Noses are dead, violets are blue.
NOSES ARE DEAD, VIOLETS ARE BLUE. Kalokohan!
I agree, those words are not likelykely to adorn the front of your favorite Valentine's Day card! If you think that is a crazy title, you will definitely shake yourhead in disbelief at lhis loco story recorded by a Jesuit living in the Philippines during Spanish rule. According to the historical records of Diego de Bobadilla:
A Spaniard who lived in Manila had the ill fortune to lose his nose (possibly it was eaten away by syphilis), and he asked a Chinese wood- carver then visiting the city if he could make a new one. The Chinese produced such a good nose that the Spaniard, delighted, paid him very well. The artisan returned to China more than satisfied with the transaction so much so that he returned to Manila the foliowing year with a whole cargo of wooden noses in his junk. Alas, there were no more customers. As de Bobadilla said, "to sell them he would have have to cut off the noses of all the Spinards in the country."
"Sayang ang pogod niya " is the way I would describe his enormous effort at achieving absolutely nothing
Imagine all those poor Chinese craftsmen working intently day after day carving all those wooden noses.
"What are those loco Spaniards in the Philippines going to do with all these wooden noses?" they must have wondered silenlly to themselves-sira nga! Think ' of the laughs and jokes they must have shared together about the recipients of those faceless wooden noses. What an enormous waste of time and effort!
Imagine the disbelief and disappointment on that poor ' Chinese carver's face when he arrived in Manila and discovered no one wanted or needed his enormous shipment of beautifully carved wooden noses. Lugi!
THINK ABOUT IT
According to St. Paul, many so-caJled "Christians" are going to be even more surprised and disappointed than the Chinese carver with his shipment of wooden noses. Many so-called "Christians" are going to be surprised when they die and stand in judgment before the Lord Jesus Christ. They are going to be disappointed when they discover all their good deeds and religious effort are useless to God. St. Paul explains to us, for example;
For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it.
Ephesians 2:8-9
St. Paul reminds you that your salvation is not the result of your "good works" and "efforts." "You are a sinner," St. Paul insists. "You can only receive God's forgiveness and grace through faith in Jesus Christ," he warns. "What is faith?" you ask. The Bible says to:
. . . have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of things we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1
"It is only by Jesus' death on the cross, God's free gift of grace, that you and I can enter into heaven," St. Paut insists.
Your good works and deeds are your attempt to take control of yourlife. Akala mokaya mo. Your good works are an attempt to actually shape and control your fate. Having faith requires you to trust in God alone for your salvation. Having faith means you trust God alone to save you from death and judgment It is not what. you can see and touch that calls for faith, but that which you cannot see and touch.
St. Paul reminded the new Christians:
In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins. At that time you followed the world's evil way . . . (and you) like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger. But God's mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved.
The Chinese carver was obviously a very hard, worker. Pero nasayang lang! He was very sincere in his: hard work. He assumed his hard work would produce; a good result. Mali! He was wrong. "Bakit mali?" you ask. Because of his eager desire to produce more noses, he was blind to the truth. Bulag siya sa katotohanan. Despite his sincere efforts, he did not understand truth.
' "What truth?" you ask. "The noses were useless, because nobody needed them." That was the truth. Like the Chinese carver who arrived in Manila with a junk full of useless wooden noses, your hard work to enter the Kingdom of God will bring the same results. lf you choose to ignore the truth concerning the necessity for faith in order to enter God's kingdom, instead of your good works and hard efforts, you will be very disappointed on Judgment Day. When you stand before God and plead for mercy, God will simply inform you that He has no need for your faithless efforts. The Bible does not teach that you will get into heaven because you work hard. lf you could get into heaven because of the good works you have accom- plished, then Jesus' death on the cross was un- necessary. Hindi na siya kailangang namatay. That would rob Jesus of his sacrifice for our sins when l-le died on the cross.
"It is only by Jesus' death on the cross, God's free gift of grace, that you and I can enter into heaven," St. Paul insists. In common language, this is my own personal confession:
Noses are Dead,
Violets are Blue,
My Faith is in Jesus,
What about You?
PRAY ABOUT IT
Thank you,lord, for providing a solution for my sinful and inadequate eITorts. I am very happy you do not judge me according to my own works and deeds, but according Lo my faith in Jesus alone. Please help me undeistand more about your free gift of salvation. Please show me more of your truth.Iwant to experience your love.
Someday You'll Write
You say that you want to be a writer someday that you dream of being one but you know as well as i do that we cannot dream ourselves into being anything.We can though trough work and acceptance of the discipline shape ourselves into being what we want to be.In the middle ages young boys were apprenticed to master craft men for a period of years seven generally to learn their skills.You might think thus of thesse immediate years during which you will be accquiring skills for later work.Your apprenticeship however will not be to a single master but the great master of English prose whose words have moved and enriched and delighted people for a very long time
You say that you like to read.That goes hand in hand with your dessire to write and will help you more than anything else.
An apprentice must learn first of all how to use well the tools of his trade and books will be one of your tools-books that have stood trough the years books that stretch your mind and make you reach high above yourself and stir you the world in which you are part.
Savor Good books
What books do you like to read? Take one of them and read it again not rushing along with the story to see what happens but savoring it.Its a good book of thay you are sure.But just why is it good? Wher e did your interest quiken?What Happened to make you feel you were an actual part of the story? With what character did you find you were identify ing you self and why? At the end perhaps there were tears in your eyes perhaps you were smilling but was it so satisfying that what ever happened you felt right about it?Did you feel as you put the book back on the shelf that you would go on living with it for long time that something of it had became yours forever?
How was it that you felt all this and perhaps much more? If you can begin to discover some of the reasons you will be laying a sound foundation for your own approach to writting. Its not easy this endeavor to reduce a book to its structure.It might be compared to reducing a house that now is being lived in comfortably to the architect's before the house was built.To study the plan will reveal much that is taken for granted in the finish structure.Read this way with a particular book and it will be quiken your sense of it as a story; it will also sharpen your eye for the shape sentence the content of the paragraph.Your inner ear will begin to respond to the sound of the words and the way they are used in relation to each other.Their aptness and the way they conveyed beauty and spoke truth were all part of what held you to the book.
Expand your Vocabulary
Notice particular words perhaps new to you or new in their context and add them to your own vocabulary.Here again are tools and sensitive craftsman will care for words as for any valued piece of equipment.Try your newly acquired word s in different combinations; experiment with them as an artist does with colors.Word serve their purpose when well employed .This is done when their meaning is clearly understood.One book that should be within your easy reach is dictionary.Add to your store of words constantly but no faster than you can master their meaning.
Every skill impposes its own discipline.That word many seem a hard one but it is rewarding .See how the divtionary defines it and how it applies to your desire to be a writer. Discipline: training or experience that corrects molds strengthens or perfects.
Youre Notebook:A Rich storehouse
The reading of the books the gradual mastery of words are generals tools.Your own highly personal ones are the jottings you make in your notebook.Always keep a notebook handy.You never know when you may see something unusual or provoking or beautiful and if you jot it down you can think more about it later on.Use your notebook as an artist does a sketchbook drawing something in a few words that can be elaborated on with more time.You may hear an exchange of conversation on a street corner that would fit well into a story.You may catch yhe curious up.There will be times when you will want to dash down a home.Impression should be caught as close to the time of seeing, hearing, feeling,or discovering as possible so the emotion can be captured with the image.I deas may come to you out of the blue and in the oddest moments, so jot them down for future exploration .This is all raw material for writting and your notebooks can be rich storehouse form whicy you may draw at will.
Dragons: A natural History
A classification of Dragons
Much of the confusion about dragon has resulted from the fact that several kinds have existed in the past.Early observers failed to distinguish among dragons,snakes,and other reptiles.Nearly all of these were simply referred to as"worms" or" serpents" and were probably greatly shunned.Few people would have lingered long enough to classify them.We can now classify all these reptiles quite simply.They are snakes if they have no external legs.They are lizards if they are relatively small(ussually smaller than a bread box) and have four legs.They are dragons if they are considerably larger with four legs or with two legs and to wings.
Foods and General Behavior
Its a quiet fair to say in spite of all that has been written about dragon s,none have in reality proved to be intentional human eatears at all.To be sure ,the lake dragons live mostly on fish.When they are at sea,they will sometimes eat squid and octopus.They have never known to attack shipwrecked sailors or other person lost at sea.
The smaller dragons consume fruits and berries of varrious kinds, including goose berries, raspberries,and wild plums.They sometimes fly up into tall trees,such as beech and walnut trees,to gather the nut crop.On ocassion,they will steal the eggs from birds nests.They also enjoy eating mushrooms, which often grow in their lairs.
