Beauty or Brain?

Everyone knows that the physical appearance is what we notice at first glimpse. The hair, the face, the body—these are what our attentive eyes detect at quick look. From the fairest of creatures to the not so fair, to the most glamorous, sexiest and to the not so appealing. Who does not like beauteous things, beauteous women and gorgeous men? Who does not eye for beauty? But how sad that beauty fades and disappear? It is withered by the ticking of time and the coming of age.

But who does not admire the intelligent and the brainy, who speaks with sense and reasons, in whose head dwells knowledge and wisdom, whose knowledge is not shrunken by time but rather amplified by it. The brilliant minds always awe us.

But to find beauty and brain altogether in one person is infrequent. The beautiful may not have the wits and the brainy may be deprived of beauty.

If you were to pick one, would you go for the beautiful yet dull or would you choose the brainy but ugly? (tough question right??) But bear in mind that in deciding who we will choose as partners in life, let us not make beauty or brain alone as the sole basis of our verdict.Let us not be carried away by the A's in the school card nor the pair of beautiful dimples on one's face.

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Would You Opt to Cohabitate/Live In??

Cohabitation is a situation in which a couple who are not married live together. Cohabitation is on the increase especially in the west. Cohabitation has broad effects on the couples themselves, their offspring, to the social spectrum, and to the respective rights of the fathers, mothers, and children (not to mention the strong opposition of the religious sector). To illustrate, absence the sanction of marriage, it’s hard to draw up commitments and to enforce the responsibilities of the father to his children in case of separation. More so, separation of cohabitees adversely affects the child’s association of his kinship and lineage. Also, in a harsh society, a child out of cohabitation is likely to be teased and alienated. In addition, one can always deny fatherhood over a child, in order to walk off with the legal obligation to support.

Furthermore, cohabitation makes accentuating the rights of the cohabitees difficult. The likelihood of cheating of either party is so big, yet accountability is not clearly drawn unlike in marriages where responsibility and consequences are evidently established. Marriage lays down the rights of the spouses and provides for explicit means to redress such rights. Punishment in terms of imprisonment is available for offenses against marriage, while these are not provided for in cohabitation. Fidelity and loyalty are thus stiff to haul out in cohabitation.

Despite all of these downsides, cohabitation or living in, is still gaining popularity. Just about, people who favor cohabitation find it more suitable than marriage. It serves as the avenue to try relationships with someone, a trial and error program, where they can just end the relationship anytime they want to without the complicated legalities and technicalities and thus saves them from getting hooked forever to the wrong person!!

Let’s hear it from you. Would you opt to cohabitate/live-in?

Note: This is a repost. I wrote this article long time ago.

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Love Moves: Boy or Girl?

I think either boy or girl can do the first move. Traditionally and as part of our customary ways, it has always been the boys who do the first move. Boys have the advantage of wooing the girls they like. They have the license to verbalize and flatter the hearts of their adored, loved and highly thought of lass. While the girls, since time immemorial have zipped their lips and mastered the art of waiting for the lads of their dreams to notice them. And if go unnoticed, the girls forever hold their peace. What a pity!!!

I am a girl too and I find it unfair to give this engaging opportunity to express love to the opposite sex only. We are all on equal grounds, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. Isn’t it? Come on. There’s nothing wrong with the old ways but there’s nothing wrong with change either. If boys can woo, girls can woo too. If boys can do, girls can do too. What’s the difference, the curve in a girls’ body and the muscles in the boys’. Does physique really matter? The idea of expressing love first on the girl’s part does not lower her stature nor makes her cheap. Rather it is a paradigm of being true to oneself and an exemplar of a mortal’s quest for love.

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Death Penalty: My Stand

Death Penalty is an old issue. But here's my short take. This is a repost..

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called for the Abolition of the Death Penalty. Whether she was driven by her personal conviction in doing that or simply just to get the favor of the CBCP and other religious groups that have continually played significant roles in our political arena, I don’t care at all. What matters to me is her decision. I am strongly against Death Penalty. If this kind of penalty is to be imposed there is a very real risk that the innocent will be executed. It is more humane to let the guilty go free than to punish an innocent man.

On the biblical side, I also find support for my belief. In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, God was willing to spare the wicked cities if there were ten innocent people within them. Death penalty is a cruel repudiation of the scriptural teaching that favors the innocent. How about the spiritual message on forgiving the person who sinned you forty times seven or the message against revenge, or the famous 10 commandments which includes the mandate: “THOU SHALL NOT KILL!” I am not so versed with the bible, but I very well know of these.

Why blot a criminal out of the catalogue of the living? Killing a criminal exhibits revenge- the blood vengeance of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If we kill a murderer to punish him, aren’t we also committing the same crime we are trying to punish? Certainly! Talking of Justice- does the taking of human life advance justice? Are we upholding morality and do we raise the value of life by legalized murder?

Despite the recent Maguindanao Massacre my view on death penalty hasn't changed. Oh yes, I'd like to see the criminals suffer, but if I let this burning anger and hate consume me, I am no less than a criminal too who wishes the death of another!

FYI:

Representative Bienvenido Abante called on his colleagues in the House of Representatives to begin discussions on pending proposals for the return of the death penalty following the Maguindanao Massacre.

What's your take?

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