Rise A Knight
A young leader's not-so-uncommon request to be demoted dissolves all procrastination, and accelerates the completion of this long-intended (but somewhat dreaded) piece on why knights are still very much needed even to this day, and perhaps more than ever before, in a country whose people have the word 'chivalry' written all over their DNA, but has never had anything close to being guaranteed of it.
While on vacation in Dumaguete, I posted on LinkedIn this entry, about a couple of weeks before election day, which had been held on the 9th of May.
Two prominent names were in the news in the weeks that followed. One name, familiar to many in the world, belongs to our newly elected president. Another name, Fidel Valdez Ramos or FVR, belonged to a former president who, in my humble opinion, was the best one our country has had thus far.
It is not my intention here to write a puff piece about FVR. I believe that's been done by many others who knew him better to be more credible witnesses to his brand of leadership. But I feel the need to at least highlight 2 things about the man, and his presidency. One, for however he will be judged by history, the man was a consummate problem-solver. Two, he was about two years into his presidency when I was working overseas, where I had been very eager to read about any kind of news back home. To this day, I don't recall ever feeling more hopeful for our country than I did when FVR was president. The man, who knew what it felt like to be surrounded, had solved a lot of those days' problems, or at least, had laid the solutions groundwork for those who would be his successors. FVR had made the idea of a first-world Philippines, imaginable.
However, towards the end of FVR's 6-year term, a valid concern over the Filipino's penchant for ningas kugon had spilled over into the halls of Congress, triggering discussions and deliberations over Charter Change, in a first of many failed attempts throughout succeeding presidencies, to shift from the country's current presidential system into a parliamentary democracy.
Make no mistake, I am all for recommending and adopting systems and structures that would make our governments more effective and consequently, our country more efficient. But perhaps it needs to be stated for the record why a rushed or a forced shift into a parliamentary system would not be something I would recommend. Two simple reasons: One, quick fixes have never worked, at least not for very long, and often worsening a problem from its original incarnations. Two, we remain to be feudalistic in our collective orientation, no matter how vigorously we insist that we are a democracy. It is quite easy to over-simplify the cures for both reasons. For instance, I would say that patience is needed to avoid quick fixes. Nation-building is an expectedly boring process for the most part, in spite of our collective national enthusiasm for drama. As for the cure to our feudalistic outlook? A single word - knighthood.
I have made no secret about my personal fascination for feudal history, for epics, for battle scenes and even for battle music. This ultimately means that I would devote the next several lines here to the subject of knighthood, of battles, of knights and of warriors. I would do this in lieu of discussions about patience, which I must admit is not exactly one of my strongest suits.
In recent months I would often joke that as both a husband and a father, I am already a knight by definition, even if people choose not to address me as "Sir". After all, I have been tasked to protect 3 princesses - two of them I have been blessed with; and one, I was entrusted with. Setting aside humor, I must now state here with all seriousness that all Filipinos, men and women alike, have it within themselves to become knights. After all, it is precisely in feudal societies and feudalistic cultures, that knights would be most needed.
The Director's Cut version of a 2005 film by Ridley Scott presented a very interesting take on the sacred oath that knights have taken during the Medieval Period. I shall quote a few lines here for clearer reference:
"Be without fear in the face of your enemies. Be brave and upright that God may love thee. Speak the truth always, even if it leads to your death. Safeguard the helpless and do no wrong. That is your oath."
A few gestures after, and then the ceremony ends with the person bestowing knighthood saying, "Rise a knight. "
Rather than go through a dissection of how a feudalistic mindset seems to persist within our culture, I will only ask these rhetorical questions: How many Filipinos of the present day, if push comes to shove, would actually live by the qualities implied in the lines found in the sacred oath of knights? How many would actually risk the inconveniences that such adherence would bring? How many would actually opt to stay to face the challenges of making ends meet, when there are so many options, not only for survival but also for advancement, elsewhere outside the country?
The answers to these questions are not always going to be accompanied with clarity. All that is known is that some of us will leave for a chance at better options, while some of us will have to remain in the country, for one reason or the other. This literary attempt to discuss Filipino knighthood is not about those who will decide to leave, but rather about those who would decide to stay, whether or not they have a choice in the matter.
As I re-watched a crucial scene in the same Ridley Scott movie sometime earlier this year, I realized that from the very first time I saw the film, I have been under an incorrect assumption, all throughout these years, that to be "knighted" meant being granted one's freedom. Moreover, I also misunderstood that one needed to be free in order to become a better fighter. Come to think of it, knights in the olden days still had to fight for their lords whenever they were called upon to do so. They remained vassals, even after they had been granted the title of knights. So it would be fair to posit that being free or having freedom had absolutely no bearing on how well a knight had fought.
That very same film resonates well even to our present day and provides some clues as to how Filipinos (and Filipinas) could actually become knights. The lead character, who was a blacksmith by profession, represented the 3 personas of what would essentially still be true of modern-day knights. He was all of those personas rolled into one - a warrior, a poet and an engineer.
I completed my university education in an institution that had been in the news just weeks ago. But even with some sense of pride over the recent achievement of my alma mater, I will still be one of the first who will say that the quality of college education I received almost 3 decades before, could only open so many doors for me. I will go further to say that the very same education could only go so far to prepare an individual for overcoming the most complex of modern-day challenges.
If you have read this post up to this point, whether or not you happen to be Filipino, it should not matter up to which level of education you completed. It matters even less where you completed it. All that matters is that the education you attained would have, in some shape or form, already taught you how a knight should actually fight. And if you happened to have graduated and attended commencement ceremonies, in a manner of speaking, you have actually taken a sacred oath, and rose to become a knight, the way they did back in the day. At the very least, you would have already acquired part of the knight's persona of an engineer.
To earn the knight's persona of a warrior, we only have to live our lives in the best possible way we can. Life's trials will always give us all a glimpse of how knights had lived, and at times, how they had fallen, and how they had risen after.
We would all fall permanently and inevitably someday, whether or not we do so like knights. But if we happen to live just long and well enough to make knights out of both ourselves and of others, then somehow, we would have already embodied the knight's persona of a poet.
An engineer is entrusted with knowledge that's been passed on to him/her. A warrior is entrusted with the time he/she has been given. A poet is entrusted with the future he/she may never get to see.
In this day and age, it's not our level of education, nor our status, nor our titles, nor our possessions, nor our associations, nor even our freedoms that would make us knights. Let me be clear: We will always be vassals, whether of our own decisions, or of decisions that have been made on our behalf, or on our account. What ultimately turns us into knights hinges on WHY and HOW WELL we fight for what we have been and will be entrusted with.
While not all of us will be given the opportunity to lead, the need to serve will always come knocking. The trust that we have received, the trust that we need to earn, and the trust that we choose to honor, are often driven by the manner in which we present ourselves to the world. But the inescapable conclusion is that the motivation for which we enlist ourselves into service, will almost always be determined by our mindset and decided by the nature of who we truly are.
When we get to that point where we finally grow tired of hiding and whinging, the only real option left available is to come out floating like a flight of butterflies and stinging like a swarm of bees, preferably as a banner of knights.
To come out swinging like a pendulum, more often than not, is an option best reserved for kings.
Wishing everyone a meaningful Christmas, and a chivalrous New Year!