Last night, just like every other Friday night, I couldn't believe I was holding myself back from tearing up.
Go on and smile, cause this is me, investing emotions over a night class for my course. The Foundations of the Humanities ended last night and though we still have a 3,000 word paper due on Monday (October 18), it saddens me that meetings with Dr. Mariano has finally ended.
I might have frowned at the time slot of the subject, Fridays, 5-7:30 pm, but I have learned more than what I paid for.
If you're a student of the University of Asia & the Pacific, taking a class under the president of the university sounds scary, but believe me, fear, is the last thing you'll feel when you've settled yourself in the Arts Lab in the CAS building with your ears open and your mind empty, ready for 2 and half hours of mind bending, learning and unlearning.
I hope I make a good last paper because it's my last chance at showing the president that I've learned and that all his hard work and sacrifice were worth it. I also want to prove to myself that I am capable of doing papers that are legitimately philosophical that does not involve, fashion or people from the olden days of Hollywood. And of course, to put into writing what I believe is the truth I've learned from the class.
Anyway, aside from Dr. Mar being the best professor I've ever had in my entire life (believe me, taking a class under him is like seeing and knowing humanity), he's almost always going to make you cry. That's me. He says things in simple words, words understandable at the age of 12 and yet he strikes you because what he shares in class are things universal and true and very human. He's unconsciously talented at stripping you down to your soul and you're metaphorically laying out your beating heart and your stuffed mind on the table for him to whip them into better, human shape.
He's compared us to songs, how we're not all at once in one and how beings like us ought to spread out in time and space. He's mentioned how at the end of all time, when we do get to see God face to face, we'll find the truth and the beauty and the good. And just like what I've told Jamie Dio before, he's also mentioned that people ought to be treated like paintings, that the best way to treat a person is to contemplate them, possess them in a way that allows them freedom and growth. He's also taught me that there are definitely more things in life. That the deep seated questions we travel the world over for, the ones Eat, Pray and Love tell you of are all answerable when one desires to answer them. He showed us that the secret to life is no secret at all, that these things are usually the ones we take for granted, the simple and bare essentials that we grow blind to because we're careless beings. He taught me, during those grueling hour-long consultations, about the importance of language and being careful about the words we use.
He's also taught me about art and science and how things in this world are connected.
But the best thing I've learned from Dr. Mariano and from the voices he's been talking in and from taken from the greatest minds of all time, is all about love (always about love).
Last night, he ended our course with the question: "What is more important in this Earth? To know or to love?"
I for one am 90% sure of my answer and that is why I'm doing my paper on love. The love that I have only realized last night. The love that we all are built for.
I hope you know the answer as well.
You think it's obvious---and maybe it is---but it takes more unlearning, learning and mind bending for this question.
Well, I'm still praying I get a good grade from this subject, one that would hopefully qualify for a master's degree. If I do get a good grade, I'll meet the president again for another subject of philosophy. I will forever be grateful of the millions of things he's taught us and one day, I hope, I'll be able to face life in his own cool, unstudied yet wise ways.
Thank you Dr. Mar.
-Gerard
