The Explorer's Compass

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time."

--- T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

When I got my class card in my final subject and realizing that my years of studying in the University will come to a conclusion, familiar images of events, faces, formulas and score-sheets barged into my consciousness like looking into a deck of shuffling cards. It's shameful to admit that it was a long time for me to finally reach this point and it's been a long journey, but nevertheless I treasure and will always cherish this worthwhile trip. I just can't easily express how it feels right now. Had I been a poet, then I could write it through a magical poem, or had I been a painter, then I could easily put it on a canvas.

I am just happy, but in dire need of concrete motivation to move on. I have seen the possible directions, and I know the need to make that first step towards the next stage. Wanting to get out of that eternal student syndrome, I tried to look back and finally realized that what matters more than just learning life is rediscovering what life is all about. Each day, we continue on learning because life itself is a learning process. It's a continuous cycle of discovery, test, and rediscovery.

As I examine what I've learned so far, I see that there are quantifiable things that are immortal and essential for our own survival in this side of the world. Being part of that thin blue line separating civilization from anarchy is a blessing and a curse. Either way, I can see the bigger picture as an observer, and I can see things more clearly from that vantage point. Those things immortal and essential that we are talking about are the principles. They are the adages, truths, philosophies and axioms that were tested through time. They can never feed a hungry stomach, but they can feed a hungry soul. They are weapons that can never inflict a wound, but lethal and can save a man's life. You may never agree to some of them, but as you go further with your life, you'll see that they are true. You always have the choice whether you believe them or not.

Here's the list of my collected Top 12 Principles that has became my conscience and my guide the past seven years(in no particular order):

If there is no involvement, there is no commitment.

Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

Politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.

They cannot take our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

What emerges is that engineers, djinni, and spirits have in common is the ability to effect feats that may be categorized as good or evil, beneficial or harmful.

Fame is vapor, popularity an accident, riches take wings, those who laugh today will curse tomorrow; only one thing endures--- character.

The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say "I was wrong."

A man who has not disciplined himself to read has narrowed his freedom to choose between ideas. He is confined to what he hears. He is at the mercy of the propagandist. He has limited his freedom to think.

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

The biggest obstacle to love is the secret fear of not being worthy of being loved.

Loneliness is not necessarily inimical to companionship, for no one is more sensitive to companionship than the lonely man.

A blind man cannot lead another.

I deeply believe in these adages. For they were all measured and known by simple individuals who managed to survive this world in an extraordinary way. I know I will not turn out to be like them in the end, but at least I am thankful that those individuals shared their principles and beliefs for us to think about.
Now that my college days are over, I expect more truths to rediscover and apply them for my own survival in the next stage.

And as I check my personal compass, the arrow is pointing to the South.
I knew it.

I am going home.



infinite thank you's to the 12 bright minds and pure souls (in an order patterned with the list above):
Stephen Covey, St. Augustine, Albert Einstein, Mohandas Gandhi, Raymond Spier, Horace Greely, Sydney Harris, E.F. Wells, Sir Edmund Burke, Bill Copeland, Carl Jung, and Jesus Christ.

[ heart vs logic = VERTIGO ]

---lifted from the journal "The Awakening"