TO MAKE SOMEONE SMILE

When did you make someone smile lastly, my dear reader? Maybe you think that this is hardly the time to do so right now. Understandable, if we consider today’s global and national situation. 

Honestly, it seems we have no more time and no reason for laughter if we look around. That can wait until tomorrow or better until the day after tomorrow. Anticipation is better… .

Our enemies laugh up their sleeves, and most of the time we miss to recognize the fortune still smiling at us. But hold on: he who laughs last laughs longest. Remember?

American neurologist Henri Rubenstein says, laughter lowers high blood pressure while aiding digestion and fostering sleep. Well, give me even a simple smile and believe in what  experts say: “Good humor can help the gravely or terminally ill to hear their ordeal”.

Of course, if we look around us these days, we might really not roar with laughter or split our sides laughing. Or even more than this! Have you heard about the incident at the Danish Imperial Theatre in Copenhagen/Denmark sometime during the 1980’s, when a spectator died of a heart attack while watching the movie “A Fish Called Wanda” starring John Cheese of my favorite Great Britain’s Monty Python Comedy Team? Sure, a heart attack is indeed not funny, and honestly, I still love to watch this movie on Youtube.

Well, even if we think we don’t have reasons to laugh,we should try to express mirth spontaneously, and we should try to be merry or gay. We still have reasons to start with the softest form of audible laughter – the vocalized smile. This is what I learned and experienced from the first moment on while travelling in Asia since 1978, and being an expat living in the Philippines since 1999 for good. Keep smiling – even you are overloaded with huge problems.

Experts also say good humor works because it helps people feel easier in mind. The French psychotherapist Sylvie Tenenbaum stressed that, in her patients, laughter often signals the dawning of a wholesome awakening to reality. Gallow humor might be dubious in the eyes of others. But try to sing out loud, try to cry, but try to laugh!

Give a genuine compliment. Say ‘thank you’. Spark up a conversation with an old friend, either over the phone or 6 ft away. Send someone a meaningful song. Run an errand for someone. Tip a little extra. Do chores for your family or roommates. Bring someone a coffee.

As a devout Christian, I love reading the bible. Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 say: “There is a time for everything … a time to be born and a time to die ,,, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh!” 

And, very important – Psalms always help. The cries from the heart – the songs for sorrow as well as joy. For every emotion and mood, you can find a psalm to match. They wrestle with the deepest sorrow. Their voice is refreshingly spontaneous.

A blessing named ‘father’

by Manila Bulletin

Through the years, and with the melding of cultures of the east and the west, a father has taken on more non-traditional roles. To his children, he’s become father and mother, brother and sister, playmate and competitor, provider and teacher, cook and taste-tester, life coach and friend. Sometimes he is at the “driver’s seat” of a family’s journey. Other times, he is the passenger and back-seat driver.

In any role, to his children, a father is just “tatay,” “daddy,” or “papa” — no matter if he is a CEO, or staff member of a company, if he is an elected official, or the barangay kagawad of a city, or if he is breadwinner or house-husband.

With Father’s Day just days away, it’s a time to celebrate the many roles of a father — biological or figurative — in our lives. Was he the bread-winner who provided for all the family’s needs, including tuition for graduate studies? The disciplinarian who limited one’s social life? Or the soft heart who over-ruled a strict mother’s rules? The hero who secretly “corrected” many wrong decisions? Or was he the family driver-on-call 24/7?

With a father’s many roles, one would expect him to be everywhere, including on social media. But today, it is not typical to read captions like — “He’s my father!” — declared openly in a social media account, or displayed by affection in a public place. Except on Father’s Day. It’s as if a father steps out of the picture when a child’s career takes over.

But a father will never leave the “picture” even of an adult child’s life; he will likely hover around. It is said that a father’s instinct to nurture and protect a child never goes away. In the extended Filipino family, it is an instinct also shared by father-figures like grandfathers, uncles or friends who have fulfilled a father’s role because of circumstances.

In Europe, the United States, and many countries around the world, the significance of fathers in people’s lives is celebrated every third Sunday of June.

In the Philippines, President Corazon C. Aquino signed on June 8, 1988, Proclamation No. 266 declaring every third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in the Philippines. (The same proclamation also declared every second Sunday of May as “Mother’s Day.”) That date had remained as Father’s Day even after another proclamation signed by President Joseph Estrada in 1998 had declared “the first Monday of December as ‘Mother’s Day’ and Father’s Day,” to return the traditional celebration on the date declared by a proclamation in 1921.

The “mother” of Father’s Day is a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, who initiated the celebration of the day inspired by her father who raised six children after their mother died in childbirth, according to reports from history publications. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, the month of the birthday of Dodd’s father.

Sunday, June 19, is Father’s Day. There is time to write a tribute or greeting to the man who had helped develop the way you think and live today. If he’s not around, say a prayer. A father in one’s life is a blessing.

Chikungunya confirmed in Davao

By Ruth Palo, Manila Times

THE Davao City Health office has confirmed two cases of chikungunya in Barangay Ilang after test results arrived from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Metro Manila.

Ernie Cequiña, a nurse at the City Health Office (CHO) Tropical Disease Prevention and Control Unit, in a report from the City Information Office, said 16 more suspected cases of chikungunya were also recorded in the barangay (village).

Cequiña, however, added that the suspected 28 cases earlier reported in Barangay Panacan are still being verified.

The CHO Tropical Disease Prevention and Control Unit has intensified intervention efforts to control the Aedes mosquito species, the same species that carries dengue, in the area after the city confirmed its first case of chikungunya in Barangay Ilang on June 8, 2022.

Cequiña said the CHO responded with critical mosquito control measures, such as an awareness drive in the villages, Aedes aegypti larvae surveillance and fogging, and later conducted misting or indoor residual spraying.

Chikungunya symptoms are particularly difficult to determine as the patients usually manifest symptoms similar to those of dengue (fever, nausea, pain behind the eyes) but with more severe joint pains and early onset of skin rashes, he added.

According to Cequiña, the city remains steadfast in monitoring these cases and conducting intervention measures.

He, however, said protective measures, such as maintaining cleanliness of surroundings, remain the best method of preventing an outbreak.

Cequiña reminded Davaoeños to practice the 4S procedure; which stands for "Search and destroy" mosquito breeding grounds, practice "Self-protection" from mosquito bites, "Seek early medical consultation" and "Say yes" to community prevention and intervention measures.

Celebrate Father's Day with live orchestral music

For the first time after a two-year hiatus, the Manila Symphony Orchestra (MSO), the MSO Junior Orchestra and the MSO Music Academy will be officially coming back to one stage, for a live concert in time for a Father's Day celebration.

Be captivated once again by the beauty of live orchestral music on June 19, 5 p.m. at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati City.

Papa Mia, a MSO Family Concert will highlight piano and violin ensemble pieces to be performed by the students of the MSO Music Academy.

This will be followed by favorite classical pieces from Mozart and Handel and Filipino folk songs performed by the MSO Junior Orchestra.

The highlight of the evening will be an awe-inspiring performance of popular movie theme pieces from "Themes from 007," "Mission Impossible," "The Avengers," "Mamma Mia" with modern classical tunes by the MSO, Asia's longest performing orchestra.