CULTURE can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called “the way of life for an entire society.” As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art.
Living in the Philippines for almost 25 years now, I learned a lot about Philippine culture.
Driving in big cities is not a joke for beginners. It’s an ordeal, especially driving during heavy traffic hours. One must know where to go and which way to take. Otherwise, one’ll end up bumping somewhere somehow.
But, driving a car in a small village, where roads are simple, is for neophytes an enjoyable one. No traffic, or less traffic, no traffic lights, no complicated ways.
In the same way, railroads can make train drivers ill at ease when they are also in big cities. I remember Munich in my home country Germany, where railways appear like spider’s cobwebs. They go in several directions. No wonder, accidents happen many times.
In life we, too, have roads which lead us in several directions. To go to heaven, man’s eternal destiny, one can either choose the shortest road, or one can make detours. Not so many perhaps fall by the way and end up in eternal damnation.
There are some of us, Christians, who take the shourt-cut road to heaven. This is the road of suffering, of the actual practice of Christian virtues, of serving God and our neighbour. Others take the circuitous road of easy life, thinking that at the end they still have time to amend themselves and lead a good life. This is risky, since no one can guarantee that an opportunity will be given at the eleventh hour. Unfortunately, there are still others, who prefer to take that opposite rod, which leads to eternal damnation. So they live, so they die! In John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”, we read, “Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven!”
Homo, quo vadis?
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