losing everything, gaining everything

last december 20th, the house of actress-model-environmentalist chin chin gutierrez was struck by a fire. she managed to save herself, her ailing mother, and some househelp, but nothing was left to them except the clothes on their backs.

as most filipinos know, chin chin has always been an unassuming person. she was voted one of time magazine's asian heroes for her role in campaigning for the protection of the environment. as far as i can remember, she has never been involved in any scandal in showbiz, precisely because she is unassuming. i think she leads a very quiet, private life, one that she has devoted to the care of the environment and the care of her mother.

the reason i'm writing about her is that i just finished reading a transcript of her interview with korina sanchez on the abs-cbn news website (read the transcript here). chin chin is an amazing woman, someone you would want to meet and talk with, a woman with an amazing spirit, who manages to sing the Canticle of Mary on christmas eve despite being in the hospital with burns and wounds.

chin chin's story is a lesson for everyone. God takes away things from us in order to make us realize that these things of the world are not important compared to the life He has given us.

sometimes, we take our lives for granted in the pursuit of material wealth and possessions. someone sent me a text message yesterday which sort of drove home this point. in a nutshell, the message simply said that we are always dying to do something that we forget to live, and we realize that only when it's too late to enjoy life as it is.

which is not to say that we don't need any material possessions in this life. we do need them, in order to live, but the acquisition of these possessions should not be the be-all and end-all of our lives. i mean, sure, we amass so much wealth and possessions, but can those actually make us happy? can they replace the warmth of family relations and the happiness that friends can bring us? and when we die, can we take these possessions to the grave? the sure thing is that the more possessions one has, the more problems it will create, and even after death, these same possessions will cause discord among those left behind.

mom and i attended mass at don bosco yesterday, and the priest was saying something about quiet generosity during the homily. i liked that theme — when you give, give quietly, without fanfare, without announcing what you gave. after all, generosity is something that should be practiced on a regular basis, like eating or drinking, breathing or sleeping. you don't announce the times that you eat, drink, breathe or sleep, so in the same way, you should not announce that you are giving something or donating something. it's so crass, not to mention plastic. it's like telling people that hey, i'm generous only on certain occasions, and this is one of those times, so this is a privilege for you.

besides, when you know that you give to the point that it hurts, without telling the whole world about it, even though it seems like you're giving up everything, you stand to gain everything as well. everything, that is, that the good Lord above will give you.