This is the ninth (9th) of the ELECTION SERIES – articles published by White Butterfly in anticipation of the forthcoming elections in May 2022.
This chapter, Hammerkop – Ambition, was taken from Sr. Janice’s book, OSTRICHES, DUNG BEETLES, AND OTHER SPIRITUAL MASTERS, A Book of Wisdom from the Wild, published with permission from Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York.
NOTE
Sr. Janice MacLaughlin, indefatigable, courageous activist and human rights defender, spent decades in Africa standing side by side with victims of injustice and oppression.
Sr. Janice made many insightful and delightful comparisons between the habits and qualities of some animals in Africa and those of human beings.
The hammerkop, a bird that weighs just over a pound, builds nests that can weigh up to a hundred pounds, which Sr. Janice views as an ambitious project. In humans, being ambitious can have a negative connotation (“Aren’t you being too ambitious?”).
But it is “healthy ambition” that Sr Janice talks about. From healthy ambition has come Olympic athletes or renowned artists or the pyramids or Taj Mahal. Healthy ambition drove the abolitionists, or Martin Luther King, Jr., or Nelson Mandela to right the wrong in their societies.
Sr. Janice reminds us how Jesus himself had said that faith could move mountains. We can prevail over setbacks and limitations and exceed expectations if we but have faith.
In the Resilience Program (REPRO) for at-risk adolescents, we have a role model who has inspired many participants. His name is Marlon, a former street child now with a stable job as a building technician, enjoying family life with his wife and daughter in a comfortable home.
Marlon has re-visited the streets, passionately encouraging street children to ” Matuto kayong mangarap ( Learn to dream)!” But before anything else, Marlon talks of his “envy.”
With the eyes and longing of an “envious” street child, he used to watch children walking to school and say to himself: If they can go to school, why can’t I? I want to have that, too!
At the heels of that envy was his dream – to be able to go to school, get a job, to one day be part of the life that he could only watch since it excluded or ignored him, bypassing him day after day.
Marlon did realize his dream. Young but gutsy and persistent, he learned to set one goal at a time, monitoring himself for every goal accomplished, before moving on to the next. Maybe he didn’t notice that his “envy” had changed its name to motivation.
Constructive Envy. Directed Dream. A life redeemed.
As we come into the May 2022 elections, perhaps we can ask ourselves: Is a flourishing Philippines, a nurturing society, a realistic dream? Or is it too much to ask for? Can’t we have decent leadership as some other countries have?
We can choose decent leadership for our country. It starts unequivocally by identifying the person of proven integrity, faith, courage, and quiet but unrelenting service to others, mind and heart focused on the welfare of the people. These are the non-negotiables in a leader who will see us through inevitable rough terrains and challenging times.
It will mean doing all we can on the ground from now until May… to let as many people know that our dream is within our reach, to be part of the biggest united Team that can be assembled all over the country in support of that trustworthy leader-to-be.
Filipinos have been admired for their faith and resilience — soldiering on and praying through calamities, smiling through poverty, helping neighbors with “bayanihan” spirit, and sharing even scanty resources.
Let us now use that resilience and rise to what we can be. Let us not settle for what we presently are: a citizenry abused by those in power, with arrogance and unbelievable impunity.
Indeed, our “envy” of those with enlightened leaders, by any other name, is motivation.
In May 2022, let us then head to the polls with faith in God and claim our power to choose how to realize our dream.
Let us select a leader who will work with us and serve us all the way towards a revitalized Philippines. (Teresita Tanseco-Cruz)
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SR. JANICE MACLAUGHLIN
Weighing just a little more than a pound, the hammerhead, or hammerkop as it is called in Africaans, build huge nests that may reach 110 pounds. The nests can be six feet tall and some are strong enough to support the weight of a person. One sees these large structures made of grass, reeds, sticks, and other local materials wedged in the fork of trees or perched on rocky ledges near water. Brown in color, the hammerkop’s crested head is shaped like a hammer, hence its name. The hammerkop lives near streams, rivers, and lakes throughout sub-Saharan Africa and dines on small fish, frogs, tadpoles, insects, and other aquatic treats.
Abandoned nests are soon claimed by owls, bees, geese, snakes, and other animals or birds that benefit from the hammerkop’s largesse. It is natural to wonder why such a small bird builds such a large house. Perhaps it simply enjoys the creative work of construction or maybe the largest nest attracts the strongest and most prolific mate.
I suspect that the hammerkop’s ambitious building project reaps some unknown rewards. Among humans, ambition is often considered a negative trait that is frowned upon. “You’re very ambitious, aren’t you?” is a classic putdown when someone tries to achieve an impressive goal or is selected for a leadership position that another may have coveted.
Without ambition, however, we would not have Olympic athletes or renowned artists, dancers, or musicians. Extraordinary structures such as the pyramids, the Taj Mahal, Machu Pichu or the stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe might never have been built, and great feats such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or exploring the seas might never have been attempted.
Slavery might still be widespread without the ambitious aim of the abolitionists, and women would remain second-class citizens (as indeed they still are in many parts of the world) without the tireless advocacy of the suffragists and the women’s movements. Without the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights activists who joined him, segregation might still exist in the United States. Without Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement that supported him, South Africa might still be in the grip of gross inequality based on race alone.
Healthy ambition enables us to go beyond the ordinary and the routine to accomplish wonders. Ordinary People, Extraordinary Deeds is the title of a recent film about the Maryknoll Sisters. It shows us working with disadvantaged people around the world, affirming the dignity of each person, and lighting fires of hope in people’s hearts.
Ambition leads to dreams and to small miracles. I have seen so many during my lifetime that I have lost count! Judy Mayotte, a friend of mine, lived among the displaced and uprooted peoples of the world for two years. Khmer refugees on the Thai-Cambodia border, Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and Eritrean and internally displaced Sudanese in Sudan became her family. She stayed in their makeshift homes, shared their food, ran with them to escape shelling, and listened to their stories, which she wrote about in Disposable People: The Plight of Refugees (Orbis Books, 1992). In 1993 when she returned to Sudan on a mission for Refugees International, she was seriously injured during an air drop of food aid that went amiss.
After her crushed leg was amputated just below the knew and she was no longer able to travel in war zones, she became a special adviser to the Clinton administration on refugee issues. She continues to teach on refugee and human rights issues and has established international learning programs for students at Seattle and Marquette Universities to help a new generation become more engaged, responsible global citizens. Judy now lives in Cape Town, South Africa, where she works with the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre and teaches at the University of the Western Cape.
Judy has never allowed her missing limb to define her or limit her dreams. She has accomplished more than most people with two legs and has not been deterred by the physical challenges she faces each day as she moves about in a wheelchair. This kind of ambition enables one to overcome difficulties, to touch many people’s lives, and to have a positive impact on the wider world.
Jesus expected similar achievements from his disciples. He commissioned them to go out in pairs to preach the gospel to a largely hostile audience, and he instructed them to travel lightly. “He ordered them to take nothing for the journey except a staff; no food, no bag, nor money in their belts. They were to wear sandals and were not to take an extra tunic” (Mark 6:8-9).
They were also told that they could perform miracles if they had faith. “If only you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could tell that mountain to move from here to there, and the mountain would obey. Nothing would be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20).
Like the hammerkop and witnesses like Judy Mayotte, we can go beyond the expectations that others might have of us. We can overcome the limitations of age or gender or of limited physical and mental abilities. We too can perform wonders if we only have faith!
SCRIPTURE
Jesus said to them in reply, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith and do not waver, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:21-22)
I came weak, fearful and trembling: my words and preaching were not brilliant or clever to win listeners. It was, rather, a demonstration of spirit and power, so that your faith might be a matter not of human wisdom but of God’s power.” (1 Corinthians 2:3-5)
Gladly, then, will I boast of my weakness that the strength of Christ may be mine. So I rejoice when I suffer infirmities, humiliations, want, persecutions: all for Christ! For when I am weak, then I am strong/” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
PRAYER FOR THE 2022 PHILIPPINE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
We implore you, Lord Jesus, to give our Filipino nation a chance to rise up from our misery and suffering and to cope with the pandemic crisis. Give us, through the coming election, a leader who will take care not of one’s self but of the poor and the needy, one who is God-fearing, who cannot be undermined by greedy, corrupt, and hypocritical politicians.
Save our nation, which is thirsty for your love and justice. Through the help of Mother Mary, our mother, and yours. Amen.
