WEATHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

image from designer.com

"How's the weather up there?" My height-challenged co-worker kidded Marina, one of our producers in the TV station I used to work for. Marina towered close to six feet if my memory serves me right.

I guess we each carry our own individual weather, depending on where or how we stand.

Don't we sometimes 
manufacture our own wind?

"Mahangin (windy)" or "malakas ang dating (heavy presence)." That had been most people's impression of Genio (not his real name), one of my college schoolmates.  Seeming center of the universe, he constantly tooted his own horn.

Initially in awe of his awesomeness and believing all his brag lines, we soon discovered he lived in fantasyland or egoland---that he was this rich guy who inherited a huge fortune. He never really regained credibility even if he later graduated with honors.

Some just couldn't hold their own nasty wind down under.

Many senior citizens struggle with internally-generated uncontrollable weather, sometimes with rumblings which make them dash for "that bloody loo," per my British friend. 

Perhaps a sign to submit yourself to a colonoscopy or your long overdue annual physical exam---so your doctor can forecast fine weather as your body weathers escalating drought by the day. Wriggly, sagging skin---that's one of our barometers.

But a new-born's weather? Just pure sunny and bright.

Well, he or she may have his/her own uncontrollable weather too down under; but crying or cooing or slumbering, an infant just has a capacity to bring in the sunshine and the birds and the rainbow---and yes, singing---even during a storm. How I wish adults could do the same!

My new granddaughter Natalie does that to me all the time---as well as the thought of my now more grown up grandkids Joaqui and Charlize.

But wait till Natalie screams for whatever reason; and everyone around her gets scrambled as a tornado scrambles everything in its path. Yet we still remark, "How cute!" though her wailing makes us stop everything we're busy with, so we can pacify her weather.

(This is a heads up on my soon-to-be-released book, "Grandparenting: Happiness and Hard Work!" which will be launched at the Manila International Book Fair this September. Soon available at OMF and PCBS bookstores; and can be ordered online through OMF. Wouldn't it be a great Christmas gift to any grandparent?)

Experiencing US East Coast weather in recent weeks, I've often shivered in airconditioned houses cooled 22 degree-C or lower, only to step out in sweltering 38 degree-C, nemesis of migraine-prone heads. Thank God, weathermen forecast cooler days as fall descends.

Manila weather, on the other hand, seems to be a give and take between stormy and sunny, with flooding and even greater traffic as a consequence of abnormal amounts of rainfall.

Scientists have warned us again and again. At the rate industries have spread their carbon footprint, and ordinary mortals like us wantonly consume more than the energy we need in our own households or gas-guzzler vehicles, we are continuously fanning our own destructive weather---whether we like it or not.


image from topnews.in

This earth which God gave us to steward, is really ours to manage. That requires some wisdom!

God commanded man in Genesis 1:28 "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

Being fruitful, subduing the earth and ruling over everything---awesome responsibilities. But we seem not to have taken these to heart. We've actually abused our authority. And we're reaping the consequence as we experience what scientists term "unusual weather" or global warming. 

Of course, some people are more guilty than others. But we each have to admit our share of the blame.

Will it be sunny or balmy or stormy tomorrow? Will it be seething hot or shivering cold? Will there be torrential rain or unusual flooding? Will the snow fall or will it be a skiing-free winter?

Whether it's the weather I carry, or the weather I fan around me, or the weather I contribute to creating for all of mankind, I must always keep in mind, "I impact others either for good or bad."

Some weather to ponder!