by Rev. Dr. Mariano C. Apilado
The greatest things in life don’t just happen, but they are the products of a determined effort to do what is good.
There is an old legend from China many years ago, but which I first heard from my father.
According to the legend, an old man picking up stones from a river and placing them one stone at a time on top of the other at the foot of a mountain, about thirty minutes walk from the river.
A neighbor seeing him asked, “Old man, what are you doing?”
“I am building a wall so that marauders and robbers will not come to disturb our community,” the man answered.
The man was old and the mountain was high, and so, the neighbor asked, “Do you think you can build the wall before you die?”
“No,” the old man answered, “but I have children, and they will have children, who will also have children, and they will continue to build.”
That is how the Great Wall of China was built, a stone placed on top of the other one at a time.
What good thing can be done, any person with good sense, one who thinks of something that is right, should do it.
One can begin by cleaning up the immediate surroundings that one lives in.
A candy wrapper destroying the beauty of the yard. A banana or lanzones pilling carelessly thrown where there is no trash can.
Because one does not have enough intelligence yet, and so, he waits for the day he will have such adequate intelligence.
Or, one does not have enough courage to stand for what is right, and so, seeing something wrong going on, he would not lift a finger for fear harm would come to him.
Or, one does not have enough feelings, or heart to love, and so he postpones falling in love until one has enough heart or sentiment.
Someday may never come when those with intelligence will wait till they have enough to do something; or, one waits till he has courage to stand up for what is right; or, one waits till he has enough heart, or feeling before risking the joy, or pain of falling in love.
But, someday is today when unintelligent and scared, one may be; or, fearful one may be; or, unfeeling and cold as ice one may be, nevertheless, one moves on, taking one step at a time.
Yes, the greatest things in life, the best government we will ever have, don’t just happen but they are products of a determined effort to do what is good one day at a time.
Isn’t this a good attitude and step to take to attain and ensure good government?
For reaction, you may e-mail uccp_mario@yahoo.com
