VALUES all conscious of its environment, be able

I.V. Mallari to see only the individual threads in its

immediate vicinity, which are likely to be
dirty and frayed.
You will agree with me, no doubt, that
the degree of your cultural development, If, like you, the bedbug could see the
not to mention your character – can best tapestry in its entirety, and if, also liked
be judged in terms of your sense of you, it were endowed with the powers of
values – both moral and aesthetic – as discernment, it would be able to
revealed not so much in your appreciate the beauty of the tapestry’s
pronouncements as in your actuations – design – the black threads setting off
especially at the critical moments of your and reinforcing the white threads and
life. the threads in the various colours. In
some way, if, like God, you had the
Your sense of moral values, in turn perspective of space and time and that
perhaps nowhere better embodied than you could see life in its entirety, you
in your life-namely, your attitude toward would be able to appreciate the beauty
God, your attitude toward nature, and and appropriateness of its design-
your attitude toward your fellow beings. various elements, including what you
consider evil, setting off and reinforcing
Are you so self-centred, for example, as
one another.
to regard God simply as a guide, ready
to show you just what steps to take in Do you realize, too, that since the span
your venture, or as a protector, ready to of your life is limited, you have to keep in
save you from pitfalls and evil; or as a harmony with your immediate
sort of policeman, always watching your environment-natural as well as social-if
every move and ready to pounce on you you are to fulfil your destiny and if you
and punish you as soon as you say or are to be at peace with yourself and with
do anything wrong; or as someone with the rest of the world? in this way alone
whom you can strike bargains and you as a matter of fact, can you discharge
expect to shower you with blessings in your responsibility of God-not merely
return for your devotions; or as a n through your observance of religious
indulgent father, ready to forgive you for customs nor through your participation
all the wrongs that you have committed in religious ceremonies, no matter how
as soon as you say that you are sorry? devout you may be. Thus, your attitude
toward God is so closely intertwined as
Do you hold the broader view, rather,
to be one with your attitude toward your
that God is no less than the motivating
fellow beings.
force in all creation and that the whole of
creation is so organized as to include What then is your attitude toward
both what you consider good and what nature? Do you think of its boundless
you considered evil-in much the same wealth- its mountains and valleys, its
way as a tapestry is so designed as to streams and bodies of water, its plants
include both black and white threads as and animals, the minerals in its bowels
well as threads of various colours? Do and the layer of air enveloping it- merely
you realize that the reason life can as something to be exploited to your
sometimes seem so ugly is that lacking own selfish advantage; or as patrimony
the perspective of space and time you to be used wisely, developed, cherished,
can encompass only a bedbug living in a and passed on- improved and enriched,
tiny portion of a tapestry would, if it were if possible- to succeeding generations?
Do you realize that- like the giant full of sound and fury, signifying nothing;
Antaeus in Greek mythology, who could literature that just enables you to escape
touch Mother Earth- you too, like any from the rigors of life instead of bringing
other individual or like any nation, can you face to face with its problems or
remain in harmony with nature, for leading you to discover its hidden
nature has a way of avenging itself on meaning and beauty; and the music that
whoever violates it? simply tickles the feet, without at the
same time titillating the imagination?
And what is your attitude toward your Then your taste- your sense of aesthetic
fellow beings? Do you realize that- values, in other words, leaves much to
regardless of their sex, race, nationality, be desired.
religious belief, political affiliations,
educational attainments, and social and Do you, on the other hand, prefer quiet
economic status-they are neither better simplicity to lavish display, both in your
nor worse than you? Do you realize that person and your house? Do you
without them, you yourself would not be demand meaty fare in the movies that
able to do your work with any degree you see and in the books that you read-
efficiency-much less live in contentment knowing that the less discerning people
and happiness? And do you realize that, are so divorced from life, so devoid of
therefore, every one of them a\is as reality, as to offer no challenge whatever
worthy of your consideration-and of the to your intelligence; and distinguishing
consideration and respect of the rest of between the truly poetic and the merely
society-as even the most exalted among flamboyant, between valid emotion and
its members? cheap sentimentality? Are you aware of
the nuances of tone and rhythm, and of
This attitude, as you can doubtless see, the importance of silence in spoken
is the very essence of democracy, which language as well as in music; and in
in this, its highest manifestation, is but visual arts, of the power of line and form
the political and social application of the and colour, or texture and value, of
teaching of Christianity- respect for the space and light, to challenge the mind
inherent earth of dignity of the human and to touch the heart? Then you may
person and interdependence among consider your taste, your sense of
men. Is this not what Jesus Christ meant aesthetic values, refined.
when He said, “Love thy neighbour as
thyself?” The best way for you to strengthen and
refine your sense of values, both moral
More easily judged than your sense of and aesthetic, is for you to expose
moral values is your sense of aesthetic yourself constantly to all forms of art-
values, for it is patent in what you especially literature, music, and drama,
consider pleasing and beautiful. architecture, painting and sculpture. For
the artist, in any medium, cannot
Do you, for example, show preference
embody in his works what he considers
for the obvious, the flashy, and the
right and proper, desirable and beautiful;
sentimental? Are you prone to lead
and, through cathartic experience, you
yourself with so many articles of
are bound to share and appropriate, to a
personal adornment as to tend to look
more or less extent, his philosophy of
like a perambulating Christmas tree? Do
you clutter your house with odd life and his conception of beauty.
knickknacks from fairs and bargain When you read a story, or watch a play
counters? Do you prefer movies that are or a movie, for example, you
automatically and simultaneously play experience may be regarded as second
two roles-that of a participant and that of hand. In music, you identify yourself with
an onlooker. the composer through the singer or the
orchestra, drama; you identify yourself
As a participant, you lose your personal with the actors who, in turn, identify
identity for the time being. Instead you themselves with the characters
identify yourself with each of the conceived by the playwright.
characters, in turn, as he comes to your
attention-but especially with the Catharsis has a therapeutic value
character with whom you are most comparable to that of vaccination. When
sympathetic. You think and feel the way the germs of a disease are injected into
he does, and you experience muscular your system through vaccination, your
tensions corresponding to his actions. system automatically builds up defences
As a result, you understand why he that remain long after the germs have
behaves the way he does; and you are been killed, so that if your system is
ready to make allowances for his short infected by the same disease in the
comings. Better still, you learn to take future, it will be in a position to ward off
the same attitude in your relations with the disease. In the same way, identifying
people of flesh and blood, and you yourself with the characters in a story or
become more tolerant and forgiving. a play, in sharing their problems and
difficulties, in undergoing their trials and
As an onlooker, you stand aside, as it tribulations-even If only vicariously- your
were, and judge each of the characters spirit is bound to gain the necessary
in terms of your own sense of values. fortitude that will enable you to cope with
You condemn his opinions, his attitudes, similar problems and difficulties should
and his actuations that do not come up they come into your life in the future.
to your standards; and you resolve to be
as different from him and resolve to be The wonderful thing about art, in any
as different from him as possible. On the form, is that it can do all this to you
other hand, you admire and resolve to without your being aware of it-with you
emulate the character whose opinions, being under the impression that you are
attitudes, and actuations come up to or just being entertained. In his power to
exceed your own standard values. At perform this miracle, and in employing
the same time, occupying the seat of this power to edify and uplift his fellow
judgement as you do, you cannot help beings, including you, the artist is almost
feeling that you are better off than any of God.
the characters in the story; for although
you are sharing their problems and
tribulations for the time being, you know
that these problems and tribulations are
not really your own.
When you read a poem or an essay, or
hear a piece of music, or contemplate a
painting or a statue, it is with the artist
that you identify yourself. You see life
through his eyes, so to speak.
When you hear a piece of music or
watch a play or a movie, your cathartic