EDITORIAL: Faith Moderates

Year 2021 has been a remarkably good year at least for the Bicol region insofar as weather condition is concerned. No heavily damaging weather disturbances ravaged the region.

Compared to 2020, year 2021 was breath refreshing. Covid-19 and its variants claimed hundreds of lives but a far greater number recovered.

The massive vaccination campaign already posted an appreciable success. Efforts for a faster economic recovery might encounter a telling stumbling block due to the worldwide emergence of the Omicron variant.

Hopefully the gains so far realized would not be squandered, in order not to justify another round of huge loans on the pretext of cushioning the impact of another Covid-19 virus surge.

Resurgence of the Covid-19 variants is so much for the people to bear, given the havoc caused by Typhoon Odette. Relief and recovery operations are yet to register a more reassuring state which the nation could take.

Public response to relief operations should be taken with empathy and comments about efforts to extend aid and comfort to the typhoon victims should be with extreme caution, in order to shield them from political biases given that 2022 is an election year.

Ill motivated comments generated particularly through unidentifiable sources should be taken with an air of condemnation. Otherwise nobly motivated campaigns to help Odette’s victims would suffer a negative consequence. At this point in time a positive attitude is a moral obligation. Rabid partisanship is not only misplaced but even evil.

That is why heavy reliance on survey results about how the people face 2022 through which they are made to choose whether to meet either with hope or despair is ill advised, or indicative of short sightedness.

An outlook about how to meet life cannot be treated like choosing between black and white. Doing so would overlook the different colors life may encounter along the way, given that it takes a multiple color to deal with the challenges of existence. There are even times that life’s drama is akin to psychedelic. Excessive desperation or immoderate hopefulness could lead to hallucinations.

It is more practical to embrace faith as moderator. Facing life in 2022 only with hope or despair as choices is misplaced, for in reality faith plays an indispensable role. Despair alone without faith renders life unbearable. Excessive hope without faith exposes an individual to danger.

In a deeper sense, faith moderates the state of desperation or hopefulness. With faith life becomes worth living. With the guidance of the Almighty, welcome 2022.