Pensees
Media
Part of The Carolinian
- Title
- Pensees
- Creator
- Fernandez, Carmen T.
- Language
- English
- Year
- 1966
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Carmen T. Fernandez BSC III /Densees As I wasted ink and lead on sheets and sheets of paper scribbling images thot looked up at me like detached intruders distorted with confused virtues, it never occurred to me that I came up with something quite real in a way. It seems people have always been like this: confused, virtuous and distorted. A great lover can be virtuous. Then you will have doubts, and he will have his own, too. Well, but what is virtue today? Sometimes, one just has to learn how to distrust. I do not know whether this is what you call self-deterioration or whether I'm just beginning to see things as they really are, without the pink glasses of what was once youth, stupid youth. It seems that there is in every people we meet that knowing look of scrutiny, a look that takes in the other as if he contributes to the threat of his "survival". In the end, everything seems to be competitive. You'll have to be on guard with people, and you will not be all too surprised that it will be all the more so with people whom you have gotten to know. It makes one feel selfish, just as the rest of them are selfish. It makes one feel that he has to be selfish because he can't afford to let their selfishness crush his plans for what he hopes to be his future. Looking back, it makes one feel that the convent walls and the priestly tales were lies: it has withheld the truths of what a friend of mine has termed "the brute realities of life". But then they were just too young and too sheltered to know. Even in college, students haven't been given their full burden yet, their burden of individual assertion. Advisers who range from priests to laymen still tell them what to do. Maybe the student will learn more if he finds out for himself. It is a sad thing to have some priests who reprimand students like they do with kids. Perhaps the administration will complain that the capacity of the average student hasn't been fully developed. The student is likely to ask what incentives the administration has offered. There are times when reading a book would be more profitable than having to listen to some professors who engage in idle talk for half of the period. It's a pity to see good professors walk out to other schools. People don't realize what it means to lose something unless it's gone. Of course, anyone can congratulate them for the wonderful library that it has, the Anthropology dep't., the many rich lectures that have been given by men of accomplishment and many others. Still. . . These are the things where the student council comes in — and perhaps that's where they go out, too. There's one thing about the student council and student politics — it's interesting — with all the stock speeches, the usual stereotyped promises. Some vary and say it with the Manglapus touch and don't ERRATUM: Page twenty-six has been erroneously marked “Page Thirty-six”. be surprised if somebody comes up with the Bostonian accent of Kennedy. There will be stock issues on where the student money has gone, on unemplemented programs, the feasibility of the opponent's platform and so on. It is all a battle of wits, like a game of chess, and everybody's apt to enjoy it. The city dads seem to be concerned about employees in the City Hall undeserving of pay because they do practically nothing. Well, a little typing, maybe, but that's about all. That would be a waste of funds, of course. Now, they're concerned about people's money. It's about time. Besides, it's not that alone. There's still the public schools to think of, and public hospitals which could use a little more cleaning and tidying up. And those bumpy roads. The worries that we're having now are not a speck compared to what they're having in Vietnam. I hear they're bombing the fuel supplies to make the war too expensive for the enemy to go on. Strikes and demonstrations are expected. There is economic disturbance in one and some form of boom to others like the aircraft industries. Think of the demand through all the years of the war which they say is going to be a long one yet. The evil still exists in spite of what has come up within the last 5 decades where man seems to be a conqueror—the moon and Mars and space. And not only war—poverty, too. I wonder if the time will come when there will be no more riots on racial supremacy, no more wars, no more poor people, no more disease. And no more deaths, ugly death. That would be a big, big joke. For what is life but death and death life? I had my first taste of death just recently when my niece died. I had great expectations from the little girl. So had everyone in the family. With her gone, emptiness has engulfed us. The emptiness will seep away for sure, but the void in us must not go with it. No one can afford to forget death entirely and the lessons thot come with it. The last thought that would come to anyone is the thought of dying. We move through time os if we don't die. It wouldn't be a nice thing at all to be thinking of death too often, but perhaps the best thought that can come to anyone is death, his own death. That's about the only time he pauses, to ask just what is there after death. To the existentialist, there is nothing. To the Christian believer, there is something eternal. To a good number, there is doubt. And perhaps this holds true to all of us. Can the existentialist and the Christian say there is and there is none? If we believe, then there will be. And perhaps if we don't, then there will be none. That would be a funny set-up. And yet everything seems funny, anyway. use NEWS ADMINISTRATION FACULTY CLUB HEARS FATHER PRESIDENT ON XIAN AIMS IN EDUCATION The fact of redemption, the crucifixion on Golgotha ... these are the “fullest reality and ... The cross-point of history” on which the thoughts, hopes and destinies of centuries past converged, and from where "the rays of faith, all thought, all hopes and, all destinies of our days proceed.” At the start of each schoolyear, the University President meets with the faculty to spell out the academic and administrative programs sought to be implemented, and concludes with inspirational talk. In such a meeting Sunday, July 24 at the Audiovisual Hall, the Very Rev. Dr. Rudolf Rahmann, SVD, underscored the Christian factor as that which we should expect to be found at the core of all human undertakings. “We should expect that after nearly twenty centuries of evangelization this civilization would be fully imbued with the spirit of the Gospel. The fact, however, is that we are still far away from such happy conditions. "... Many of the evils of our time are the result of wrong teachings in our Universities during the previous decades and centuries, and they consequently must be overcome by a teaching that is in the spirit of Christian humanism.” The Father President then drew a note of optimism over recent and current attempts in education to serve the Christian ends. He cited the "growing rapport between sound metaphysics and the natural sciences, the growing literature on the idea and the purpose of the University.” He also mentioned the significant recent assemblies of the International Federation of Catholic Universities and the International Association of Universities, serving the theme of Christian humanism. "It must truly be an honor and a challenge to us to have a part in this noble pioneering movement which strives towards what Maritain describes as ‘a world of free men imbued in its secular substance by a genuine and living Christianity .. At the same occasion, outgoing Faculty Club President Francisco P. Pflapil gave his term-end report. Dr. Jorge Dosdos, president of the USC Alumni Association, announced the progress of the current alumni fund campaign. New officers elected by the Faculty Club are: Prof. Ben N. Borromeo, President; Mrs. Rosario D. Javelosa, vice president; Mrs. Julieta B. Samonte, social secretary; Miss Perfecta Guangco, recording secretary; Prof. Rebecca L. Galeos, treasurer; and Prof. Vicente J. Gorre, auditor. apologies. — The Printers. Page Four THE CAROLINIAN Aug.-Sept., 1966