A life of symbols

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When John Lennon called on the world to "make love not war", he flashed the V-sign to propagate the concept of peace and diplomacy. When toppled former leader Ferdinand Marcos had his presidential campaigns, he used the sign to mean victory.

When former President Corazon Aquino survived the political ideology of an assassinated husband-senator, the "L" she flashed stood for "Laban" (fight). To ghetto youths the "L" on their foreheads mocks the "losers".

Some people raise a middle finger to provocation. Some raise a fist to a cause. Scuba diving enthusiasts share an O with bankers and businessmen. To the former the O is perfect because it means condition is okay under waters, to the latter the O is about money matters that both signals stability and a state of tottering. To divers, the thumb-up means back to surface, in competitions it is an assurance of putting up a good fight.

It is but plain truth that our lives are governed by symbols - the cross to Christians, the crescent moon and star to Islams, the swastika to Nazis, the star of David to Jewish monotheists, the yin and yang to Taoists, the lotus and Dharma wheel to Buddhists; the green man to mean "pedestrian crossing", the male gender sign to indicate a man's restroom, and the skull for poison, among a long list of signs and symbols that are part and parcel of our daily grind.

A life of symbols is the very essence of the controversial "Da Vinci Code" book penned by Dan Brown, the reels soon to come to cinemas near us, that topbills Tom Hank as Harvard professor of Symbology, Robert Langdon with French actress Audrey Toutou as cryptographer Sophie Neveau.

Rather than taking "Da Vinci Code" as a humongous threat on the possible breakaway of churchgoers, or a personal attack on my convictions, or a deceitful scheme to snatch me away from my faith, I gave the book a try.

Life itself is a symbol

Life is enriched by symbols that have made it more functional from the restrooms to the streets. In fact, life is itself a symbol of the mind of a Higher Being who puts in consistent manner the physical and chemical components of mountains and skies, sand dunes and seas as well as the physical makeup and personal needs of human beings across the globe amid cultural multiplicity - humans who amid diversity, complex societies and social orders share the need for love, acceptance, communication, recognition.

Symbology, though a fictional academic discipline in the book, proposes a way for tolerance. It poses a call for renewed interest on the study of spiritual ideologies and how these have come to both shape and destroy societies and peoples.

Symbology comes with this thought to ponder on: There is no such thing as peace in here, there can only be tolerance! The symbols our lives are interconnected with should not have waged for us wars, but should have showed us the purpose of a life spent believing in a Messiah from the cross, to the grave, to the sky.

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