Make kindness our religion

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So spread your love everywhere you go.—Mother Theresa

Without a doubt, Filipinos have dealt with, and continue to deal with the upshot of Yolanda’s fury with passion and compassion. After all, no one can help us through all these ordeals but our indomitable spirit and collective power to get out of the rut. As we carry on with our civic duties, let me share a few observations from this last bout with tragedy.

• Adversity is a great equalizer. It comes to all men — rich and poor alike. That should be a small consolation to the deprived ones who move on with the post-Yolanda life with no house to clean or to repair, no insurance claims to file for damaged properties, or no bundle of mired clothes to bring to a laundry shop. Yolanda wreaked its havoc sans class distinction. Those who are economically disadvantaged may just wash the mud off their feet and walk again, and the privileged and empowered may allow for some time for despair before collecting the pieces and start all over again.

• Given the opportunity people will help. They moved with fervor in the aftermath of Yolanda’s wrath via calls for relief using available new media — Facebook and Twitter, among others. Some even risked their own safety to engage in actual rescue operations to help ease the victims’ discomforts, pains and frustrations through ardent volunteerism. Seeing them in action, you can’t help but do your part as we add our voice in urging national and local leaders to do firm actions lest we see more lives snatched, more properties damaged and more dreams shattered when the next big one, God forbids, come and demolish.

Social media was truly abuzz in this crisis, and netizens helped out with their heart and mind in limitless ways to make a difference. As Jam Kotenko writes in her blog, “While your prayers, positive thoughts, and condolences are very much appreciated on social sites, nothing beats actual contribution — since it takes time to send and put together a box of supplies that may help people with no belongings, the most obvious and easiest method to reach out online is by donating money.”

Kotenko goes on to say that netizens should go beyond a status update. If you are Internet famous with over a thousand Twitter followers and/or Facebook friends, then sure, a shared link that offers various ways to help will go a long way. However, depending on how many people your followers follow, your post may easily get drowned in the noise. You can easily skate around that by paying for a promoted post.

• Giving brings a sense of accomplishment. It gives a warm feeling knowing that we were able to extend our hands to bring people out of the dark into the light, and a chance to be thankful for our own circumstance. Believe that whatever we give, we get back tenfold, not literally but figuratively, in the form of riches that are truly priceless. Look at it this way — when we donate in kind to the calamity victims, the value of our donations will be many times over than what we would pay in cash for them.

• Small things add up fast. We can share and we have a role to play. It’s natural to want to see a remarkable, instantaneous result when we give, but keep in mind that small things add up to something big. Each time we stand up for a principle or move to improve the lot of others, we send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of force and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of tyranny — natural or man-made. We should persist on believing in impossibilities. Together with so many others, we have the power to make devastated places amazing once again, to turn the mess into order. Choose to be part of the battle and make constructive waves.

• Celebrities bring in the donations quickly. We have seen this in action as people heed their shoutout for donation in their respective shows or telethons. They have the capacity to raise millions that grew bigger by the day. Corporate sponsors supported the flee of their respective endorsers pledging and sending cash, food and other goods and services for recipients and volunteers alike. There are many post-Yolanda rebuilding efforts that need to be done still. The devastation is big and widespread, and another call for help using celebrity power can be useful again to bring more donations, this time earmarked for rehabilitation. We realize that with a string of catastrophes ravaging the country, donor fatigue sets in, but if we still can, our openhandedness should not stop.

• Creative ways of helping are all over. One of them is Sagip Kapamilya’s T-shirt campaign — a quick and easy way to lend a hand and show support. One hundred percent of the sales of this T-shirts will go to the relief efforts for the survivors of recent tragedies that beset the country. With just a minimal amount, you take part in the effort to reach out plus we get a tangible symbol of our support. The cotton round-neck shirts bear the words Tulong Na, Tabang Na, Tayo Na, Tabang being the Visayan word for “to help.” More and more establishments nationwide and online shopping sites are now carrying the “Tulong Shirts.” And the support continues to mount.

Smiles and laughter persist to demonstrate the resiliency of Filipinos. They are free panacea for the ill effects of calamities.  Along with giggling, sniggering, guffawing, and even the extremely mild form of amusement we may be engaging in right now, laughter has a palliative effect on our psyche, especially after a harrowing experience. The relationship between mind and body has been firmly established in scientific literatures as the key to understanding the healing process after a trauma.  As the survivors recuperate from the physical stress, they should also recover from the psychological impact that hit them. The effect of laughter is more emotional. When we laugh, our body releases endorphins that relieve unhealthy pent-up tensions that can cause a mind-body imbalance that can cause illness. People in ravaged areas cannot allow themselves to get sick as they rebuild. They should bring back the laughter and regain their wits as they march forward.

An inventory of the things we have and the things we need is liberating. As we count our blessings, think of all the people who don’t have the things we have because they lost them from the storm surge or the raging typhoon wind. Then make a list of the things we actually need. As we do this, we will realize soon enough that it comes down to the basic — food, clothing and shelter. The lessons are clear. First, be happy with what we have, and anything we have in excess, charitably give them away to those who may have an immediate need for them; and second, distance ourselves from the material things we accumulate, because in an instant, they can be taken away. Easier said than done, but the realities we have recently witnessed will bear these lessons out.

Faith is a calamity device. We never know when we’re going to need it.  It’s best to have it handy. Whether we are dealing with a personal crisis or a national tragedy, or trying to think of what to do next after all the trials and tribulations, it is the belief in something bigger and more powerful than ourselves that will see us through.

An appeal to the heart campaign works better than an appeal to the mind. This confirms the research led by Deborah Small, a Wharton professor who discovered that if organizations want to raise money for a charitable cause, feelings not analytical thinking, drive donations. “The mind responds to proportions, not absolute values. This is why we gasp when we see a 50 percent-off sale, regardless of whether the original price is $5 or $500. Similarly saving 10 lives out of a group of 100 is a high proportion and thus evokes a greater emotional response than saving 10 lives out of one million,” Small declares.

Remember the lessons well. Mistakes are part of being human. We must appreciate them, for what they bring are precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. The government and the public alike should take time to ask, “What was the biggest mistake in the Yolanda-triggered tragedy?” “What really happened here?” And from there, list down the gaffes, analyze why they happened, implement action plans to avoid committing the same blunders in the future, prepare a “mistake report” and make it transparent when completed, and assign a “mistake sponsor” to have the mistakes corrected.

The Filipinos have journeyed together to face the challenges brought by Yolanda. There are still a lot of relief operations to mount, trashes to collect, houses to reconstruct, classrooms to rebuild, streets to repair, and human traumas to deal with before talk of real rehabilitation starts. Have you done your part? Only time will tell. But the act of kindness you have done today is a fine beginning. As the Dalai Lama proclaims, “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

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E-mail bongosorio@yahoo.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions and suggestions. Thank you for communicating.