Fitness Fashion: 01/21/21

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? Amos 3:3-4, KJV

My son, Steve, is a rock climber, something that is much too much for me. I'm like Sir Francis Chichester, who said, "I will lift mine eyes unto the hills but I will not take my carcass thither." Anyway, Steve and two of his friends were climbing the highest peak in Switzerland when they stopped to catch their breath and noticed three climbers on the face of an incline a short distance from where they were. As they watched, the lead climber suddenly lost his footing and fell.

Climbers are joined to each other by a rope, and the way it's supposed to work is that if one falls, the other is anchored by pitons to the face of the rock, and he stops his fall. But that isn't the way it worked. The first one pulled the second one loose, and the two then pulled the third one loose, and the three of them tumbled over and over as they fell about 750 feet down the face of the snow and ice and landed in a heap below.

Steve, much too far away to be of immediate help, held his breath wondering if any of the three were alive. But those three climbers who fell were lucky; they had landed in a pile of snow and were able to get up, dust the snow off and walk away.

You know, families are joined just that way ‑‑ they are all on the face of that mountain, joined by an invisible bond, and when one falls, everybody on that rope is affected. Have you ever heard anyone say, "Well, it's my life‑‑I can do with it whatever I please!"? Don't you believe it for a minute. Everything that takes place in a family affects everybody else.

Exhibit A: Here's a man who is 40 years old. He suffers from the 3 B's ‑‑ balding, bulges and bifocals. He is having a mid‑life crisis. He's got an assistant who's a pretty blond, 27 years old and a divorcee who is lonely. John just takes her to lunch ‑‑ nothing happens. Just talk! Before he ever touches her physically, he's committed emotional infidelity. He's taken the intimacy which belongs to his wife and he's given it to someone else.

Exhibit B: A teen sacks groceries at the local supermarket and he's been saving some money. He wants to buy a car, but Dad says, "No way! You save that for college." He says, "Dad doesn't have any right to tell me what to do with my money. I earned it!" Hold on for a minute. If that kid is driving a car and it plows through a freeway fence and smashes into three other cars, who do they come after? Dad! Right?

Everything that takes place in a family affects everybody else. That's why you've got to respect and protect the fragile relationships of family living. We are all out there together on the face of that mountain called life, and when one thinks he can exert his independence and do his own thing, every one is affected. When one member of the family falls, we all go down together.

Have you ever asked yourself, "What is it that really binds us together?" A legal document? The fact that our last names are all the same? Or is the bond an invisible one which we find is woven with the strands of love, commitment, compassion, and care? Surely, it is all of that plus a great deal more.

Today's commentary is not a moral homily or an attempt by the program director to fill time in between songs or the news and what follows; it is a direct reminder that relationships bring commitment and responsibility, and to remind you that your family is important.

Whether you are a dad, a teen‑ager, a wife, or a single parent, you are part of a family, and it's the quality of the relationship in your family which determines the quality of family living. Think about it.

Resource reading: Psalm 103

https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/protecting-the-fragile-relationships-of-your-family/

ABS-CBN Corp. shares have started regaining momentum following talks on the revival of its legislative franchise and its efforts to seek dominance anew in the Philippine entertainment industry, analysts said Thursday.

The media giant's shares have already made "much progress," Philstocks Financial Inc. senior research analyst Japhet Tantiangco told CNN Philippines despite the fact that its closing price on Thursday remained weaker before it went off the air in May 2020.

Shares in ABS-CBN finished at ₱14.08 apiece on Thursday, still below its May 5, 2020 price of ₱17.50. Its franchise, which should allow it to operate its broadcast and radio businesses, expired on May 4.

But Tantiangco said the share price today already surged by 108.28 percent from its lowest on Sept. 2, 2020 of ₱6.76.

"The climb is seen to be caused by ABS-CBN’s entry into other platforms for its shows," he said.

ABS-CBN has long been banking its strong presence in the digital space, be it on Facebook or YouTube. In October of last year, some of its shows went back on TV screens as it sealed a deal with A2Z (formerly Zoe Broadcasting Network), which subsequently became available on SkyCable and MVP Group's Cignal.

On Thursday, the firm announced its longest running musical variety show "ASAP Natin 'To" and the collection of classic films of Fernando Poe Jr. in "FPJ: Da King" would be seen on TV5 beginning Sunday, Jan. 24.

"And then there are the renewed calls in Congress to provide ABS-CBN a franchise again," Tantiangco said. "Bills have been filed already both in the House of Representatives and the Senate for the media company’s franchise."

"And this has raised hopes that ABS-CBN could get back on air again," he added.

Tantiangco's statement was mirrored by Jervin de Celis, a trader at Timson Securities, Inc., saying ABS-CBN got a boost from the franchise renewal push of Senate President Vicente Sotto III.

But de Celis said investors are still on the wait-and-see mode as the push remains uncertain.

"While this is good news for the company, we still have to wait if the renewal will really push through and I guess this is the reason why the stock price is moving sideways for the past few days because investors are probably waiting for any development regarding ABS CBN's franchise," de Celis said.

A total of 70 lawmakers killed the franchise renewal application of ABS-CBN in July 2020, causing a negative domino effect in the company's operations.

ABS-CBN, which has been on the receiving end of President Rodrigo Duterte's ire on claims that the broadcast network was biased, was forced to cease some of its business operations, and lay off thousands of workers.

The absence of advertising revenues it used to generate from its broadcasting and radio businesses also weighed down its financial performance in 2020.

https://cnnphilippines.com/business/2021/1/21/abs-cbn-shares-slowly-recovering-from-2020-losses.html