Serene Dip It

At year end, Our Daily Bread Bible readings are from Revelation. Then, History features 10 Ways How the World Will End.

What we are sure of is now. All we have to work on. Peace!

Pasa Load

If one welcomes it, not so Pasa Ring. Unless it is accompanied by a proposal.

This uncomplimentary remark is a way out of a face-to-face combat, in an ineffective way to avoid hurt.
Has launched a couple of conflicts, too.

Making-up

Literally. That's what Bruce Jenner admitted doing "in the closet" after snitching them from ex-wife Kris. She was then suspecting their daughters as the culprits!

Reality tv could be mediation-on-air.

Hearts in Harmony

Katie and Gay Hendrick's tip is to admit one's part in the problem and then share in the solution

They could be mediators!

Taller

Treated bus lag by watching "Pete's Dragon."  Caught this line about trees and tales growing taller.

Mediators prune the latter.

Umoja

Not another digital term but a village founded by female survivors of rape and sexual violence. Men are not allowed and the women fend for themselves by making beads. Utopia?

Mediation does not go to that extent but surely tries to go-between parties in conflict.

Age does matter

An Indian marathon champion claims to be 119 years old. But others point out that without any solid proof and looking at his physical prowess, Mr. Singh is most likely only 78.

Mediation separates claim from the gain.

Efficiency vs. Dignity

In the Netflix "The Crown," Princess Elizabeth then was taught that the former is the realm of government, while the latter is the realm of the realm.

Mediation restores both.

Extensions

For another 1-year extension of martial law in Mindanao, all an opponent asked for was a 1- minute extension to question the motion.

Is it too much to ask? Try balancing that, as mediators often do.

Bitter Late

Terry Bradshaw, one of the golden boys in "Better Late than Never," took the challenge of going nude in a camp. His colleagues called it gutsy/ disgusting/ horror!

When these banter  and ego became heated up, conflict ensues.

Rid Off

Commissioner Ridon of the PCUP seemed to have committed wrongdoing or needed to be replaced by someone else, more so.

Motives surface in mediation likewise.

Pinata Controllers

Which voice would the pinata player listen to, in the cacophony?

With disputants, just each other with a mediator facilitating.

Madiba

Mandela was also called by that name.

Some disputants are just madiva.

Ownershit

No typo there. "Downtown Abbey'''s Lady Mary is now Letty in "Good Behavior." As always, she has choice lines. Recently, she admitted, "I mess myself up."

Hearing this from disputants boosts a mediator's hope for a compromise agreement.

Top 10

Not Hits but Hitters. History channel listed these dictators as Caligula, Nero, Cleopatra, Ramses II, Hannibal, Attila, Julius Caesar, Emperor Chin, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. They all did not end very well.

So with mediators who try to be one.

My Cat from Heaven

Perhaps it was desperate to be adopted, but a particular cat in a shelter didn't leave a photographer's lap until he brought her home.

Some disputants are like that- of goodwill and easy to deal with.

Special Talents

Everyone is given at least a talent each, and not only in the Bible. In CNN PH's Med Talk, Dr. Gomez follows an autistic graduate of Mechanical Engineering through his work day reconciling checks at an office. In addition, Dr. Alexis Reyes states that they are by nature punctual, patient with detail and don't engage in chitchat, among other virtues.

Disputants have up and downsides, too.

Conductor

CNN's The Art of Movement featured a conductor who stated that his right hand led the various musical instruments while the left, the emotions to be evoked.

So does the mediator lead the disputants.

Mediating Paternity

The Mamma Mia musical is really about her daughter's other parentage.

If only such conflicts could be solved by song and dance!

Mediating Metamorphosis

TLC featured the Kings, Angie and Joey now both female. Although Angie has transgendered, she retains an Adam's apple.

Sometimes in mediation too it cannot be helped that there remain things from the past, try as disputants do to get over them in the search for a compromise.

Quitting Cold Monkey

Saw this documentary on a zoo ape Tory who got into smoking from cigarette butts thrown into his cage, whichever came first. It came to a point that he had to be brought to a sanctuary all by himself to make him stop his unhealthy habit.

Mediation is less invasive and more voluntary.

Sa 2-2-0 Lang

After a fake conversation between the President and the Cardinal came out, had advised Caritas to initiate this Code number for any official statement.

Mediation could use it, too.

Mediating Misery

In a martial law reflection, Fr. Benjamin Alforque recalled the torture he went through, even at the hands of a fellow-Ateneo alumnus. Fr. Ben lost his faith till one time he was drawn to the Bible. Opening it, there was Christ's message for him: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) Later, Fr. Ben was able to give the Holy Eucharist to his torturers unconditionally.

Mediation has witnessed such forgiveness and transformation both sides.

They Too

It's about TIME's Person of the Year called The Silence Breakers. Since last October actually Chicago had already passed an ordinance for hotel panic buttons to be used by employees at risk especially when working alone in rooms.

Human Resources is a mediator between labor & management and client & staff, among others.

Parent Hood

Two words, they refer to a problem parent, like those who themselves pimp their young children for cybersex.

The DSWD intervenes on behalf of the poor victims.

Reinventing the Wheel

NASA did. To navigate the rough terrain of Mars, they devised meshed ones made of what look like pliant chains. (CNN's Take a Look at this)

Mediation is a form of reinvented justice.

Own a Fake

Just about everybody does, whether a material or behavioral matter. In a CNN PH interview, Joross Gamboa who stars in the movie Dead Ma Walking, remarked on a similar subject that you  either owe it to fake or fake to owe it.

Mediation sheds all fakery.

Breaks Up

Or more commonly called break- ups were tackled in a Big Bang Theory episode. Raj observed that " most of mine have lasted."

Mediation, on the other hand seeks the same for relationships.

Waiters

Not the service staff but the heirs. A client now administers her maternal grandparents's estate. Her problems do not come from the two surviving children but the motley group of grandchildren, nieces and nephews, legitimate or not.

The two surviving heirs have reminded the group of descendants that they are still alive.

Impasse

Could also read "I'M passe," when disputants lock horns on issue/s.

Two pictures can be shown to them:

1. Two donkeys ok asses tied to each other want to graze on opposite sides.

2. Together, they graze first on one side, then the other.

In mediation parlance, that is "increasing the pie." It's now "We pasture."

Mediating names

Today's Daily Bread reflection dealt with the meaning behind naming infants. One priest joked about twins being baptized Toyota and Honda, to which he asked if they preferred gas or diesel to be poured.

Another kind of name-calling is avoided in mediation.