“UP Oblation,” This Old UP Alumnus’ New Interpretation For An Old Symbol – From Restricted To Released, From Criticality To Creativity!

Here is the UP Oblation photo (left) taken by me with my Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ100 camera on Valentine’s Day, 14 Feb 2019 (the digital record says so), at the campus of UP Los Baños, my alma mater. Today, a mischievous thought suddenly strikes me: “We have been looking at the UP Oblation with a closed mind!”

I am not surprised. I am the one and only “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing” in the entire 100+ years of the UP System! That honor was bestowed on me in 2011 by the UPLB Alumni Association (UPLBAA) when Madecor President Elpidio L “Pids” Rosario was UPLBAA President.

I declare today: “Old symbols never die, they just fade away.” We just find a way to recreate them. In this case, we inspire people away from instant criticism towards instant creativity. Away from despairing towards inspiring” Thoughts suggested by the images above (right image my re-interpretation).

Old UP Oblation: “You can think only as wide as this.”
New UP Oblation: “You can think as wide & wonderful as all this!”

Even as historically the one-and-only “Outstanding Alumnus For Creative Writing”of the entire UP System, I had been uneasy looking at and thinking of the symbolic statue UP Oblation (Obli). Today, Tuesday, 02 Oct 2024, it suddenly came to me that Obli is best seen as a symbol of two kinds of openness:
(1) openness to criticism, and at the same time
(2) openness to creativity!

Historically, with the Oblation, the UP System had imprisoned itself for almost 90 years in a UP faculty-imposed “largely open opposition to change”!

So, beginning today, Tuesday, 02 Oct 2024, I am one with Edward Albee who said, “I don't like symbolism that hits you over the head. A symbol should not be a cymbal”

Albee, American playwright, wrote “Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?” With my rethinking, now I can write: “Who’s afraid of the UP Oblation?!”

I repeat: Today, the 89-years-old UP Oblation I see differently as symbolizing two kinds of openness: (1) openness to criticism, and at the same time (2) openness to creativity! The UP System has imprisoned itself for almost 90 years in UP-faculty-imposed “open opposition to change”!

Now, how do you deal with a critical-creative Obli? There is the “Po Doctrine” of Edward De Bono that says “Yes” even to any wild, offensive, negative or impractical suggestion – De Bono advises us to look at it in the eye and see if it is suggestive of any number of positive ideas. That is to say, “In creativity, there are no negative ideas – only negative people!”

So! Today I begin to look at the Oblation with a new vision.

The whole UP System has been living a dangerous life, being almost all-the-time a critic of popular national issues.

With an open mind, I take it today that the UP Oblation signifies “openness to mild as well as wild ideas,” which is what “creativity” requires of each of us.

Welcome, re-sculptured critical-creative UP Oblation!@517