Rocky Balboa revisited

There’s a big market for motivational lines this month as people go into the New Year with high hopes and big dreams. As I surfed the web on a particular topic I came across a clip from the movie “Rocky Balboa” on YouTube where father and son exchanged perspective about how tough life gets and how you get up from the beating.

Over the holidays, people would inadvertently talk about the current political situation and the personalities. The question most often asked is if people like Mar Roxas, JPE (Senator Enrile) PNoy, Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla and a few others could ever recover from their particular blunders or mistakes committed or “sins” exposed in 2013. These questions were often stated in a manner as if to convey the belief that the “subject” was so deep in crap that they would forever be stained and stinky from their mess.

As an avid restorer of cars and someone who was restored spiritually and mentally by the Lord in 1991, I have to say that almost anybody and anything can be restored or redeemed. As a crisis management consultant I tell people that in the event of a true crisis one can only manage and control the damage. Only after taking control does one begin to rebuild and regain lost ground.

Restoration and redemption has a few requirements of its own.

The first requirement of restoration is that “we see value” underneath or beyond the damage or decay before us. It would be pointless convincing someone to restore an object or even a person if we cannot even see value or worth. If all you see is rot or failure and can’t imagine or believe the potential before you, then redemption dies in your hands. Yes redemption or restoration is as much our responsibility as it is our option.

The second requirement is acknowledgement of the fact that something is severely damaged, in need of repair or must undergo restoration as well as repurposing. The greatest obstacle to healing, redemption or repair comes from the person’s refusal to admit that they are guilty, at fault or are responsible. All good intent is pointless with a person unwilling to accept that they have hit rock bottom or slammed into the wall of life.

Third, there must be an agent or “angel” to facilitate the process. Whether it’s a rust bucket or a badly beaten leader, someone needs to suggest or initiate the idea or process of redemption or restoration. Christ did it for us; we in turn can do it for others. The yes-men almost always disappear or take cover lest they be blamed for the blunder. Only family or real friends or people who passionately believe have the ability to push for restoration or redemption.

Several of our national leaders and senators are clearly full of holes and bleeding from their “sins” in the battlefield of public opinion. But they don’t necessarily have to bleed to death or leave public office a few years from now, cloaked in shame or dishonor. They can find redemption IF they choose to do so.

The mistake all of them constantly make is to look at the entire mess as nothing more than politics and a numbers game in the parlor game of their lives called “popularity surveys”. If the points are low, they assume they’ll recover, and when they don’t, they simply stop playing the numbers game.

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that your “Honor”, your “Reputation” and the family name that you leave to generations is not a matter of popularity or who has the best PR team or legal team. Your children and their children will have to leave with whatever legacy you leave behind, even if their only “sin” is having your name! If people think you’re thief, so will your heirs be thought of. If people think you’re incompetent, chances are they will look at your relations in the same way!

Once you get the wrong mindset or value system out of the way, you can then begin considering other options, concerns and people to work on or work with. PNoy, Mar, JPE, Jinggoy, Bong Revilla have all manifested a common behavior in their leadership: they all seem to be hard of hearing and suffer from too much talking. Some might even say they have become legends in their own minds. Time and again I’ve heard a staff or assistant say how they insist on getting their way or simply take a shot without following the play.

Now they all need help from one form of “doctor” or another. Unfortunately, the doctors they listen to specialize on doctoring the “truth” and not reality. Sick people often wait until it hurts or it’s almost too late before going to the doctor. People in crisis hold off until the damage has become larger than life or beyond repair or control. Pride or fear never brought any good to its victims just pain, ruin or regret.

I know of two Presidents, one of the United States and the other of the Philippines, both of them went through severe trial, unpopularity, removal from office and public humiliation. In what should have been the dead end of their lives, in their darkest moments, they experienced the process of redemption I mentioned but very few people knew about the details. Ultimately, Nixon managed to redeem himself and was regarded as an international statesman. Erap on the other hand has made a comeback as Mayor but also as an enlightened individual showing no bitterness.

Remember redemption is not just about guilt or decay, it is also an expression of love and of having real value. We redeem things of real value.

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