Alignment and balance

The majestic Philippine Eagle, which is the largest of all extant Eagles* in terms of length and wing span. Photo grabbed from the https://www.philippineeaglefoundation.org/the-philippine-eagle

The other day, I was talking to my friend and colleague Shermon and he was talking about his personal metaphor, which is the six-armed deity Shiva, the Destroyer, who creates, protects, and transforms. Shiva, which is actually his Sanskrit name, is actually the name I knew of him the first time we met so I’ve always had a difficulty calling him his real name. My Sanskrit name, which a few of my long-time friends like him know about, is Shiila, which means character or conduct. You might be wondering what this post is about. It is about my personal metaphor. Futurists often talk about metaphors, popularized by Sohail Inayatullah’s foresight tool called Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). I have been thinking lately of doing a personal CLA and I have started thinking of what my personal metaphor would be. I will come to that, but first, let me finish my back story.

The power of a story

Last month, I attended the Contextual Analysis Workshop in Sihanoukville, organized by the United Nations in Cambodia and the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies.  It aimed to look at the socio-economic and political issues in the province of Preah Sihanouk, the country in general, as well as regional and international issues affecting Cambodia.

Got green books? Donate!

Almost twenty years ago, I bought part of my friend and Kumpare Jerry Gracio‘s library. 175 books sold for a song to a friend who he thought would take care of the books and keep them forever. Jerry is now an award-winning writer/poet and currently Commissioner at the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino and I don’t have a single book from that collection anymore. I was proud of that collection and allowed everyone who wanted to borrow the books to get them, trusting they would be returned. None did.