate life, love, and lust in War and Peace. Cervantes showed me that to be quixotic is not so bad at all. Only when people start getting rid of labels that we can see each person as what they are. _____________ made me see that man, no matter how great his thinking is is never above the law of consequences. For every crime there is punishment.
Herodutos, Engels, English, Marx , Zaide, Teodoro Agoncillo, Jose Ma. Sison, Ambeth Ocampo, and F. Sionil Jose lectured me on history. Marx said that our purpose in life is not to interpret history but to change it. I now dare say that we cannot change history because in the classroom no one is too patient to listen to it. So everything has to be said again and again. Events and people, and their deeds stay as facts, not an experience we can learn from.
Freud told me that most of actions are driven by our sexual desires. By the way most people equate sex with life, I cannot simply disagree. Isaac Asimov made me understand that impossible is nothing. No, Ali was not the originator of that principle. I first heard of it from Asimov.
I talked to them everywhere. As long as I have my books with me I can talk to Carl Jung, Plato, Aristotle, and my idol Socrates. I listened to Homer in his wonderful, sometimes foolish, stories. Through books I learned that Einstein and Darwin are school under achievers. Einstein was not really good in Math and was an ineffective teacher. Darwin, most maligned, died a Christian. Most science teachers today would say that Darwin proposed that we came from monkeys. Charles Darwin, if he were alive, wouldl surely say that it was not he but the priests who made such conclusion. Teachers now a days teach us that the first living thing is unicellular, and that natural selection is correct, but they certainly would stop when they reach the level of man. Man does not belong they say.
There are so many other great men and women whose ideas influenced the world. I promise I will share their thoughts to you some other time. I just want you to know that many of the things that I do are inspired by the thoughts shared by Rizal, Bonifacio, Che Guevarra, Mother Teresa, St. Augustine, Exupery, Mahatma Gandhi, Og Mandino, and that of the greatest author, the same who wrote helluva great book, the Bible.
Jef Menguin facilitates people skills seminars and teambuilding and leadership workshops in Metro Manila, Philippines. Visit his website at http://jefmenguin.com to learn more about his seminars.
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