Showing posts with label appreciation. Show all posts

Appreciation of Favor

and acknowledgment of acts

By Apolinario Villalobos

There are many ways that a person can do to show his appreciation of the favor given him by others. The most common is by directly acknowledging the act with a simple “thank you” – spoken or written. If the favor is in the form of a gift received personally, expected is a spoken “thank you”. If the gift is given through somebody, a relayed “thank you” or better, a note of acknowledgment and appreciation should be sent to the giver.

On the aspect of communication, this system of exchange can be effective and successful if there is an acknowledgment, the system being some form of interaction between two or more parties. Simply said, a text message sent to someone should be properly acknowledged so that the sender will not be left wondering if the message was received. In the same manner, written memos should be acknowledged by recipients for record purposes, so that if a problem occurs, the parties concerned can check their files for the filed exchange of written communications, hence, finger pointing for faults can be avoided.

Today, people who want to keep themselves abreast of events throughout the world make use of the internet. The web also serves as an effective outlet and venue for the exchange of views, promotion of skills and merchandise – practically, a vast advertising page. In this regard, enterprising parties come up with their own sites to promote their wares – restaurants, resorts, theme parks, nature sanctuaries, hotels, apparel, gadgets, etc.

In the case of touristic facilities and destinations, sites are developed by concerned parties, such as owners, local government units, and agents, to promote them with the obvious reason of enticing visitors. As part of marketing scheme, feedback or report or anything that has got to do with what is being promoted MUST be acknowledged. For instance, if a walk- in tourist wrote something about it and published it on his site if he has one, by all means, the effort must be acknowledged….that is marketing strategy – knowing how far the promotion has gone and acknowledging the effort of the client who, not only enjoyed the visit but also wrote something about it…even published it for the information of others – free!

In the cutthroat tourism industry, the act of acknowledging even simple notices and reaction is very important, as it is one way of winning future or “repeat” clients. This is also one way of knowing what aspect of the business needs improvement. In this regard, employers must choose only people who are keen in this field, as monitoring skill is a must. Those who sleep on their job do not deserve a seat in the office, as they can just jeopardize the effort of the rest who are serious in doing theirs.

Charitable acts need not be acknowledged, instead, must be passed on. However, if the favor came from a big charitable institution that needs the promotion to boost their solicitation effort, their act should be acknowledged, for the information of past and future donors. 

Finally, the simple spiritual acknowledgment and appreciation that we can do is the prayer of thanks for our lives and blessings…..addressed to Him!

To be an Artist

By Apolinario Villalobos

To be an artist is difficult…yes, in a way, that is, if one tries to acquire other skills. But all creatures on earth are with inborn skill or skills, even those that belong to the plant kingdom. Every creature has an inborn “something” to show for the amusement of the world. And, that for me is what I mean by art – anything done by a creature to delight any or all senses.

Plants with their adaptation become natural artists by developing beautiful appendages such as twigs, branches, leaves, flowers, and scents for the pleasure of man and animals. Cats for instance become excited at the smell of catnip. Animals are amused in the artistically natural movement of their kind, such that a dog may bark in wild abandon at the sight of a wriggling worm.

As for man, painters compose landscapes on canvass for the discriminating view of visual art enthusiasts, sculptures form woods and metals to come up with beautiful decorative objects, cooks concoct savory foods to delight the palate of foodies, literary people write poems and essays for the romantics and the serious, photographers skillfully capture images in their cameras for the “aahhs” and “oohhs” of their viewers, hair cutters snip at clumps of hair for the appreciation of their customers, the same as with facial artists who dab faces with colorful rouges – to name a few.

Mobile creatures can even escape death with artistic cunning. Monkeys in their own domain, for instance, gracefully swing from tree to tree, while lizards and worms camouflage themselves to meld with their surroundings to escape their predators; schools of small fishes form a giant and deceptive “ball” by swarming together to scare away big fishes; and in circus shows people gape at escape artists do their ware.

Unfortunately, artistry has gone out of bounds because the skill has spread to the halls of government edifices where found are lawmakers and office personnel who, with artistic skill manipulate budgets. With artistic expertise, they deviate the flow of budgets through conduits to finally end up in their bank accounts. Their conniving cohorts can even come up with artistically-worded words in coming up with make-believe projects to justify the release of budgets.

In front of microphones, the demagogical artists in the lawmaking Halls, weave stories of great accomplishments in the hope that constituents will still vote for them for the same position, or for a higher one, come election time. Not to be outdone is the guy on the highest pedestal of the land who artistically claims similar accomplishments, making him the pun of jokes as constituents know them to be just lies!...his effort eventually, transforming him into an artistic liar!

The above “learned artists” have joined the rank of the con artists – masters of deception who bleed others for their hard-earned money.

Living is an art. We need to artistically brush aside disheartening events in our lives if we want to live on. We need to artistically console ourselves with an inspiration that beyond the stormy clouds is a silver lining…an equally artistic line that can push the struggling man with a grumbling empty stomach to live on for another day and for many more days to come.

Man is an artist, bad or good. It is the only way that he can’t become harsh and hard on anything that comes his way…. because as an artist he is patient.