THE WIDE RANGE of interests of author Ed Aurelio C. Reyes shows in his writings, which includes more than a dozen titles of books and pamphlets published between the two editions of this book, plus editorials, articles and column items for the regular publications where he has been editor or contributor.

"Ed" or "Ding" has been writing on human rights, especially the citizens' right to freedom of the press; issues pertaining to the urgent need and ways of effective environmental conservation; sense of history for clear sense of mission; the people's collective self-empowerment; and his favorite of them all, practical applications of the principle of synergism what he says is "God's magical gift" to remind us of the oneness of all.

While most of his writings have come in the form of essays trying to explain or plainly express this or that, he has also written a good number of poems, vignettes, short stories, and a novelette. Under a penname he wrote a novel, titled Hulagpos!, which was later described by some readers and friends as "the Noli Me Tangere of the martial law period."

He has also been into visual arts, having done a few oil paintings, a hundred or so watercolor and mixed media pieces, and a thousand or so pen and ink illustrations. Since recently, pages of two of the magazines he now edits, LightShare Digest and Tambuli, have been enlivened by visual items in pen and ink, watercolor or computer graphics.

Music has always been playing between his ears. Guitar, piano, and, in his childhood days, the harmonica have been his friends whenever he needed to take off his mind from work. Original compositions have come few and far between, so he usually just sings folk songs, as well as standard and pop, preferring to take the second or third voice, and often enjoys it so much that he often gets carried away and sings his notes too loud. He has had a few occasions "on stage," playing the role of Rizal twice for large audiences and various other roles such as the character of Andres Bonifacio.

He considers himself an educator, a "professor passionately professing." And he has also had classroom work. He currently teaches history-related subjects at the International Academy of Management and Economics (IAME) in Makati, and for some years taught at the Asian Social Institute (ASI) in Manila under the latter's doctoral program in Applied Cosmic Anthropology. He has also held seminars on practical spirituality.

As an educator, Ding has always been moved by the passionate heart-mind of advocacy. He has been looking forward to the day when the peoples of the world, or at least the peoples of the Philippines, will "live as one" after "remembering" to be one. For this "dawning of happier human history" to come, he says people must individually and collectively be active stakeholders predisposed to be "true and truthful teamplayers." This, in his view, cannot be developed in the classroom, where students would naturally be more interested in academic titles, grades and diplomas, and future employment. It has had to be done "outside the box."

Seeking to create living laboratories for such characteristics to thrive and be consequential for positive social change, Ding has been an organizing facilitator. Saniblakas Foundation, which he led in forming, has become a veritable "factory of organizations" in various fields of human concern. His difficulties have largely come from the Foundation's and his own lack of material resources to be able to consistently mobilize at least an active core in each of these groups. He does not believe external funding would breed the kind of personal commitment he thinks these organizations should have, and prefers to emphasize the development of personal commitments based on active stakeholdership. Of course he has always been ready to accept material support from anyone without strings attached. As an active member of a primary cooperative he has been a staunch advocate of empowerment through collective self-reliance.

Meanwhile these groups are preparing to synergize into a broad movement-type community to be called Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas, a crowning glory for the ten-year work of SanibLakas Foundation.

His almost-fulltime work in all these organizations has put him in such a financial situation that a friend has often threatened, tongue in cheek, to hale him before the courts for "unexplained poverty." He laughs this off. But at times he gets worried that his two sons, Plebeian and Pilipino Amado, would not find that very funny, because this had an undesirable effect on the family income and the size of their daily allowances.  Ding has been single-parenting since his wife Cita S. Soriente-Reyes died of cancer in 1994.

His friend Atty. Pable S. Trillana III once wrote that Ding should no longer expect to enjoy the love of a woman because, as Blumentritt once told Rizal, his love ought to be reserved for the "woman" that is Inang Bayan herself.  He has learned to accept that, but asks with a grim face, "why can't I have both loves?"

Along with preparing as overall coordinator, for many activities, like the forthcoming Rise n Bataan, Year 6, Philippine Convergence on Human Synergy, and World Envirinment Day 2011, he is writing a number of books.  

Still very much alive the last time we looked, Ed Aurelio Reyes writes on!