SILENTLY, ONE BY ONE ...
By Rudy A. Arizala
13 December 2008
When I opened my incoming emails this moning, I was greeted with a sad news: one of my friends, "kalalawigan" and former colleagues in the Philippine foreign service, ex Ambassador Cesar C. Pastores of Mauban, Quezon, passed away.
I feel sad for he shall no longer be with us - like my other friends and former colleagues who also passed away this year - former Ambassadors Francisco F. Santos of Manila, Vicente R. Reyes of Batangas, Armando Manalo of Manila and now Cesar C. Pastores. All of them my contemporaries since our Padre Faura days.
And I recall to mind what Henry Wardsworth Longfellow wrote in his poem « Evangeline » the pertinent lines of which I paraphrased below:
Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-not of the angels,
Then they vanished silently one-by-one
In the inky darkness of the long night.
My friends and former colleagues in the foreign service who have departed are like those lovely stars in the infinite meadows of heaven which blossomed, then dimmed and vanished in the night.
Methinks, the best epitaph we could write for Ambassador Pastores and for the rest of them is what Robert L. Stevenson wrote in « Requiem ». Allow me also to paraphrase pertinent lines as folow :
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie,
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
"This be the verse you grave for me ;
'Here lies where he longed to be,
'Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
The diplomat, home from overseas
And the hunter, home from the hill. »
E n d
P.S. For Mila Glodava: You may recall that when we launched the Book "Labong Ng Kawayan" at Quezon City in 2002, among those present was Ambassador Cesar C. Pastores, the subject of my requiem above. The other Ambassadors were: Johnny Ona, Pablo Araque (deceased), Enrique P. Syquia (deceased), and Amb. Dolly Sale. They are all good, faithful friends who went out of their way to attend our book launching six years ago. If you will review the photos and the CD or DVD taken on said occasion, they were all happy and I must say they had a grand time enjoying everyting - the program, the food, ambiance and the friendly informal but memorable atmosphere. Also present, if you may recall, were Columnist Randy David and Conrado de Quiroz. Of course, former Philippine Attache to the Philippine Mission in Geneva. Congressman and Governor of Quezon province and a good friend also of Ambassador Pastores, Willie L. Enverga was also present. RAA