What Are We In Power For?
By
Dennis Valdes

What a busy week it has been for me. Tonight is Monday evening and I just got an email from Matthew Lizares, our Pagkakaisa printer. Matt says, "Aren’t we going to have a Pagkakaisa this week?"

He’s right. It is Monday night and my article was due earlier this evening. But I’ve just come from three wakes and the Monday Night Fellowship – and that is just since 6PM tonight! Let me tell you, I am dog-tired.

These are the sort of days when Rotary can be a test. I’ve been away all weekend in Davao and Cebu – another working weekend working on our press expansion. I had meetings at Cebu Daily News all day, skipped lunch and rushed off to the airport to catch the 3 o’clock flight home.

All I did when I got home was spend an hour and a half with the kids – then I had to leave for the World Trade Center for the Monday Night Fellowship. From there, I had to leave early to make it to the wake of Mon Mayuga’s older brother, Larry, who passed away from lung cancer at the young age of 52. From there, it was two more wakes before getting home just 10 minutes ago.

So who’s happy with so many things going on simultaneously? Not Tessa, who hasn’t seen me all weekend and all night to boot. Not my kids, who spent all of one hour with me over the past three days. Not my co-hosts at the Monday Night Fellowship, who were left to entertain the rest of the Rotary District because I left early. Not Mon Mayuga, who saw me for all of 20 minutes maybe, before I rushed off again. And certainly not me, because everyone is either pissed or unhappy – and I hate that.

So Rotary can really be a test.

And yet, week after week, we all go to the meeting and do our best to give service to others. Tomorrow I am hosting a dinner for the 4^th Paul Harris Cup Committee and I fully expect to have 20 RCMA’ers there – just as there have been 15 to 20 dedicated guys working on this project over the past few months.

Why do we do it? Do we expect awards in June? Even if we did, is the little wooden plaque so valuable that we would treasure it so much – at the expense of family? There must be something more that makes us come back to Rotary. There must be something, but at midnight, at this particular minute, the answer escapes me.

Something to mull over as you enjoy your breakfast this morning...

PS – Distas is on April 8^th at the Dusit Hotel in Makati. Be there!