WILLIAM R. ADAN TURNING POINT

NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 10 February) – Through the years our farmers have suffered ironically from the abundance of their harvest.

Worst hit by this cruel phenomenon are farmers who produce highly perishable crops, like onions and tomatoes. A very good harvest means a very low farm gate price for their products, an amount that is far below the cost of production.

ality of a terrifying world. If you love a woman, you must say to yourself that you are willing to go through wars a million times. Your task is not to escape your present but to define it. This is what living and loving is all about.

In fact, true love cannot be rooted in consistency. To be consistent is to project an image of oneself. That image is not the real you but the ideal of who you want to be. But man cannot be reduced into a mere file card, which is nothing but a collection of your good qualities. In loving a man or woman, however, we all know that one must love both the good and the bad.

Must people, then, resort to a compromise? What if two characters are irreconcilable? The basic point is that love cannot be reduced into contractual obligations. If you set a condition, then you are not in love. You simply want a sense of security out of that relationship. In truth, real love is a commitment, which means that it is rooted in a sacred covenant. Finally, the French thinker Gabriel Marcel thinks of love as a living, eternal bond. It is an invitation, the appeal to the other – “Be with me.” Love, ergo, is that undying presence. Thus, Gabriel Garcia Marquez is right in saying that “there is no greater glory than dying for the woman you love” because that is the ultimate sacrifice. Love is endless. By this, Marcel meant that when two people are in love, only the physical body perishes, but their love for each other defies time and everything.