‘While the Guitar Weeps’ for the nation

The Philippines today feels like a land in quiet sorrow — deeply disillusioned.

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The headlines on corruption, abuse of power and cynical manipulation of public sentiment weigh heavily on the nation’s moral fabric. People sense the need for change, yet a group seeks to hijack that yearning for their own political gain.

George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” emerged from a similar mood — a blend of love, frustration and hope amid the human capacity for folly. Written in 1968, the song was Harrison’s lament that people fail to love one another and to learn from their mistakes.

That same year, The Beatles, which once symbolized unity and creativity, was unraveling. Lennon and McCartney were quarreling over control; Ringo had briefly quit; and Harrison, often overshadowed, struggled to be heard. Out of this tension came a quiet masterpiece — a weeping guitar echoing both his personal alienation and his yearning for harmony.

OBSERVATION AND DISILLUSIONMENT

Harrison’s opening lines capture the pain of the observer: “I look at you all, see the love there that’s sleeping...” He saw the potential for goodness buried under ego and pride — in his bandmates, in humanity and in himself. The Philippines, too, is a nation full of sleeping love. We are compassionate, resourceful and resilient, yet we allow corruption and division to dull our moral imagination.