Rosales, Arvee Duller - U0406

Synthesis paper no. 1

Tabula Rasa Under Construction

As we traverse the modern age, we tend to seek for answers to a lot of our newly
formulates questions. We hypothesize, test, and experiment and yet fail to find answers. But
come to think of it, the answer that we have been looking for may just be right in our midst-in
the story that we have forgotten because it happened hundred years ago-the story of our struggles
to balance life-right before we were conquered-the story of our being Filipino.
I believe in revelation, but not in revelation which the religion claims to possessbut in
living revelation which surrounds us on every side-mighty, eternal, unceasing, incorruptible,
clear, distinct, universal as being from whom it proceeds, in that revelation which speaks to us
and penetrates us from the moment we are born until we die (Rizals letter to Fr. Pastells).
This is just one of the few good words from none other than our national hero. But I just
wonder, nowadays, who cares about Rizal? Who reads his works? I mean, who really reads him?
Why bother ourselves with studying every facet of his life? Why? Why? Why? As all the
enthusiasts have answered, we need to study Rizal for a simple reason-he is the key towards
identifying the Filipinos national identity (www.skirmisher.org.,2006). He lived that identity. At
this point, it is sufficed to say that Rizal knew where he was and he stood there until the end. He
was able to unlock the mystery of the identity of Filipino and once he knew it, it has become his
power. To compare it to the present, we Filipinos are quite unstable with our identity perhaps
because we keep on embracing what is not ours, flaunting to the world what is not us. And as we
underestimate the undermining power of this identity, we unknowingly become as weak and
feeble as we can be-dripping away all the good thats in us and eliminating all the potentials
there are.

It is important to note at this point that the Rizal that we commonly know is the Rizal as
the Father of the Nation and only few of us know the Rizal who know him as the fighter
whoestablish a nation of moral worth (Trilliana, 2002). As quoted, Kanyan kanyang Rizal,
and indeed we still have to know Rizal in ways that perhaps never crossed our minds. In order to
study Rizal and be able to call ourselves Rizalians in our own rights, we have to read him, read
his works, his every works, page per page, line per line and space per space. We have to get into
his mind, we have to see Rizal as a child from Calamba, his misadventures from Binan, the
poetic one from Manila, the sojourn from Singapore, his cold lonely nights from Europe, his
peaceful days from Dapitan and his final moments to eternity from the Fort Santiago.
To quote, according to John Locke, Human beings are born with Tabula rasa-a blank
slate, dissembling genuine potentiality that can only be actualize through two things: Education
and experience (Villamor, 2010). As we become a part of this world, we have nothing with us,
all that we become are determined by what we write in our slate. All the things about
intelligence, character and even personality are determined by our writings and the way our life
turns out to be is the result of what we the authors have planned to write it. And thus, the 20
years or 2 decades of spending life in school is not just part of quenching the intellectual thirst of
human-it is part of our personhood, a indispensable life endeavor. But then we should not limit
ourselves with the school itself. As Bob Ong says, I do not let my schooling interfere with my
education. Indeed, education is not just boxed in school, it is everywhere, in every place where
you decide to learn and educate yourself.
So let us not continue on betraying our hero, As Rizal once said, let us stop comforting
the weak, fearful and lustful heart. Because if we do, then we will find hundreds of excuses to
forget our betrayal of Rizal and the others like him. Let us be a true Filipino, let us become a
Filipino by knowing Jose Rizal.