SMAP Contest Round 146 - Of Peace, Freedom and Love

Hello friends of Feathered Friends and fellow SMAP'ers. Let us welcome Round 146 of the Show Me A Photo or SMAP Contest hosted by @nelinoeva. If you haven't yet heard of this yet, check the link to the contest here. Do read up and join in the fun.

The theme for this week is:

TOGETHERNESS

This is the Centennial Monument of Peace and Unity, dedicated to the people of Davao City, which was unveiled in June 1998 to commemorate the 100 years of independence of my country, the Philippines.

Below the monument is a marble slab which describes and explains its history and purpose. Here is what it says:

The Commemorative Monument of Peace And Unity

The Centennial Monument of Unity and Peace is dedicated to the people of Davao. The different natives or Lumads of Davao. The Muslims who came and settled along Davao's coast and the Christians led by Don Jose Oyanguren who came in 1848 to establish the first Christian settlement here.

They, People of diverse culture and from different places who came and lived together as one, make Davao what it is today. We, their descendants, beneficiaries and present Davaoeños, honor them for their legacy of unity and peace . . . their most valuable legacy to us.

Unveiled: June 12, 1998 in celebration of the Centennial Year of the Philippine Independence (1898 - 1998).

Anyway, you might be wondering what this statue has to do with the SMAP Contest. There are two reasons actually. First, there are three doves in this statue. Doves are used as symbols of peace, love and freedom and it is quite appropriate that doves be included in the monument. We can see in the photos above that these three doves are flying together which could basically fit the theme for this week.

Except that there is another reason. The second one which is this statue is a favorite roosting spot of pigeons. They converge on the rooftop of an adjacent building while waiting for a particular eatery to feed them with leftover rice from customers. After feeding they fly off to where I do not exactly know but some fly to this statue and rest here. See photo below.

I happen to pass by the statue when I noticed the pigeons atop the figures in the statue. And I told myself that this might come in handy in the SMAP Contest in the future. And here it is. The theme I was waiting for - Togetherness. Doves flying together and pigeons roosting together on the statue.

The last photo is my entry to this Round.

And that's about it folks. Best of luck to all the participants. Stay safe everyone and may you all have blessed weekend.

(All photos are mine.)