Working for Probe has made me realize that excellence is not tantamount to flawlessness. I would like to believe we had an excellent show, but it was not exactly flawless.
We define excellence not as the absence of mistakes, but as the pursuit of a noble objective with the passion and charity to carry it on.
Our last hurrah, “Ang Ating Kuwento,” which aired on ABS-CBN last July 18, provides a good example. Production people can easily point out the flaws of the show. Two of the bigger ones, or might I say the most glaring ones, were committed by yours truly. I edited the video of the eighth and last segment of the show. My segment had dead air — I unintentionally muted the audio of one of the video inserts — and it had a jump, a cut in a soundbite which I wasn’t able to “cover” with video inserts. Those were mortal sins in production which I and the persons checking my work weren’t able to preview because of a serious lack of time. What else would you call not having finished the edit when the show is almost halfway through?I am not proud of my mistakes, but I am proud of the show and the team behind it. To see excellence in this, we don’t need a magnifying glass as much as we need a wide-angle lens.
Can we be faulted for slacking off? We hardly slept from Friday to Sunday when the special aired. Editors were their own video researchers — and for a piece that almost entirely depended on file video, it was a miracle that we were able to pull it off. People who had already resigned from the team also came in to lend a hand.
The comments we received after the show serve as the best affirmation. Some viewers appreciated the show as a glimpse of Philippine history after 1986. Other said it will make them miss us. Still, others were inspired to become good journalists, or to take risks and dream big as Probe did. That is enough.
To be clear, mistakes should not be tolerated. But mistakes are really a part of life — and can be part even of an excellent production. In fact, as we in our lives progress more and more into excellence, we become aware of more and more imperfections. The well-revered spiritual director Fr. Thomas Green, SJ, says in his book ‘When the Well Runs Dry’: “The closer we come to the light of God, the darker our own darkness appears by contrast.”
We should not be too hard on ourselves in the never-ending quest for excellence. Fr. Green writes, “Eventually the weeds must go and the natural virtues must bloom, but the Lord seems to find delight in a garden with many weeds, provided faith, hope and love are planted there.”
“I have often thought that if I were God I would never tolerate as weedy a garden as I myself am. But then I thank the Lord that he is God and not I!”
The Wide Shot 
allanlazaro
August 19, 2010
Parang nagmumukhang lumang Knock, Knock na itong blog mo a.
lordpaterno
August 19, 2010
bakit, ano ba ang luma at ano ba ang bago? hahaha :))
allanlazaro
August 19, 2010
dahil tao tayo merong luma at merong bago.
Anastasya
December 12, 2013
I share Unrepentantcowboy’s fear of a worse scenario. I know we are also spusoped to “keep positive through these trying times” and I am trying — but dammit I want payback. I want those evil people to receive some of the pain and misery they have inflicted on so many of their fellow humans. But not just for my own gratification. The worst part of that scenario is that in a couple of years the remaining towns start electing representatives, in 50 years we’ve figured out national communications and limited transport and a national government is reformed. In a hundred years the citizen will begin to complain about how those wealthy people seem to always get their way – and so it begins again. I don’t want to kill anybody, but there has to be a way of getting some payback AND preventing this cycle from repeating. Maybe we could make their names swear words — “Oh go Bush yourself” for example. or “Ick! This stuff tastes like Bernanke!” I hope we are smart enough to figure it out.
Anta
December 18, 2013
caucazhin,[[Is this to the US & United Nations?]]Yes.If only the nations would letisn to the Son, the one who came as the Prince of Peace.But they do not, the nations rage, The kings of the earth prepare for battle, plotting against each other and against the Peaceable Kingdom of Christ.There will come a time when all nations (especially powerful ones like the USA) will have to account for their actions.”The first-century church pointed out Herod, Pilate, the Romans, and even the Jews as rebels against the Anointed when they conspired together to take Jesus’ life (Acts 4:25-28). The prophets, the Lord Jesus, and the apostles all witness that the nations will rise up against God and his Messiah as long as the messianic era awaits its fullness (Zech 12:1-9; 14:1-11; Matt 24:7; Luke 21:10; 2 Thess 2:3-4, 8-12; Rev 17:14; 19:14-21).” – VanGemeren
cheapautoinsurance.com
December 19, 2013
My name is in my favorite color 🙂 – I love it. What a fun Christmas Tree, bringing us all together like that.I've written on my blog of one of our very important traditions as a family. We find 25 Christmas books at the library, wrap them up and begin an advent of unwrapping each day through the month until the 25th. Of course, I have three boys and we take turns as to who unwraps each night – we also have 50 other unwrapped books so everyone gets to choose one…then we cuddle up and read 🙂