The "Great" Larry Hochman Shares his Thoughts:)

This was originally written in 2001, when Jillian was eight years old. We're having her Sweet 16 party this weekend. This - and two other old notes - will lead up to one current and very important one. Stay tuned if you want to thoroughly enjoy your present and parlay it into an incredible future.

And please pass this note along to whomever you think it will inspire.

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There is no better sound in the world than hearing your child laughing from the soul. It tells you that anything is possible.

I'm spending part of the morning doing Mad Libs with my daughter Jillian. She's discovering this verbal treasure for the first time, and the world of verbal humor is opening up for her.

And she's laughing like a big silly goon!

Later on in the day we stop at the bank. She sees the lollipops on the counter near the teller and makes her way toward them. Before I say a word she asks if she can get one for her little sister Sarah. At that moment I remember Jill doesn't like lollipops and feel a burst of pride and love for my little lady.

After the bank, we stop at the hair salon for a long overdue cut. She's getting the works: wash, blow dry, cut, styling. She's sees herself all fluffy and feminine, the hint of the woman she will become. As she's being fussed over by the beautician, she celebrates her new found prettiness with a grin from ear to ear.

Still later, we stop at a Subway restaurant to get her favorite treat...ham and provolone on whole wheat, no vegetables, no mayo, nothing.

Her eyes light up when I offer the three chocolate chip cookies (if she shares with Dad). I notice the look of unbridled pleasure on her face as she chomps on her sandwich. She savors the food itself and the fact that she's getting a special treat; the combination makes her feel like a princess.

Then we stop at my office so I can take care of some paperwork. I ask her to call home and tell Mommy where we are and how long we'll be. She delights in the fact that I show trust in her to make the call by herself, and that I believe in her enough to use the "special buttons" on the office phone. She handles the task as well as any administrative assistant I've ever had.

Close to bedtime, we work on math homework. She whips through four pages of multiplication, number patterns, graphs, and word problems. The quiet calm of competence shines in her eyes, and her mouth is turned up at the corners in a sublime, confident smile.

She knows her stuff, and tomorrow her teacher will know she knows it as well.

Want to see the wonders of the world? Find a child, one you love if possible.

See the world through his or her eyes, the joys, the kindness, the fears, the dreams, the unexpected delights, the gratitude.

Even better, see YOUR world as if YOU are the child. Experience things for the first time, and feel it with that intensity.

This is something you can access anytime you want.

And it will make you a better grown-up.

Your Pal,
Larry

Yes, WE ALL CAN!

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I owe my blog-mates MORE than just this video. Yes, I have decided to put on my running shoes and see where this path takes me. This path, however, is NOT new. I have been on the same path for the last 40 years of my life as anyone from San Juan City probably knows. Thus, it isn't anything REALLY "new" after the forty years when we first started the Pink Ladies and decided to give the San Juan ladies "some means of livelihood". It was also in the 70's when I started to improve the San Juan school library and health centers. Later, I tried to make sure that San Juan would have more schools, teachers, a museum and something close to a "mini cultural center". Thanks to my son JV, who was supportive in most of the projects.He understood that that we needed more schools, health centers, improvement of police force and the basic need of every resident (and guest) of the city to feel safe and secure.

Admittedly, there is always room for improvement. That is why I have the BSK (Balikatan sa Kaunlaran) projects such as recycling and waste management. San Juan is the "flood basin" of Metro Manila and during the rainy season there are times when some areas are still under water. There is also the sanitation situation that has vastly improved and we intend to do more given the "go signal" from the people.

Why only NOW? Frankly, I first was rallied by my friends and residents of the city to take the official role during the 90's. That was however a point in my life when I was more enthused about business and I had an unexpected health problem caused by taking a vaccine which was injected into my system. Vaccines can be GOOD but not everyone should be vaccinated all because it seems to be "fashionable" to do so. Anyway i shall tell you that story another time in my blog.

Last year I visited my sister Gilda in Chicago and decided to have a complete medical check up, just to make sure that I can stand the rigors of the campaign and public service. I prayed. I asked God that should He want me to pursue this not-so-new path, a sign would take would be that of my doctor's prognosis. Surprisingly, my doctor in Chicago declared me in the pink of health and added: "You can do anything you like". After some more prayers and perhaps, a bit of heartache now and then, it was clear that this is the time in my life when I had to go for it.This was God's time given me to take a more obvious role as leader of the city.

Still, I cannot do it alone. Not without your help or your suggestions. If there is anything I appreciate, it is good and productive ideas for the city. I do not view this phase in my life as me running alone but all of you running "WITH ME". I have never viewed leadership as simply giving the orders but rather a partnership with the people who share the goals I have for the city. After all, I am no super woman, I was only a provincial whose roots are from Negros and who managed to be fortunate enough to get good education-- BUT if we all come to terms with our set goals for the betterment of the city (and even the country) then yes we can do and accomplish anything!

Michael Jackson: A Short Tribute

I chose this video because it's the earliest memory I have of a Michael Jackson song -- about that of an "unwanted" rat by the name of "Ben". Another reason I decided on this video is that it seems that Michael Jackson saw himself as "Ben".He knew that he missed his childhood, has no long lasting relationships, had no list of "best friends" except perhaps Liz Taylor whom he wanted to marry. The problem was that Liz Taylor knew that Michael Jackson wanted a "mother", not a wife. So it went that he married Lisa Presley which sounded like a PR/corporate coup but we all knew that marriage would not last.

Many wonder why and perhaps, it was for the obvious reason that Michael Jackson was obsessed in buying the childhood years he was never allowed to enjoy. Childhood, children, kids.... it was the Peter Pan syndrome even his "Neverland Ranch" (his heaven on earth) seemed to be nothing but a huge playground for kids.

He was not perfect - aha! we all know that.But do we REALLY KNOW or do we only think we know? Michael Jackson was a human being who was soft spoken (when not on stage) and who was, obviously, harassed all his life because he had BIG money. He has "problems" and thus had to pay-off a lot of people. He almost lost everything though and was planning his "great comeback" in the London stage this July when he passed away on the same day as another pop icon, Farrah Fawcett, got her real wings.

Except that Farrah was loved. She had her parents, family and the man who loved her by her side when she slipped to heaven. Michael Jackson was alone when he died with no one, living in a rented hundred thousand dollar a month apartment.

We wish him forever peace. At last, he may be in that better place where he NOW has learned to love himself at last. Today, he knows that he was loved, even if he thought that he was so "unattractive" that he "needed" to change his face and skin color. It is reported that he had more than a dozen facial surgeries.

His music however forever lives on as we remember that there was once a poor boy who sang and never grew up and was called "The King of Pop". That king is dead but what moves me about this man/boy is the whole tragedy of his life. Even in death, he remains an "enigma". Sometimes it makes me wonder if geniuses like him and Vincent Van Gogh for instant are pretty much doomed to be unhappy in this planet because "they don't belong". Again, I quote Don Mclean : "But I could have told you Vincent, this world was never meant for one as beautiful as you".

Twitter is alive with Michael Jackson tributes, google almost collapsed today and there are other people dying as I write this. It's sad that Michael Jackson's whole life was a lingering performance, much like the life of Ben, the rat in the video, except that Ben found one loyal friend. I doubt if Michael had one though he had millions of fans.

Sad.. really.

Love as Public Service and Public Policy

Perhaps it is all those crummy plots of romantic telenovelas that have inundated our daily lives which has given us the stereotype definition of love. Love is basically comprehended as magically romantic---until we hear of the next celebrity break-up anyway.

How many poets have declared that they have become too sick of love? The same malady hits me too at times, until I recall that love is not a feeling more than it is rendering sincere service to those who need it the most.

Should there be any handbook for public service and public policy, I dare say that St.Paul's First Corinthians is the perfect handbook for serving the public. Historically, he was writing to a rather disorganized Christian community who were basically oppressed, persecuted, poor and were the "outcasts" of the elite Roman society.

Love is patient and kind. Paul laid his public policy of tolerance and empathy.He ordered that "his people" understand that living in a specific community where everyone was constrained to share everything meant that there will always be differences. Or quarrels. Or different points of view between individuals.

Love is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,it is not rude.It does not seek its own interests.Love is not quick-tempered nor does it brood over injury.

Basically, this is a call for civility, good conduct and treating everyone in the community equally while understanding their specific needs. It is a voice of leadership that cries out: "Let's feed the hungry or better yet, give him/him work so that he shall not have to stay hungry. Let's take collective action and forget ourselves for a while and get into volunteerism because we are ALL part of the same community. To improve our community we MUST improve the LOT of individuals, we must try and repair broken lives if we must. We have to bury the petty bitterness of the past that keeps us divided and thus, paralyzed by fear to do good.

Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Any public policy which does not render justice to whom it is due is a failed policy from the start. Any great leader will tell you so, and admittedly, this nation has yet to produce one who is in the same league as Ghandi who said "An eye for an eye will make us all blind". Or Winston Churchill, who despite his human flaws, knew that "Responsibility is the only price of greatness."

We do not create great communities by building walls in a paranoid attempt to protect us and our properties. We cannot build great communities without first building GOOD communities. We cannot protect the little or great wealth we have by clinging to it in fear without remembering the One who said : "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required" (Luke 12:48)

The best leadership example was set by one who started with a rough gang of twelve whom the elites of His period called "sinners and wine gobblers". These were not exactly an educated band of brothers. They were as regular as the next balut-vendor, except that they balut-vendor today probably owns a cellphone. They never traveled to avail of a Greek or Roman education, they only vastly improved human civilization.

The cry of the world today is "Change!". The same cry for change has brought about the French Revolution and a relatively better world view that all men and women are born with certain inalienable rights such as life, liberty, equality the right to individual happiness. Sadly, even such a noble revolution devoured its own children.

Consider this short quote:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
---W. H. Auden

Everything starts from the smallest community, for without communities, there would be no state. Perhaps, the leadership manuals of the world should be rewritten in line with St. Paul's message to the Corinthians. Some will reason that public policy should be tough and there is no place for "love" in genuine leadership. I say NO. I vehemently disagree because leadership is not taking the reins - people aren't horses.They are lives to be nurtured, souls to be restored, individuals whose voices should be heard and hungry crying babies (living in the womb or outside of it) who should know that there is always hope forever served as our cup runneth over to their rescue because we are Filipinos whose core value is to love.

I dream of such a community one day and those who will dare share my dream.