Quoted

What is a Grade, Anyway?

One of the tedious tasks of being a teacher is to solve the students’ grades. Basking in the eye strain causing lines of the class record (yeah, I don’t use MS Excel. I’m old school) and computing all the components that make up the class standing and the exam scores are no laughing matters. In my case, I have eight loads which means I have to solve the grades of the eight sections I am assigned to teach. Apparently, I just finished solving the prelim grades of the two sections.

Every term, the admin sets the deadline for encoding the grades, but thankfully, the MIS broke down so I need not hurry. But since my students are already “demanding”the “numbers” due to them, I have no choice but to perform my responsibility as a teacher, that is, solving grades. Also, I am fully aware just how much grades matter to students. And I could not just assert my ideals, as I remember my mentor’s words regarding grades. “In a spiritual world, what is a grade anyway?”

So, I wasn’t so surprised of my students’ reaction when they knew their grades in Philippine Literature. Cliche as it may sound, and I hope that they are aware of this: students are the ones who make their grades. I just solve it. And I give what is due to them. Yes, I give grades as high as 95.

Students may wonder why I give this kind of grade. I think, one greatest factor that influenced me is the fact that I am teaching a subject that deals with subjectivity, which gives emphasis on human feelings and ideas. My students are capable of doing both: to feel and to think. That’s what literature does. Most importantly, literature nourishes our soul and makes us realize that there are other noble desires aside from aspiring higher grades.

When God Took Hitler to Heaven and Other Stuff: A Snippet from My Old Journal

I’m being burned inside an oven. But I’ll write about heaven. I continue reading the book Conversations with God. For me, it’s not just a mere book with all those stodgy texts contained in it. I mean, you really could find not only spiritual insights, but some truths about life and all there is. Personally, this book triggered my uncertainty – asking how, well… not that I doubt whether God is conversing with the author, but the paradigms itself seem to oppose with my own. They’re revealing, yet unfathomable. Honestly, I don’t understand what God is really trying to imply here, but as to my own comprehension, He is actually asking us simple things like our freedom and will to act. He never calls a “thing” good or bad. He never judges; He just observes. See, we are making it hard for ourselves, added by what the church is teaching us. It’s just that we are being barred from seeing the truth. We see God as a punitive god and all we do here on earth is based on the evil or good deeds and we are being rewarded or sanctioned in exchange with our acts.

My classmate let me borrow this book when I was still taking up Fine Arts in Bacolod City eleven years ago.

What touched me a lot was the part when God told the author that Hitler went to heaven. I was totally appalled with the revelation, that an unworthy guy like Hitler deserved heaven. At first, I disbelieved, but as God elaborated the reasons of His pronouncement, I was clarified a little bit. According to God, there is no such thing as hell, so Hitler had no other choice but to go to heaven. I also read that the cruel act he committed to millions of Jews wasn’t wrong at all because, again, according to God, death is a wonderful thing a person could ever experience. Hitler did free the Jews from their selves. He put an end to their sufferings. So, why should we blame Hitler when God was even aware and willed for it to happen? He could have stopped Holocaust if He wanted to.

Also, the author chatted with God about déjà vu. I agree with God when He said that we already experience our future, but the thing is, we fail to remember it. If you have come to the state wherein you notice a certain event which you think has happened before, that’s it! Like when we sleep, God lets us peep into our future and even gives us the opportunity to experience it and somehow to correct it. We pick pieces from that circumstance and try to avoid what is wrong. All of us experience déjà vu.
The book tells me one thing. Enjoy life. No matter how we experience those unpleasant events and trials that come along the way, just keep on living. We have to do things which we think are good. We make our own choices after all.

God can possibly talk to us. And everyday is an opportunity for a tete-a-tete with Him. I find myself in convo with God through writing. Despite the wayward journey in life, writing becomes the breadth of my relationship with my God. I’m not saying that I’m perfect, but somehow I realize that life is truly what we make it. My experience with Him is translated into written words. And it is only through writing that I want to reach out and spread what I write about when I talk with God. Remember, He talks to each one of us. If we only learn how to listen.

Lend Me Some Lent

I’ve been asking myself whether I’m spending my week as holy as possible. I promised to attend the Via Crucis, but I always end up waking late. The Via Crucis starts so early. I don’t even have time to jog on the beach which, again, I have promised myself once the summer vacation begins. I’m such a bum. Holy Tuesday, I practically did nothing again. I spent the whole time in front of the computer monitor tweeting and FBing and blogging. Oh, Lord. I didn’t even have time to reflect. This Wednesday, the routine repeats. I still read A Game of Thrones and I’m catching up before Season 2 starts on April 21.

I keep on asking the real essence of the Lenten Season. Yeah, it’s about commemorating the passion of Christ, being awed at the greatness of His love for us as portrayed in the numerous flicks about Him and the stories told to us when we were kids.

When I was young, Lent is all about silence. Pure reflection, as TV programs were cancelled then. And to kill time, we would just listen to the radio and heard stories on the lives of the saints. We were not even allowed to go out of the house because God would not be able to watch over us because He’s dead.

I’d like to think that Lent has more meaning when I was a kid. Despite the fabrications, I guess my faith was more strengthened and my innocent notion of God as a Saviour made me kinder and attentive to my beliefs.

Now, my relationship with the higher power has become more personal. I don’t see him as someone who is crucified every Good Friday, or being kissed inside a fakely ornamented and redolent casket. For me, He exists everyday. I mean, after all, He is omniscient and omnipotent.

So, I may not be doing something holy this week like going to confession or visiting churches or doing some penance, but I am fully aware that GOD wants me to do my own stuff. His death is a celebration of life. He died that we may live. Why not enjoy every moment of it? Sulking inside the room is just so boring.

Let life be the refection of God’s love.