Healing

We grew up in a Westernized society where healing or curing is a medical practice. However, we are from an older civilization to the east where healing is much more than medicine.

In our context, healing is about faith and belief in the unseen. Fundamental to this is faith in a Higher Being that has power over all of us. Being sick and having disease is a way of returning us to His consciousness. Being sick is an opportunity for respite, to slow down in a fast-paced life and material world, and to reflect on the purpose of life and living.

We also believe in the unseen beings, who can influence, affect or alter our 'normal' way of life. Diseases are not just physical manifests, but also have some degree of spiritual and other-worldly experience.

In our belief system, healing is not just curing in the context of medicine, but restoring the balance of life within us. Our medicines are not chemicals concocted in research laboratories, but in the natural world of flora and fauna. Every leaf, branch and root; every insect, animal and underwater creature, all have a role to play in one's healing.

Culture, common sense and criticality

We love our culture. We are proud to show it. We are so proud about it that it becomes our immediate recess when something new and different is introduced. We cling to it like dear life itself.

"Kasi ganyan na yan", "kasi ganito na talaga sa amin", "eto na ang aming kinagisnan", we become vulnerable to blind adherence.

Don'lt get me wrong, there are a lot of good things in our culture. Yes we should continue them. But for the things that's inconsistent with 21st century enlightenment, we should be critical about them. Do they have a place in our contemporary society?

Shall we continue "rido", thereby threatening the very safety of our own family and public order? Shall we continue to reason for those putting the law into their own hands for vendetta to satisfy their angst but diminishing our rule of law and public safety?

Shall we continue patronizing leaders based on familial and tribal affiliation with total disregard for competence and merit and what they can do for common good?

Shall we continue the social divide between blue-blooded and commoners that the latter will have to kowtow to the former all the time?

Shall we continue thinking of public coffer as a familial piggy bank and the institution of public service like a family enterprise?

Shall we continue rationalizing that bureaucrats stealing public funds are engaged in jihad, arguing that while rebels are fighting outside, these bureaucrats are fighting within by weakening government's public service deliveries?

Shall we continue to misuse religion for violence?

Shall we continue victimizing our sisters and daughters to polygamy and pawning them for political ends?

Without critical thought about them, we are doomed.

Differentiation

We are different from the rest.
The past tells us that.
We fought for that difference.

We fought to exist as different.
Different from the rest that dominates.
We want our own.

We defer to the past,
Even today and
As we move into the future.

Today there is a big difference with the past.
So we fought to bring that difference.
Different we shall remain.

But as we move forward.
How different will we be with the past?
How different will we be with the present?

The future beckons with opportunities.
To be different being one of them.
Different as we can be.

The roots of our Moro-ness

Watching a show about human personality over Australia Network. Accordingly, there are two factors that shaped our personality: genetics and environment. What is sure is that many of the characteristics we developed and acquired during childhood tend to remain in our lifetime.

Who we are does not start when we were born, but when we were conceived. Upon conception, our genetic composition reflects and is a combo of our parents' DNA.

Even when we are growing in our mother's womb, our environment is gradually influencing our growth through our mom's perception of the world around her - relations, food, etc.

Now comes our query - is our Moro-ness either or both of genetics and the environment?

Is there such thing as Moro DNA? What does it makes children born of one Moro parent only, does this makes him or her less of a Moro?

Is there such thing as a Moro environment? Do I have to grow anywhere is Moroland to imbibe this Moro environmental influence? 

What does this make of those who were only born or have live less that half of their lives outside Moroland, does this make them less of a Moro? Does it makes us less of a Moro for having mixed parentage or for growing up in a different cultural environment?

What is then the roots of our Moro-ness?

Changing feast

Wedding is a religious as it is a social event in Moroland. 

On wedding celebration (i.e. kanduli for Mainland Moros) - How time flies. Before, this event is usually held at home. Family members and relatives come days before bringing anything they can share for the feast. Volunteers abound to fetch water, to chop woods, to cook, to set-up tents, etc. Now, it is simply done on a weekend like today at any of the city restos. People have become pragmatic. Social feasts have change venue and with it expectations and roles.

Who said culture is static?