ohana

I believe you already have a lot of ohana in mind.  You first heard about it as it was played to you almost every morning as you wake up from bed.  You watched the movie – part 1 and 2.  You drew it based on your understanding and what touched you the most.  Your class redrew it again collating the many ideas into one drawing.  And then the community further collating everything else, drew it one more time, this time, thanks to Sir Pogi and Renzl, as a turtle who will always find its way home.  And now I get to speak about it.

I don't have to restate what has been already stated and so I would share with you my take on the story and how it made me appreciate our theme Ohana.  I call these the 3 things you might have missed in the movie Lilo and Stitch.

First, if you notice the story from where we got our theme for this year's peer formation program has no hero or villain in it in the sense that the hero is the protagonist and the villain is the antagonist like what we have in Men in Black or Star Trek).  There is no hero because all of them are flawed in some way.  There is no villain because all of them have some goodness in them just tucked away some place.  This is the beauty of the story.  It is beautiful because it is true.  It is our story, the story of our community

I cannot be a hero because I'm flawed for all to see.  I cannot be the villain because there is so much goodness in me, it's just there safely tucked away unseen and unappreciated.  And so is Zedi, and so is Mon, and so is Francis and Vincent or Kyle and Andro, and Cyril.

If our community begins to label each other as hero or villain, "we're the hero they're the villain, no, you're the villain, we're the hero," if we start labelling each other as hero and villain, then we can never grow, we can never discover or help each other discover our goodness, we can never be ohana.  We can never be real persons.

Second, not everything in life is obvious at once.  Lilo was late because it was Tuesday and she had to feed Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich.  Why?  Because she believes that that fish controls the weather and for as long as she feeds it a peanut butter sandwich, the weather will be just fine. 

If we just stop there then we can call Lilo a stupid girl.  She's stupid – how can a fish control the weather?  How can a peanut butter sandwich tame the fish the controls the weather?  But why?  Why so passionate about feeding the fish, why so passionate to the point of anger, why this obsession, this need to feed a fish which controls the weather.  One can only understand Lilo when one comes to know how her parents got killed, how she lost them.  It was one dark night in a bad weather, in a storm.  "If only the weather was fine..."

In life not everything is always clear.  I have been sitting on ICs for a long time now.  In life not everything is clear at once.  Sometimes it may not even be clear to Lilo herself.  And this is my point, we can only become ohana when we make room for compassion, when we clear things out, when we are open to each other, when we make extra effort and seek to understand the less obvious in each other's passion, in each other's anger, in each other's eccentricities, and even in each other's stupidities.

Third, the names have meaning.  Lilo means lost – she's a lost little girl because of the loss of her parents.  Stitch means to put two or more pieces together, to stitch the broken pieces.  How can a monster designed to destroy become the instrument that mended the broken pieces?  How can 626 designed to break whatever it touches, become a vehicle that will put together the broken pieces of Lilo's life?

This is the paradox of Christian life – our losing will be our finding, and dying will be our living, our defeat will be our triumph.  But why is it that I hear of people wanting to give up on each other because they feel ostracized, they feel left out, they feel sidelined, they even feel persecuted?  Paet last night argued, "why should Mon who is the cause why the community lost its cell phone night, why should Mon who is the cause why we lost that little extra breather we have every Friday afternoon, why should Mon feel bad about himself, why should he feel guilty, why should he feel bad just because we shared his fate?  No, he shouldn't.  He should be happy, he should be proud because we're carrying the burden with him . . . because brothers don't give up on each other."  Brothers don't give up on each other.

Don't be afraid of the imperfections of our community.  Don't be afraid of conflicts, of the hurts, and pains and defects and failures. Stitch is not just a person.  Stitch can also be a situation, a situation that will stitch together our brokenness, that will mend the broken pieces.  Even the most destructive person becomes the stitch.  The death of Jesus was our life, the curse of the cross became our blessing.  Use that brokenness.  Do not be afraid of that brokenness, expect the brokenness, thank God for this brokenness.  Do not run away just because our community is imperfect.  No.  It can be a Stitch.

But it can only be a stitch, a way of mending our brokenness when our attitude is – brothers don't give up on each other.

And so I end. 

First prize, best sharing for the night - Carl Galon.  Why is it that birds which can fly anywhere they want, why is it that they go back to the same perch every evening?  Birds are free, they have wings, they can go anywhere, they can fly everywhere, but why is it that they perch on the same tree, on the same branch every evening when the world becomes dark, why?  
Because it's home.  It is home.  Home. Ohana.