by Edel Mapile, BCBP Manila.
During our recent Senior Leaders’ Action Group Meeting we tackled Nancy Catan’s “The Sona as a Catalyst”. Our men are all certified catalysts – Jun Catan , Topy Vasquez, Jun Obra, Joe Gillo, and my husband Francis Mapile . Their discussion was so lively but due to constraint on time, we wives only had the time for a quick reply to the question “How are you as a catalyst?” Reflecting silently, my reply is that I am a catalyst as strongly as they are.
Each of us BCBP women is every inch a catalyst. Consider a Chapter Head’s service, his wife creates a healthy complement to his firmness to fulfill his mission by her softness to inspire and encourage members who are businessmen and professionals, sometimes to the point of “begging” for their time. She has a ready smile and is the ever-present warm body in every BCBP activity and even to the members’ personal circumstances. And she still keeps her home for the family.
For BCBP women who are career women, the management of time, money, and responsibilities, plus roles in the family, career or business and the BCBP, create many opportunities for growth and challenge which they embrace. A BCBP woman becomes, if she is not already, adept at multitasking always with zeal and flair and aplomb.
If I were still in the University with my fulltime teaching job and with my last stint being head of the Department of Mathematics, claims of being a catalyst would flow easily and abundantly from my lips. I had many because I encountered the youth (students), the young and not so young professionals (faculty members) and the bosses. Now, as an entrepreneur and wife of an entrepreneur, I work in a laidback manner, our business being construction, as I provide much of the support to the main persons and operations.
My husband Francis is a catalyst, having carried his BCBP aura and principles in his pursuits. He is active in his career, his industry, his business and God’s business. You can imagine how he would do all these with order and efficiency without a Chief of Staff, an encoder, an editor, a finance officer, a consultant and an adviser. Unofficially , I am all these rolled into one. Then at the end of the day, I open my ears to his exploits, joys and lamentations. But I have discovered a bonus in being his girl Friday. After listening to him all these years, you can now address me as P.E.E. or Parang Electrical Engineer. I am abreast with the electrical industry, at least the macro of it, although not the very technical aspects. I can rub elbows with the frontliners in the industry and sometimes I surprise his colleagues and even myself, when I can keep a conversation going regarding their field. And Francis utilizes my mastery and experience in statistics and in thesis advising to come up with good evaluations and reports on the spot market.
Oh well, even if he and everyone else often overlook (sometimes even ignore) my role in a catalyst’s life, I assess myself fair and square and I proclaim – I am a catalyst!
