Bituing walang ningning: Lessons from Karaoke Hits

This month, as I fulfill my rewarding social calendar, I attended a series of Christmas parties with different groups and companies. Apart from that, with the forthcoming family and batchmate reunions, it is justified that December is the worst month to be productive at work. Employees, if not all, eventually switch off the work mode button and shift to vacation mode. Everybody is on a festive mood and ready to summon all strength to celebrate with the loved ones and enjoy the sumptuous food; and as Filipinos, entertaining others entertain us. Hence, the singing of karaoke songs.

Last week, during my group’s thanksgiving party, one of my colleagues bravely sang one of Bing Rodrigo’s greatest hits – Sinayang mo. It’s a beautiful song, but for some reason reading carefully the lyrics made me sad, as one line of the song goes: “Ikaw pala ay rosas na walang bango.” It echoed a common tragic story of unrequited love. Nonetheless, I was relieved as I quickly remembered another similar metaphorically expressed song entitled: “Bituing walang ningning” written by Willy Cruz. In contrast, the latter evokes more emotion as it reveals the yearning to give up everything, despite cultural and societal pressures which dictate that professional achievement and financial success are the sole measures of a person.

Balutin mo ako ng hiwaga ng iyong pagmamahal
Hayaang matakpan ang kinang na ‘di magtatagal
Mabuti pa kaya’y maging bituing walang ningning
Kung kapalit nito’y walang paglaho mong pagtingin

Itago mo ako sa lilim ng iyong pagmamahal
Limutin ang mapaglarong kinang ng tagumpay
Sa piling mo ngayon ako’y bituing walang ningning
Nagkukubli sa liwanag ng ating pag-ibig

I was mesmerized by the song and it made me pause and reflect on one of King Solomon’s famous proverbs: Everything is vanity. As humans, we tend to be narrowly focused on temporary things and sometimes leave a trail of broken relationship in pursuit of a good life. Perhaps, the band Linkin Park was right on their hit single: “I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter.”

On a more important note, as I focused on to this song’s powerful message, I realized that the season of Advent is also like the Lenten season. What we did or what we regularly do during these seasons is to embrace our lowliness and attend to some aspects of impurities of the heart which inhibit us to shine before the true source of light. Always as we approach Christmas and Easter, we are invited to contemplate to the image of the shining star which spotlights the new way of doing things – conversion.

Advent, like Lent, is about new life; and we cannot experience new life by our own efforts alone. There will be moments that we are in the lowest point of our lives and these challenges allow us to see what God has given us.

May we have prepared enough during advent as we allow ourselves to declutter our preoccupations in life, which let us forget to see the real star [that is Jesus], that bring us new life this Christmas. (Francis Manayan)