They have one thing in common: they talk.  They are everywhere, they are all over and they are outspoken.  We hear them, we listen to them and we learn from them.  Students listen to teachers, believers listen to preachers and audiences listen to speakers.  It is not easy to teach, it is not easy to preach and it is not easy to speak.  People from all walks of life come to hear them for want of something new and something different.  They are a primary source of enlightenment for they tell us something we don't know.  They are the most proficient mentors and tutors for by their calling we broaden our understanding and expand our knowledge.  To the extent freedom of speech is the most precious right, I might say that they are the best practitioners of the right to free speech.
 
Public opinion evolves with them, glows with them and mutates with them.  Our mental faculties implore their influence, reflect their image and guide our behavior.  They have given us the most tantalizing gift of knowledge we can share without losing.  They are unassuming individuals whose callings are institutionalized here and abroad.  We dignify them for what they do and institutions subsidize their callings.  Education is undoubtedly the highest investment in the public interest.  Through teachers, preachers and speakers, our education comes to full circle with more and more about less and less.  We are never self-made and no one can claim to be self-made.  Teachers, preachers and speakers provide credible evidence that we are not self-made.
 
We didn't know how to read and write until teachers came into our lives.  We didn't know how to pray and worship until preachers came into our lives.  And we didn't know what our rights and duties were until speakers came into our lives.  We are made up of teachers, preachers and speakers for they are a part of us, they live with us and work through us.  There is a teacher in every school, college and university.  There is a preacher in every chapel, church and temple.  There is a speaker in every conversation, audience and forum.  Teachers are the official faculties in our schools, preachers are the ordained pastors in our churches and politicians are the outspoken representatives in government service.
 
Absent teachers, preachers and speakers, life is like a shadow cast by a wall or a visiting ghost of someone dead.  We can only attain knowledge with the help of those who possess it and it must be understood from the very beginning that we must learn from them who know more.  A life well-lived has three dimensions: learning, praying and earning which are attributed to teachers in school, preachers in church and speakers in the workplace.  No one can take away from us the knowledge, intelligence and light that teachers, preachers and speakers imparted upon us.  It is a lifetime gift of literacy that is never bedimmed by time and circumstance.  Literacy follows every one of us wherever we go.  It shines in the darkest hours of the night and is not diminished by sharing it with others.  We see evidence of that literacy in awards, certificates, citations, diplomas, plaques, resumes and curriculum vitae.
 
Education, enlightenment and learning are a lifetime pursuit.  We are all students for life for everything that is different educates us, broadens enlightenment and increases learning.  Knowing something not known before, seeing something not seen before and hearing something not heard before are what learning, enlightenment and education are all about.  To the extent everyone is unique and different, we are all teachers to one another and we are all students to each other.  There is no such thing as all-knowing other than the Divine Providence.  There is always something a son knows that his father doesn't know, there is always something a daughter knows that her mother doesn't know, even as they live under the same roof.  We see this spectrum enlarged in the big picture of life where everyone is a stranger and therefore different to someone else.  In the world of experience, feelings, likes and dislikes, and desires and values, every man, woman and child is different.
 
A teacher is one who makes two ideas grow where only one grew before.  We give credit to our teachers for they taught us to read and write.  We are never lost in the jungles of a big city for we know how to read.  We know what is happening in other parts of the world because we read about it in newspapers, books, magazines and other printed materials.  The ability to read makes the world smaller.  We know our rights and duties because we know how to read the law and the Constitution.  We know God's will because we know how to read the Bible.  The ability to read destroys the limits and boundaries of knowledge.  The ability to write works as an extension cord of energy and power that connects us to everyone with whom we choose to be connected.  Because of our teachers who taught us to read and write, we can move freely and know the dangers ahead.
 
We absorb information, and accumulate and store knowledge in our memory and mental warehouse whenever we read.  We diffuse that information and spread that knowledge when we speak out.  We elevate ourselves to the level of teachers, preachers and speakers when we speak out like broadcasting stations.  This cycle of reading to learn and speaking to teach is what makes teaching a glorified profession and making the Good Shepherd as the exemplar and the greatest teacher of all time.  Teachers are credited for the reading and writing skills we need to have.  However, all the information and knowledge we acquired through reading and writing have created so much ambiguity for a difference of opinion bedeviled the minds and messed up clarity.  Too many cooks destroy the recipe applies not only to the chefs and culinary students but also to authors and writers.  Too many authors and writers blur the truth which is the best information and best of knowledge.
 
A preachers is one who urges acceptance of or compliance with religious or moral principles, one who delivers a sermon or gives religious or moral instruction.  He is the speaker on godly or religious matters.  We give credit to preachers for they taught us to pray and worship.  We are at peace in the jungles of civilization and we never lose faith in a turbulent world because preachers as ordained pastors emphasize the significance of peace.  Prayer and worship give us peace and strengthen our faith.  And with peace and faith, our spiritual being rules over our human being.  Prayer and worship, peace and faith invite God to guide, govern, manage, rule and supervise our way of life.  The ability to pray works as an extension cord of spiritual energy and power that connects us to a higher power.  The ability to pray and worship nourished life in the spirit.  Because of preachers who taught us to pray and worship, we become connected to the source of peace, the source of truth and the source of life.
 
A speaker is broadly anyone who speaks and narrowly anyone who delivers a public speech; he is anyone who can talk.  It is not easy to speak even as we teach and preach.  We individualize what is good and what is bad, we internalize what is right and what is wrong, and we personalize what is truth and what is false when we speak.  There are always people around who will question our credibility, our motives and values.  It is not easy to teach, preach and speak for anything we say can be used against us.  It is not easy to teach, preach and speak for we cannot take back what we have said to others who fought us back.  In the end, we stand out in the middle of the storm as teachers, preachers and speakers.

 

 

Munting Nayon News Magazine