SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA– What is an oxymoron? Certainly, not a moron by any slight.
“Same difference” is one. A definition by example. “Clearly confused” is another. Clearly confused or confused clearly. It is the same difference. How can it be clear and confused at the same time? How can it be the same and yet different?
Self-contradictory, that precisely is an oxymoron. A juxtaposition of two contrasting words, personalities, circumstances or events. Call it a paradox, if one may. The paradox of the irresistible force.
What happens when an unstoppable force collides against an immovable wall? Pray, tell me where can I buy an impenetrable shield and a spear that pierces any shield? I want to know what happens when I strike the shield with the spear.
Dumaguete on my mind. It was always a joy to watch Jun and Czar play blitz chess. Chess and kantiyaw rolled into one. Kantiyaw and time pressure to un-nerve the opponent. They assume greater role in winning.
When Jun was winning, he rubbed it on Czar. In glee, he would declare, “No matter what variation you play, it’s the same difference, the same result, I win.” When Czar was winning, he would whoop it up with, “I’m a chess genius! I’m chess czar.” Then he broke through with a knowing look all around him, and almost always stressed it with a silly grin on me, more to spite Jun than to tell me anything at all. The power of one look.
The Filipino Flash was fast and furious with his fists. Fleeting as a light flash and furious like a raging bull, the Filipino Flash Nonito Donaire demolished WBO and WBC Bantamweight Champion Fernando Montiel of Mexico in their title fight at Las Vegas, Nevada last week. The demolition job came fast and furious 2’25” past in the 2nd round when Donaire caught with a counter left hook Montiel’s right temple that sent him crumpling to the canvass. For a few arresting moments after he sagged to the canvass, Montiel lay on his back. His legs and hands twitching in the air. His eyes glazed in helplessness. He managed to stand up, wobbled down, and up again as the referee decided he was still fit to fight on. Donaire came swooping down to finish his prey. With two punches and no counter from Montiel, the referee stopped the fight. Prior to this defeat, Montiel held sway over the flyweight and bantamweight divisions. His record speaks for itself 44-3-2 with 34 KOs. Donaire is 26-1 with 18 KOs. Donaire recalled, “I just came out there believing what I had. I hit him with a left hook, looked down and saw him twitching.” Montiel averred, “I knew we both had the punching power to knock each other out. I made the first mistake I paid for it.” The 12-round championship fight was brought to an abrupt ending as the ring announcer exclaimed “What has happened!” Donaire’s Promoter Bob Arum as a postcript to the abbreviated fight wondered, “What’s this…with kids from General Santos City? They have the speed and power.” Arum was referring to Nonito Donaire and Manny Pacquiao as he got excited in thinking of Donaire following Manny’s footsteps in conquering higher weight divisions all the way to130lbs.
Donaire’s demolition display has arrested the attention of the world. The Filipino Flash, like Manny the Pacman, is making a big difference for Filipinos at home and abroad. Flash and Pacman make them feel real Filipinos, walking tall and walking proud. They are good for the Filipino psyche, for the Filipino nation’s soul which is reeling under the stinking stench of corruption and grinding poverty for the impoverished majority. With a wham here, Donaire makes a difference. With wham there, Manny makes the difference. Wham and wham, during their fights Filipinos stop, look, and watch the TV screens including soldiers and rebels who have been shooting each other since yesteryears. They are making the same difference–the power of one.
Heidi is one woman. Heidi in German means the noble kind, the noble one. Heidi in PH is Heidi Mendoza. By admission, she is a witch to the max. But what a hex of a witch. As a former COA auditor, she risks family peace and life to present the trail of corruption in the AFP during a Senate Hearing In-aid of Legislation. In upholding the family and country values of honesty, integrity and public accountability; she unmasks the AFP as the bastion of idealistic coup plotters and protector of the Constitution.
Protect-corrupt is an oxymoron. It can only mean protecting corruption or the corrupt themselves. The power of one. Make a triple whammy of Donaire, Manny, and Heidi. Who knows what the future holds for the Philippines? Make the number of Donaires, Mannys, and Heidis into a critical mass; then you make the power of one into a power of all. Sure as the sun rises, we heal the Philippines. We make a better Philippines.
2K11 and about 400 years ago, Jesus Christ was born into the never-ending battle of good against evil. His message as God Incarnate, as the Word made flesh, is the power of love. The power of love is the power of One. After His death and resurrection, His disciples turned the World upside down with the power of love. The disciples even made converts out of the Roman conquerors who crucified Jesus.
The battle rages on. Mankind persists in denial mode. Mankind insists on a belief that Jesus is only a teacher and his message only a doctrine, no different from the other moral teachers. They lose the way, blind-fold the truth, and impoverish life. We fall short of the glory of a beautiful Love Relationship with the Father in Heaven through Jesus, the God Incarnate. Same difference no more, the real difference.
The power of love, the power of One. Unity in Trinity. It is the latent power of a community rising in unity, reaching out as one.
