VALUES all conscious of its environment, be able
I.V. Mallari to see only the individual threads in its
You will agree with me, no doubt, that
the degree of your cultural development,
not to mention your character – can best
be judged in terms of your sense of
values – both moral and aesthetic – as
revealed not so much in your
pronouncements as in your actuations –
especially at the critical moments of your
life.
Your sense of moral values, in turn
perhaps nowhere better embodied than
in your life-namely, your attitude toward
God, your attitude toward nature, and
your attitude toward your fellow beings.
Are you so self-centred, for example, as
to regard God simply as a guide, ready
to show you just what steps to take in
your venture, or as a protector, ready to
save you from pitfalls and evil; or as a
sort of policeman, always watching your
every move and ready to pounce on you
and punish you as soon as you say or
do anything wrong; or as someone with
whom you can strike bargains and you
expect to shower you with blessings in
return for your devotions; or as a n
indulgent father, ready to forgive you for
all the wrongs that you have committed
as soon as you say that you are sorry?
Do you hold the broader view, rather,
that God is no less than the motivating
force in all creation and that the whole of
creation is so organized as to include
both what you consider good and what
you considered evil-in much the same
way as a tapestry is so designed as to
include both black and white threads as
well as threads of various colours? Do
you realize that the reason life can
sometimes seem so ugly is that lacking
the perspective of space and time you
can encompass only a bedbug living in a
tiny portion of a tapestry would, if it were
immediate vicinity, which are likely to be
dirty and frayed.
If, like you, the bedbug could see the
tapestry in its entirety, and if, also liked
you, it were endowed with the powers of
discernment, it would be able to
appreciate the beauty of the tapestry’s
design – the black threads setting off
and reinforcing the white threads and
the threads in the various colours. In
some way, if, like God, you had the
perspective of space and time and that
you could see life in its entirety, you
would be able to appreciate the beauty
and appropriateness of its design-
various elements, including what you
consider evil, setting off and reinforcing
one another.
Do you realize, too, that since the span
of your life is limited, you have to keep in
harmony with your immediate
environment-natural as well as social-if
you are to fulfil your destiny and if you
are to be at peace with yourself and with
the rest of the world? in this way alone
as a matter of fact, can you discharge
your responsibility of God-not merely
through your observance of religious
customs nor through your participation
in religious ceremonies, no matter how
devout you may be. Thus, your attitude
toward God is so closely intertwined as
to be one with your attitude toward your
fellow beings.
What then is your attitude toward
nature? Do you think of its boundless
wealth- its mountains and valleys, its
streams and bodies of water, its plants
and animals, the minerals in its bowels
and the layer of air enveloping it- merely
as something to be exploited to your
own selfish advantage; or as patrimony
to be used wisely, developed, cherished,
and passed on- improved and enriched,
if possible- to succeeding generations?
Do you realize that- like the giant
Antaeus in Greek mythology, who could
touch Mother Earth- you too, like any
other individual or like any nation, can
remain in harmony with nature, for
nature has a way of avenging itself on
whoever violates it?
And what is your attitude toward your
fellow beings? Do you realize that-
regardless of their sex, race, nationality,
religious belief, political affiliations,
educational attainments, and social and
economic status-they are neither better
nor worse than you? Do you realize that
without them, you yourself would not be
able to do your work with any degree
efficiency-much less live in contentment
and happiness? And do you realize that,
therefore, every one of them a\is as
worthy of your consideration-and of the
consideration and respect of the rest of
society-as even the most exalted among
its members?
This attitude, as you can doubtless see,
is the very essence of democracy, which
in this, its highest manifestation, is but
the political and social application of the
teaching of Christianity- respect for the
inherent earth of dignity of the human
person and interdependence among
men. Is this not what Jesus Christ meant
when He said, “Love thy neighbour as
thyself?”
More easily judged than your sense of
moral values is your sense of aesthetic
values, for it is patent in what you
consider pleasing and beautiful.
Do you, for example, show preference
for the obvious, the flashy, and the
sentimental? Are you prone to lead
yourself with so many articles of
personal adornment as to tend to look
like a perambulating Christmas tree? Do
you clutter your house with odd
knickknacks from fairs and bargain
counters? Do you prefer movies that are
full of sound and fury, signifying nothing;
literature that just enables you to escape
from the rigors of life instead of bringing
you face to face with its problems or
leading you to discover its hidden
meaning and beauty; and the music that
simply tickles the feet, without at the
same time titillating the imagination?
Then your taste- your sense of aesthetic
values, in other words, leaves much to
be desired.
Do you, on the other hand, prefer quiet
simplicity to lavish display, both in your
person and your house? Do you
demand meaty fare in the movies that
you see and in the books that you read-
knowing that the less discerning people
are so divorced from life, so devoid of
reality, as to offer no challenge whatever
to your intelligence; and distinguishing
between the truly poetic and the merely
flamboyant, between valid emotion and
cheap sentimentality? Are you aware of
the nuances of tone and rhythm, and of
the importance of silence in spoken
language as well as in music; and in
visual arts, of the power of line and form
and colour, or texture and value, of
space and light, to challenge the mind
and to touch the heart? Then you may
consider your taste, your sense of
aesthetic values, refined.
The best way for you to strengthen and
refine your sense of values, both moral
and aesthetic, is for you to expose
yourself constantly to all forms of art-
especially literature, music, and drama,
architecture, painting and sculpture. For
the artist, in any medium, cannot
embody in his works what he considers
right and proper, desirable and beautiful;
and, through cathartic experience, you
are bound to share and appropriate, to a
more or less extent, his philosophy of
life and his conception of beauty.
When you read a story, or watch a play
or a movie, for example, you
automatically and simultaneously play
two roles-that of a participant and that of
an onlooker.
As a participant, you lose your personal
identity for the time being. Instead you
identify yourself with each of the
characters, in turn, as he comes to your
attention-but especially with the
character with whom you are most
sympathetic. You think and feel the way
he does, and you experience muscular
tensions corresponding to his actions.
As a result, you understand why he
behaves the way he does; and you are
ready to make allowances for his short
comings. Better still, you learn to take
the same attitude in your relations with
people of flesh and blood, and you
become more tolerant and forgiving.
As an onlooker, you stand aside, as it
were, and judge each of the characters
in terms of your own sense of values.
You condemn his opinions, his attitudes,
and his actuations that do not come up
to your standards; and you resolve to be
as different from him and resolve to be
as different from him as possible. On the
other hand, you admire and resolve to
emulate the character whose opinions,
attitudes, and actuations come up to or
exceed your own standard values. At
the same time, occupying the seat of
judgement as you do, you cannot help
feeling that you are better off than any of
the characters in the story; for although
you are sharing their problems and
tribulations for the time being, you know
that these problems and tribulations are
not really your own.
When you read a poem or an essay, or
hear a piece of music, or contemplate a
painting or a statue, it is with the artist
that you identify yourself. You see life
through his eyes, so to speak.
When you hear a piece of music or
watch a play or a movie, your cathartic
experience may be regarded as second
hand. In music, you identify yourself with
the composer through the singer or the
orchestra, drama; you identify yourself
with the actors who, in turn, identify
themselves with the characters
conceived by the playwright.
Catharsis has a therapeutic value
comparable to that of vaccination. When
the germs of a disease are injected into
your system through vaccination, your
system automatically builds up defences
that remain long after the germs have
been killed, so that if your system is
infected by the same disease in the
future, it will be in a position to ward off
the disease. In the same way, identifying
yourself with the characters in a story or
a play, in sharing their problems and
difficulties, in undergoing their trials and
tribulations-even If only vicariously- your
spirit is bound to gain the necessary
fortitude that will enable you to cope with
similar problems and difficulties should
they come into your life in the future.
The wonderful thing about art, in any
form, is that it can do all this to you
without your being aware of it-with you
being under the impression that you are
just being entertained. In his power to
perform this miracle, and in employing
this power to edify and uplift his fellow
beings, including you, the artist is almost
God.