PARADOXICAL

December 2025 Photo Dump and a Hesitant Year-in-Review

I spent the whole of 2025 without being cognizant of it being declared as a "Year of Hope" in church as it has been a Jubilee Year as well. For those who are not Catholic, these are special declarations that promise a great deal of positive things. And yet, we all know what happened in 2025, here and abroad. A lot of seemingly cataclysmic things that give us no reason to hope.

But as Christians, we don't give in to despair. (Jesus Christ, after all, has already conquered death, evil, sin, hell.) Each year should be a year of hope anyway; each moment of each day, in fact, is a reason to hope. Since I am not a member of the clergy and perhaps have no right or moral ascendancy to write about spiritual things, I'd just like to end this year with a list of things to be thankful for, behind those things we normally perceive as tragedy.

There's nothing to be thankful for about natural disasters that bring about massive deaths and widespread damage to property, but there are lessons to be learned about environmental protection, economic sustainability, and the fragility of life. In spiritual terms, a keen awareness of our mortality -- that we are not the ones totally in control, that we are not the author of life -- is always a good thing.

The equally massive exposés on corruption at the topmost levels of government is also a cause for hope in that, they finally give credence to things that have only been whispered about for so long, particularly by contractors that feel helpless and have no choice but comply with under-the-table arrangements. This can only lead to positive change.

Purgation, cleansing, pruning -- these are all good for the soul.

Even in personal terms, scraping the bottom of the barrel is salutary. As my favorite musical puts it, "When God closes the door, He opens the window" (and the roof too). It translates to people quietly finding their true self and embracing their calling, coming clean and turning things around in their lives, looking at life and the world through a more humane pair of eyes, courageously facing their fears and finally confronting their demons so they take control of their lives instead of their compulsions lording over them...

Even away from the spotlight, even without award-giving bodies, being freed up from one's favorite sins, conquering disabilities and weaknesses, courageously choosing to do what is right despite obstacles and hardship and opposition, exercising incredible patience and endurance in the face of ailment and suffering, understanding and forgiving the seemingly unforgivable and unlovable and the "hopeless" basket case, producing new knowledge that fills important gaps or inventing something useful to a lot of people even without routine news coverage... These, to me, are great accomplishments too.

Other seemingly trivial controversies that stir debates can be seen another way: democracy is alive and well, and we still live in a free market of ideas. If something strikes a chord with a lot of people or touches a raw nerve then a heated exchange ensues no matter how trivial, this is at least an indication that life goes on, and that we are not yet in a desperate state of war and state of famine that we can still afford to have the luxury of arguing among ourselves -- using our laptops and cell phones too.

Lastly, surviving at all during times of upheaval is already a cause for celebration.

I invite everyone to end this year on that grateful, prayerful, meditative note, as a foil to the startling sound of pyrotechnic bangers that resemble bombs amidst what comes off to me as or meaningless, utterly empty, not to mention thoughtlessly and physically injurious, brand of annual merrymaking.

posted by Resty Odon  # 2:55 AM