The Breaking of a New RCM Dawn

IN the northern hemisphere from where I write to you, dear RCMers, this time of the year provides impressive sunrises quite early in the day. To the early risers pandiculating from slumber, and even to those who are headed home after partying throughout the night, the breaking of dawn comes with serenity and suffused light, the peace and quiet punctuated only by the chirping of the morning birds.

Pregnant with possibilities, the new day leisurely unfolds, the sun taking its time before fully unveiling itself above the horizon, and the world seemingly pauses a moment in contemplation of the promise of a fresh start, a clean slate, a new beginning.

A new day unfolds for the Rotary Club of Manila and the world of Rotary as the year of creating a lasting impact begins.

In a time-honored ritual of passage, President Raoul C. Creencia, confident that the Club's accomplishments in his year in office have brought it on a higher plane, hands the bell and the gavel to his successor, President Reginald T. Yu, whose task it shall be to bring the first Rotary Club in Asia to even greater heights. This new day is for both of them to cherish, albeit with eyes cast on opposite directions, as one looks back to a year gilt with the gold of victory, and the other looks forward in anticipation of what is possible.

This unfolding day also belongs to each Manila Rotarian as another chapter is written in the Club's history. For 107 years, the Club has built a legacy of leadership, service, and vocational excellence, and this legacy is bequeathed year after year to its new custodians, none other than the Board of Directors and Executive Officers, the existing membership, and the new inductees into the Club. Together we will write this new chapter, and it is up to all of us if it will be a stirring panegyric or an evanescent murmur. I have every confidence that it will be the former as our President leads us on a path Towards a Unified Rotary Nation.

President Reggie's ascent to the highest position the Club has in its power to bestow to any member has left a gaping hole in the editorial board of our beloved Balita. Because nature abhors a vacuum, it sucked the most lightweight particle available to fill that hole. And so the unenviable task of following in President Reggie's footsteps as Editor-in-Chief fell on this lap. It was accepted with great humility and the recognition that, first, it takes a village to publish a club bulletin, and second, we have been given the sacred trust of preserving the institutional memory of the Club through the written word. It is a trust that I will sedulously honor and serve every week.

"Morning has broken," sang Cat Stevens, to which Nina Simone responds, "I'm feeling good."

Feel good, my dear Brothers in RCM; the sun is up and we are off to a great start.