First UP Baguio MISSION Workshop Courage

By: Sharmaine de Guzman

“It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”- Seneca

Indeed, one cannot know hardship if one will not dare overcome it.

February 4-5, 2012—MISSION Workshop Courage was held among members of Philosophy Circle in University of the Philippines Baguio co-facilitated by Andy Veridiano and Francis Caguioa. The workshop was full of burning insights and challenging questions which led the group to very interesting debates especially on the first day of the workshop.  However, difficulty and disappointment came in when on the second day, only one was left to participate.

With initially seven participants on the first day, only one came back the next day to finish the workshop.

Armed by critical minds and thought-provoking insights, the group shared their ideas about the meaning of life. Shaded by the existentialist way of thinking, they defined life and individual existence as a medium of potentiality and freedom of actions and as itself a means to know its essence. Also, everyone shared interesting ideas about their view of the Philippine society re-echoing the downside of our corrupt politics and culture. A striking thought eventually summarizes their views about society as they recognized and presented the idea of inter-relatedness among social structures and individual actions.

A culminating idea also stands out as each participant recognized the fact that everybody has his or her own creative moment/s and that creativity for each individual is unique, boundless, timeless, and somewhat magical. The energy during the discussion about their individual creative moments was very high that nobody in the group can deny that every single human being experiences its magic.

At the end of the first day, everyone seemed to be excited and astonished by the thought of the workshop. Although only one of them came back the next day, we feel that each member of the group was touched by the wonderful ideas and concepts the workshop presented. On the second day, with the insightful questions of the lone participant, the energy stayed high as we responded to her questions and thoughts attentively. The discussion on the lemniscate journey was for her very interesting and challenging.

We end the workshop with content as we know that eventually, considering their great thoughts and performances, the participants will be the seeds of a better future. Also, we feel very thankful that we were able to have this kind of experience that really challenged us. The experience helped us recognize some weaknesses of the workshop framework especially as it somehow overwhelmed minds that are just on its way to knowing a larger social reality. Also, this experience helped us evaluate our ways and preliminary means in conducting the workshop. Hopefully, through this experience, we would be able to incorporate our new learnings in designing and initiating our next Workshop Courage.