Transcending the crab mentality

I HEARD there was a lot of “crab talk” in the last national press forum of the Philippine Press Institute, the national association of newspapers. PNoy, the keynote speaker, started it by offering his own laundry list of complaints.

            To be fair, the president has his points, though many of those who heard and read his speech thought he should have been more broad-minded and patient in coping with the usual limitations and gaffes of the press, and offered instead good example and positive and leading vision of how responsible journalism should be.

            It was ironic that while speaking about the evils of the crab mentality, he fell for it in the process, caught in flagrante. This is what happens when one sees things too closely and too narrowly and speaks or writes too quickly.

            That is why we have to learn to transcend the crab mentality, which by the way is not an exclusive trait of Filipinos, journalists or not, but is quite universal, a common consequence of what we know as our original sin.

            To transcend is not to ignore the here and now, but rather to go beyond it and proceed to the hereafter. It is to get involved and immersed in the present as well as in the past, and also to look forward to the future, and in fact, to eternity, because that is the ultimate dimension that governs our life.

            To transcend is not to get stuck with the demands of justice which we cannot fully serve no matter how best we try, but rather while trying what we can to live justice, we should never forget to live charity, the indispensable value and virtue that is at the core of our dignity, in spite of our mistakes and all.

            And charity means affection, understanding, compassion, patience, mercy, willingness to help and serve, to suffer for the others, etc. We have to be ready for these, instead of being dominated by anger and the other expressions of self-interest.

            We, of course, have to sort out our unavoidable differences and conflicts here in this life and try to resolve them as fairly as possible. But we should never forget that our earthly and temporal affairs just come and go. They only have a relative value, that is, relative to the absolute value of love.

            An old Nat King Cole song, “Our love is here to stay,” captures the idea when he croons: “The Rockies may crumble / Gibraltar may tumble / They are just made of clay / But our love is here is stay.” If Nat really meant it, then he was on the right track.

            Yes, let’s not make our differences and conflicts weaken our charity for one another. Not even when we think we are pursuing a higher level of justice, one that to our mind would serve the interest of the majority of the people.

            That’s because justice, no matter how well-intentioned and how highly and widely meant, when pursued without the most elementary manifestation of charity, would be emptied of its living substance.

            Yes, we have to be as strict as we can in pursuing justice, including prosecuting accused malefactors and inflicting punishments on the guilty. But everything should be done in charity, from the first to the last step of the process. Otherwise, that justice would not be real justice, and worse, would start to breed a vicious cycle of injustices.

            We have to be convinced of the absolute need for charity, and for this we have to look at God who revealed himself fully in Christ who in turn gave us the new commandment to love one another as he loves us.

            This is what we have to proclaim in season and out of season. We have to learn how to live charity not only in spite of, but rather also because of our differences and conflicts.

            Let’s hope that those in public view, our officials and media practitioners, realize the need to proclaim and live charity always as we try to sort out our affairs and predicaments. As much as possible, we should avoid a hostile character of our discussions. Let’s avoid carping, mudslinging, casting aspersions and sowing intrigues.

            Our Lord simply proclaimed the Good News and has asked his disciples, and all of us, to do the same. He did not bother so much about the worldly affairs, though he too was concerned about them.

            Charity transcends the crab mentality. It broadens our mind and heart, giving us a complete picture of things.