Motherhood and the OD Dialogues

I was invited to a Dialogue early this week at SEAMEO Innotech in Quezon City. It was organized by the Community-Based Natural Resources Management Learning Center with the theme OD Dialogues: Learning from an Emergent Future. It was a culminating activity for a three year project in Organizational Development among non-government organizations for community-based coastal resources management. However, the participants to the project and the dialogues were not only those who are involved in CBCRM. Some are into other natural resources management and some in feminist groups as well. The “celebrities” (what we were called because the activity was also a celebration of the project’s gains) were diverse and this resulted to lots of ideas and stories.

The activity may have been about OD, Learning and the Emergent Future but as I heard and observed, there were several references to motherhood. Concepts were explained by citing women and childbirth. When I prepared for a synthesis, I can’t help but think of childbearing myself. Again, another reference to motherhood.

ENTRAINMENT

This concept came from an alternative Filipino musician, Joey Ayala, who opened the activity with his songs and inputs on music theory. Entrainment happens in a hall, for example, when a few people start clapping and then everyone starts clapping too. He went on to say that our own bodies follow this natural law too. Examples: When couples have stayed together for a long time, they start to look like each other. It also happens to a group of women who have been together for some time. Notice that the onset of each female’s menstruation follows one another closely. He also added that the cycle is dictated by the strongest female called the alpha female. Going back to spouses, he said that through entrainment, the strengths and weaknesses of the man and the woman finds a balance that is dictated by the party who has the stronger health or attitude. At some point, spouses will be sharing the same eyeglasses because they will both have the same level of eyesight or “grado”.

It made me think of the importance of keeping myself healthy and strong because in our home, I am the only one who is not asthmatic and illness-prone. Kinda makes me the alpha female. It will also be important for my hubby to maintain his extrovertness because it could dictate the attitudes of our children which I would prefer to be like him rather than being introvert-leaning like me.

BOOK LAUNCHING and GIVING BIRTH

A book entitled Dynamics of Accountability was launched during the activity and the emcee said that for those who may not be able to experience giving birth, coming out with a book is like childbirth too. Well, I beg to disagree because the actual birth pains are not really as close to the pains of publishing a book. And unlike an author to a book, a mother finds her baby as the most beautiful creature in the world regardless of the wrinkles and smell. Most authors/ editors I know seem to find something not quite right in every publication they come up with. That includes me too. I am not saying however, that a publication of a book is so unlike childbirth. I agree, it has its parallels. They are both nurtured for a long time before coming out, they both excite the people who are in the know of their upcoming existence, they both came from life and will in turn bring a new life and most of all, they are both expensive to produce

PARENTHOOD and  the EMERGENT FUTURE

Lastly is the concept of the EMERGENT FUTURE which is a major element of the activity’s theme. An emergent future was roughly translated as  ”kinabukasang nababanaag”. I thought, like sunrise or sprouting of seeds. It has not fully taken its shape yet, but it can be traced.

I decided to put this concept in the closing part during my synthesis. I said:

” While preparing the synthesis, I kept on reading our theme and although it said “Learning from the Emergent Future” ,  I think that after the 3-year project and the 2-day activity, we have enough experience and learnings to face the emergent future. And it is also good that we recognize the future as something that is showing its form. In our life and society today, I realized that there is not anymore such a thing as an UNSEEN or UNKNOWN FUTURE. The fuure is no longer absolutely unwritten. We have the technology, the experience, the patterns and signs that makes us forecast what the future should be.”

I cited the weather forecast as an example of knowing the future of storms. In my mind I was also thinking of ultrasound technologies that now shows what the sex of our babies may be. Or the different tests that could predict the baby’s future illnesses.

” So we do have an idea of what the future stores for us. We may not know the exact details but because of the trends, we’ll know how it will take shape. In this situation, it is more important to be prepared and be informed.” We may no longer have the excuse to say, “I didn’t know that that will happen.” I thought.

And that rings true for mothers (and fathers) on matters of our children’s future. In our office, most of us have children whose ages range from pre-school to elementary but one of us has children in college and senior high school. She often complains about the expenses that she incurs because of her college kids. It made me reply one day that if it’s too high now, how high can it be when it is our turn to send the kids to college. That will be ten years from now! “At the rate the economy is going and our salaries failing, we may not be able to send them to college by then. “

But of course I was only kidding. I’m a mom. How could I not send my kids to college? My own parents did, why should I not?!!! Well, except perhaps if the signs of the times show that a good life can be had even without the traditional college diploma.