CHANGE!
a reflection
Downtown Diliman. I walked across Laurel Avenue, corner Shopping Center and G. Apacible. St. I encountered thoughts for the coming month, December, and at that time, walking seemed therapeutic and salient. I silently talked to myself, recalling certain memories, truths about how my film blog affects my life, contorted ideas of panic December, and reactions from the recent crowd(my friends) i belonged. It was a solitary bondage between the persona and the true writer, if you know what i am talking about. (perhaps, no!)
Monday, as what kuya kim plurked, Manic Monday. Believe it or not, my Monday wasn't, in fact, manic or crazy at all. I rove through Monday mornings with a cup of hot coffee and a piece of bread on my bed. Usually, my dormitory buddies would join me, converse with me, with their bread breakfast, of their plans for the day. Much like a tea party, though you might observe that most of my dorm friends are boys, and some, boy-like. My father just arrived safe and sound on suburban Casiguran when i sent a message to my mother. She said he was sleeping soundly as she prepared lunch that morning.
As ordinary and adamant my Monday morning looked like, i rushed towards my laptop polluted with a thought of changing a couple of elements on my blog(this blog) and also to check some emails from friends and relatives local and abroad. I also made plans that day. I listed it in numbered form:
Brief, concise and simple. I ranked them according to importance. I absolutely think that making ES 12 my priority would simply mean that i love the subject, but i don't yet. My exam would be Saturday and I am not very aware that my clock counts four days away. I am tired using my planner for putting things in order. It's the last month, December, and i do not expect a super-busy schedule, unless my professors turned into monsters giving us nerve-racking assignments before the Christmas break.
Afternoon kicked in and i had a siesta, for i never had a siesta for a long time. I managed to sleep for two hours, and dream of something revolutionary. I remembered certain figures in history like the founder of Islam, Muhammad, dreaming about an angel, Gabriel talking to him and delivering a prophetic message. Believe me, my dream was not even close to that enigmatic, epic motion.
The DREAM
I dreamed about a cinema composed of a long, dark tunnel. The audiences, including me, were standing. I do not know what part of history, or even what part of time: past, present, or future it was, but i was sure it was a new form of technology of cinema industry. The audiences gazed at the walls of the tunnel, waiting for something. I gazed far above the cave-like, plastic tunnel, and i saw images projected in a three-dimensional space(3D). Suddenly, a figure loomed behind me, appearing from thin air. I thought and searched my mind for explanation, and ruled it as an example of a HOLOGRAPHIC image.
Tantalized, i touched the image of a girl in Victorian clothes, she was dazzling and real, and she was smiling at me. Another character, a cowboy entered the scene and he snatched the girl and dragged her on what appears to be a bridge facing the horizon. I believed i have seen the scene. The horizon, composed of a vast, calm sea, flickered as the sun set. Drums rolled over the cinema and the last song, the finale was played in a magnificent tone, simultaneously as the characters kissed each other for one last time.
The cowboy-Victorian girl dream projected similar elements to a film i have recently watch, though i viewed it months ago. Cinema Paradiso(1988), is an Italian film directed by Giussupe Tarnatorre. It's about different kinds of love: love for a friend, love for parents, and love for a girl. I remembered quite well the ending of the film, and i am glad to share to you the brilliant ending. So watch it and be spoiled.
I asked questions, is this a sign? A new love coming? If there is new love, what is the old one? What is romantic love? I searched through the attic of my mind looking for answer and couldn't find the answer. Maybe i should look somewhere, but where?
THE MOON and TWO STARS
Still, Downtown Diliman. As i walked, with my thoughts, bearing the weight of my questions from my dream, i suddenly gazed at the sky hoping for an answer. That moment, i just finished eating Lola Lita's Sweat & Sour meat for dinner, and 6:40 PM according to my watch. I also bought a Penoy from Mamang Manong(Balot-Penoy seller) nea the exit of the Shopping center. He sat beside the permanent stand of the Fishball vendor. I approached him, and said, with a a peculiar and wasted smile, that it would better to spend my night-study with a piece of Penoy. Given all that jazzed up words, he smiled back and replied, "tama yan, anak. Ang Itlog, hindi nakakabopol, nakakapagpatalino pa!" ("that's right boy. eggs don't make you stupid, they make you smarter.") A better translation made by a friend. Thanks bud! =)
A Balut-Penoy vendor
His words compelled my sensibilities as a man. Most Balut-Penoy vendors belongs to the lower-income bracket of Philippines society. They are in desperate need for a stable financial status. They have a different set, almost a sub-culture, of social constructs about living life, and managing their own existence. Most of them, according to my mother(she's an educator), did not even finished high school for they were drop-outs. Though his words are almost cliche to Filipino culture, the way he said it, he said it with dignity and pride, as if he knows a lot things, experienced a lot of things monumental and minute.
I left him with mixed expression. Right after that, i gazed at the skies and found this:
A beautiful, dazzling formation of two planets, Jupiter and Venus, and the crescent moon created this figure almost immortalized by the iconic SMILEY =). I smiled as if i have reached the culmination of my day. "Is this a sign?" (for i always love to consider unexpected events signs of my future life and decisions), I asked again. I wondered, what made it so eventual? What made it proximate to mesmerizing dream a little while ago and the words of the BALUT-VENDOR. What? Why?
Is this some metaphysical phenomena, a God-sent message for everyone like Mamang Manong who worked hard during the night to sell 17 days old eggs on the streets of the University? Or is it a motivation for me, a student who pursues to be a Chemical Engineer. Or is it a sign that doomsday is near? I found it nurturing and reassuring to put it on the category, "THIS-CAN-HAPPEN Phenomena" on my forehead. But it something more than that.
As soon as i transfixed my gazed to other people on the street i found someone looking at it also, and maybe having some realizations like mine. They smiled at the scene. It was an unexpected feat of the skies. I remember a scene from the film I watched a few days ago, Magnolia(1999). Here is the scene:
Yes, Raining frogs, it is. I almost laughed at it after watching. The director, Paul Anderson, intentionally put it at the climax of the plot. I love the concept. I surfed the net to look for an explanation of the occurrence and came up with this, a BBC documentary also made the same year:
Monday, as what kuya kim plurked, Manic Monday. Believe it or not, my Monday wasn't, in fact, manic or crazy at all. I rove through Monday mornings with a cup of hot coffee and a piece of bread on my bed. Usually, my dormitory buddies would join me, converse with me, with their bread breakfast, of their plans for the day. Much like a tea party, though you might observe that most of my dorm friends are boys, and some, boy-like. My father just arrived safe and sound on suburban Casiguran when i sent a message to my mother. She said he was sleeping soundly as she prepared lunch that morning.
As ordinary and adamant my Monday morning looked like, i rushed towards my laptop polluted with a thought of changing a couple of elements on my blog(this blog) and also to check some emails from friends and relatives local and abroad. I also made plans that day. I listed it in numbered form:
Task for TODAY:
1.) ES 12: Intensive review, solve problems
2.) ChE 132: Solve problems
3.) Eng 10: Syntax report
4.) BLOG: miikhail red
Brief, concise and simple. I ranked them according to importance. I absolutely think that making ES 12 my priority would simply mean that i love the subject, but i don't yet. My exam would be Saturday and I am not very aware that my clock counts four days away. I am tired using my planner for putting things in order. It's the last month, December, and i do not expect a super-busy schedule, unless my professors turned into monsters giving us nerve-racking assignments before the Christmas break.
Afternoon kicked in and i had a siesta, for i never had a siesta for a long time. I managed to sleep for two hours, and dream of something revolutionary. I remembered certain figures in history like the founder of Islam, Muhammad, dreaming about an angel, Gabriel talking to him and delivering a prophetic message. Believe me, my dream was not even close to that enigmatic, epic motion.
The DREAM
I dreamed about a cinema composed of a long, dark tunnel. The audiences, including me, were standing. I do not know what part of history, or even what part of time: past, present, or future it was, but i was sure it was a new form of technology of cinema industry. The audiences gazed at the walls of the tunnel, waiting for something. I gazed far above the cave-like, plastic tunnel, and i saw images projected in a three-dimensional space(3D). Suddenly, a figure loomed behind me, appearing from thin air. I thought and searched my mind for explanation, and ruled it as an example of a HOLOGRAPHIC image.
Tantalized, i touched the image of a girl in Victorian clothes, she was dazzling and real, and she was smiling at me. Another character, a cowboy entered the scene and he snatched the girl and dragged her on what appears to be a bridge facing the horizon. I believed i have seen the scene. The horizon, composed of a vast, calm sea, flickered as the sun set. Drums rolled over the cinema and the last song, the finale was played in a magnificent tone, simultaneously as the characters kissed each other for one last time.
The cowboy-Victorian girl dream projected similar elements to a film i have recently watch, though i viewed it months ago. Cinema Paradiso(1988), is an Italian film directed by Giussupe Tarnatorre. It's about different kinds of love: love for a friend, love for parents, and love for a girl. I remembered quite well the ending of the film, and i am glad to share to you the brilliant ending. So watch it and be spoiled.
I asked questions, is this a sign? A new love coming? If there is new love, what is the old one? What is romantic love? I searched through the attic of my mind looking for answer and couldn't find the answer. Maybe i should look somewhere, but where?
THE MOON and TWO STARS
Still, Downtown Diliman. As i walked, with my thoughts, bearing the weight of my questions from my dream, i suddenly gazed at the sky hoping for an answer. That moment, i just finished eating Lola Lita's Sweat & Sour meat for dinner, and 6:40 PM according to my watch. I also bought a Penoy from Mamang Manong(Balot-Penoy seller) nea the exit of the Shopping center. He sat beside the permanent stand of the Fishball vendor. I approached him, and said, with a a peculiar and wasted smile, that it would better to spend my night-study with a piece of Penoy. Given all that jazzed up words, he smiled back and replied, "tama yan, anak. Ang Itlog, hindi nakakabopol, nakakapagpatalino pa!" ("that's right boy. eggs don't make you stupid, they make you smarter.") A better translation made by a friend. Thanks bud! =)
A Balut-Penoy vendor
Photocredit to this site!
His words compelled my sensibilities as a man. Most Balut-Penoy vendors belongs to the lower-income bracket of Philippines society. They are in desperate need for a stable financial status. They have a different set, almost a sub-culture, of social constructs about living life, and managing their own existence. Most of them, according to my mother(she's an educator), did not even finished high school for they were drop-outs. Though his words are almost cliche to Filipino culture, the way he said it, he said it with dignity and pride, as if he knows a lot things, experienced a lot of things monumental and minute.
I left him with mixed expression. Right after that, i gazed at the skies and found this:
A beautiful, dazzling formation of two planets, Jupiter and Venus, and the crescent moon created this figure almost immortalized by the iconic SMILEY =). I smiled as if i have reached the culmination of my day. "Is this a sign?" (for i always love to consider unexpected events signs of my future life and decisions), I asked again. I wondered, what made it so eventual? What made it proximate to mesmerizing dream a little while ago and the words of the BALUT-VENDOR. What? Why?
Is this some metaphysical phenomena, a God-sent message for everyone like Mamang Manong who worked hard during the night to sell 17 days old eggs on the streets of the University? Or is it a motivation for me, a student who pursues to be a Chemical Engineer. Or is it a sign that doomsday is near? I found it nurturing and reassuring to put it on the category, "THIS-CAN-HAPPEN Phenomena" on my forehead. But it something more than that.
As soon as i transfixed my gazed to other people on the street i found someone looking at it also, and maybe having some realizations like mine. They smiled at the scene. It was an unexpected feat of the skies. I remember a scene from the film I watched a few days ago, Magnolia(1999). Here is the scene:
It is real. All i can tell, as i near the end of this post, is that unexpected event, like the SMILEY in the skies or the frogs falling from it, can trigger important changes in our lives. I know, after waking up from the Dream and a short travel to the Shopping Center for dinner, that my perceptions have changed. I know it did.
As a welcoming post for DECEMBER, i wish you all, with a SMILEY, changed-for-the-better, happy days for the rest of the decades, years, months, weeks we spend in this beautiful, elusive world!
I'm gonna cry! huhuhhu!
As a welcoming post for DECEMBER, i wish you all, with a SMILEY, changed-for-the-better, happy days for the rest of the decades, years, months, weeks we spend in this beautiful, elusive world!
I'm gonna cry! huhuhhu!
