Life Sentences

Words to Live By and Die For

Quintin Jose V. Pastrana

• Publisher: Anvil Publishing, Inc.
• ISBN:
  9789712730481
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

A collection of well-thought passages from classic and modern literature and film, speeches and proverbs, to interviews and social-media status posts. Here, timeless voices—from Pope Francis to PSY, Angelina Jolie to Bruce Lee, as well as the Philippines' very own Jose Rizal, Grace Poe, Nick Joaquin,and Kris Aquino—will keep one company in the journey toward a truly fulfilling life.

Life Sentences

WORDS TO LIVE BY AND DIE FOR

Quintin Jose V. Pastrana

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgment

Journeys

Life, Time, and Death

Travel and Exploration

History and Legacy

Excellence

Character, Integrity, and Charisma

Leadership and Service

Courage, Determination, and Transcendence

Human Nature

Pitfalls

Redemption

Money, Business, and Work

Fulfillment

Nature, Beauty, and Simplicity

Faith, Hope, and Grace

Discernment, Truth, and Growth

Mirth, Goodness, and Grace

Politics

Democracy, Governance, and Policy

Citizenship, Nationhood, and Community

Freedom, Justice, and Equality

Power and Empowerment

Education

Art and Creativity

Literature, Reading, and Writing

Science and Reason

Teaching, Learning, and Unlearning

Love

Ardor

Commitment

Grief, Healing, and Resilience

Agape

The Bodleian and the Sheldonian, Oxford.
They will always make you feel small, childlike, and welcome—like opening the first pages your favorite book—and all of them are here.

PREFACE

The best moments in reading are when you come across something—a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things—that you’d thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you’ve never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it’s as if a hand has come out, and taken yours …
∼ Alan Bennett, The History Boys

What started in transit: scribbling in between Senate campaign stops, then on a train scouring the Northeast for grad schools, and finally, sifted in the cranium of a medieval library—a journey of almost twenty years—has now arrived.

This is the book I was meant to finish before all else.

It started as a present to a would-be son or daughter, to be opened when he or she turned eighteen. As life takes its course, one could keep visiting and adding to this collection, as a curator does to his little universe. Right until the day he unveils, to a young man or woman, an argosy of experience, ideas, and voices. A lifetime’s worth of balanced, earnestly chosen wisdom from every meridian, gender, and vocation: all within their reach as they make their way into the world.

By the time that happens for me, and for those who already have their own, our children will be coming into a society so unrecognizable from what we live in now. One can hope that they wade through these words, one quote at a time, trace their provenance, and dive deep into where they can lead.

There are seven chapters in this volume. They represent what I feel any individual—let alone my own flesh and blood—needs to embrace as he or she embarks on, and makes sense of a great journey. There is the journey itself, and time’s triptych of youth, aging, and death. There is excellence in all forms—from moral courage to servant leadership, to plain old persistence—so critical in these days of techno-narcissism and entitlement that threaten to dilute us beyond recognition. This book deals with the underlying realities of human nature—its pitfalls and redeeming virtues, and how to face the necessities of work and money to turn it into a vehicle for fulfillment. The kind that speaks to us regardless of faith or creed, assuring us that we belong to something bigger than ourselves; a wholeness that abides and embraces us all. Which leads me to the reason for including the other necessary evil, politics: how immanent it is in who we are and everything we do. Whether we like it or not, we don’t choose the issues: they choose us, as a favorite philosopher once wrote to his own son. There are words here, many of them from heroes of our own race—that show a way out of our current, self-inflicted mess.

In these permissive and tethered times, the kind of choices we make indelibly define us and others. Hence the need for the kind of education that allows one to learn, unlearn, and—to mash up both a scientist’s and a poet’s words—to step over the bodies of our dead selves, stand on the shoulders of giants, aspire to better things, and seize the future.

Finally, to have placed all these parts ahead of the last one, Love, is an attempt to show how they—like shards of glass and earthen fragments—come together and embody a mosaic. A deeply textured mural that adorns a chapel: the one that contains you as you marry your soulmate, christen your child, commune with others and the Divine, and, later, say goodbye to those who truly shared the journey.

This is a gift beyond words. They are talismans and guideposts on a path one makes by walking, on his or her own terms. Not all of them will neatly fit together. You or your young reader(s) won’t agree with some, let alone with those who said or wrote them. That only means they’re where we want them to be: at an age where they can decide for themselves, with all of the world’s wisdom—from the ordinary to the great—at the tip of their fingers, passed on from ours.

To our children, wherever we’ll be at the time you read this—whether a phone call away, right across town, or watching over you with this unbroken continuity of love, you will never be alone.

Quintin Jose V. Pastrana
Beruna Cottage
Adams, Ilocos Norte

P.S. There were letters that originally accompanied these chapters, and perhaps someday they will see print. At the very least, they will find their audience soon enough.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I want to thank each and all of you—family, friends, and loved ones— who helped and inspired me to cobble this book together for a stretch of almost twenty years. Your names, stars unspoken as they are beautiful—are constellations that make the understanding of this universe possible. You are in here (points to mind), in here (points to breast), and in here (this book).

Special gratitude goes to my publishers at Anvil, Karina Bolasco, Gwenn Galvez, Ani Habúlan, and Joyce Bersales; and, to Vesy Abequibiel, Nadine Holopainen, Leila Vasquez, Paolo Vasquez, Marionne Molintas, and Raena Abella, for helping transcribe, edit, and make the words and images come to life. Your patience, advice, and friendship truly turned this pipe dream into a tactile, living, and hopefully enduring form.

Most importantly, to my mother, Cynthia Vasquez Pastrana: T...

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• Life Sentences