Simple Plan

“Wala na. Puno na,” sabi nung mga nakasakay sa tren. “Wehhh….meron pa sa gitna e, ” sabi ko sa sarili ko. E hindi ko naman masabi ng malakas at baka mamaya kung ano pa ang mangyari saken dun sa harapan ng mga naiwan sa station. Dun ako sa harap naiwan kaya medyo umi-istayl akong maka-atras ng pasimple, tinutulak palikod yung mga naggitgitan na rin sa likod ko.

“Please do not step on the yellow platform edge.” Ayan, naiwan na naman ako…peste!

Tuwing umaga na lang sobra ang sinusuong kong pakikibaka sa pagsakay ng MRT. Alam mo yung maliligo ko ng maayos at magsusuot ng plantsadong polo at pantalon sabay pagdating sa North Station e sa EDSA pa lang parang fans day na ni Ben Tambling! Kung minsan e lampas pa sa kalahati ng kalaparan ng EDSA ang pila sa baba ng mga pawisa’t nagsisingawang mga pasahero. Talaga namang bago ka makarating sa opisina e gusgusing talbos ng kamote ka na.

“Please do not step on the yellow platform edge.” Ayan, naiwan na naman ako…kamote!

Paminsan-minsan, katulad kaninang umaga, sa may Kamuning Station nako bumaba ng bus kesa sa North. Minsan kasi ay hindi nagsasakay ang mga tren sa North at

stations e. Pag sini-swerte ay maalwan ang nagiging pagsakay ko. Pero ngayon, hindi.

“Please do not step on the yellow platform edge.” Ayan, naiwan na naman ako…huhuhu!

Pag nakasakay ka naman na e nagsisimula pa lang ang kalbaryo. Nandyan ang mga nagbabasa ng Libre sa loob. Ang sikip sikip nyo na sa loob ah, nagpipilit pa ring magbasa kahit nakatapal na sa mukha ng katapat nila yung dyaryo. Dali nga…pasilip na lang sa Pugad Baboy…

“Please do not step on the yellow platform edge.” Ayan na! Tulakan na naman ang mga pumapasok!

Lalagabog pa ang pinto sa pagpipilit nung iba na buksan na kagad ang pinto ng tren e. Sasampal pa sa mukha mo yung mabibigat at dambuhalang bag nung iba! Utangnaloob talaga!

“Please do not step on the yellow platform edge.” Ayan, bababa nako, yahu!

Astig talaga ang bawat umaga ng mga permanent pedestrians…pagdating mo sa trabaho pwede ka nang maglibag ulit e…

Newfound love, precarious career situation, supportive family, steadfast friends, admiring colleagues…and an inner struggle.

For crying out loud! It’s never going to be easy…life, that is. I think I’m slowly beginning to understand what Mira meant by “I am not simple, I am not that great.” This was last night when I was fighting my self-imposed borderline stress-level indicators.

I thought that I can keep free of hassles and complications in life by maintaining my standards and expectations low. Less details, less issues I told myself. Hence, my simple plan during this quarter-life crisis (as Cherry and Eden would say): to refuse those that may complicate my undemanding existence to be entertained by my feeble mind.

It’s not as if I was having a field day out of my everyday after office life with my friends, nor was I fooling around with every within-arms-reach girls around. I actually deprived myself of those pleasures.

Why does it have to look good on everybody else and not on me?

Naiinggit ako dun sa mga naka-eyeglasses na bagay sa kanila, kase I still fantasize about wearing one that would make me look endearing and stylish. Medyo marami na rin ang naisukat ko pero walang bumagay talaga e. Alam mo yung kahit walang grado. Basta may maisuot lang. Pero kunyari ay para mabawasan ang effect ng radiation galing sa monitor. Pathetic ba? Walang pakielamanan ah! Hehe.

“Hindi malabo ang mata mo, mataas lang ang blood pressure,” sabi ng optometrist (ba yun? O ophthalmologist) na pinagpatinginan ko nung high-school pa ko. May mga dalawang buwan ko rin kasing kinulit ang nanay ko na magpasukat na ako ng salamin dahil sumasakit na kako ang ulo ko at may diperensya ata ako sa mata. Disappointment…ang inabot ko nang imbes na ang pinapangarap kong salamin e isang bote ng garlic supplement ang bitbit ko pauwi. Brod!!!…Garlic supplement!!!…Na pag uminom ka sa umaga e maghapon mong ididighay!

Gusto ko. For no important reason. Hindi ko pwedeng ipilit. Hindi talaga para saken.

Hmmm…isa ito sa mga naranas ko sa buhay na nagpapatunay na kahit sa mga simpleng bagay ay nagkukubli ang kaibuturan ng kaalaman.

Sabagay, sa ipis nga e meron akong natutunan eh: ang katuparan ng ‘kadiri-to-death.’ Nyahaha!!! Yun bang sobrang kadiri e makakapatay ka ng tao. Ano, gusto mong i-try?

Sinigang na ulo-ulo ng ipis

Minatamis na ipis

Bagoong na ipis

Ano…tuloy lang? :-p

Eto cute: ipis supplement.

Hindi ko maalis sa buhay ko yung pangarap na magkasalamin kase it represents my pretensions and insecurities in life and how I struggle for them to not manifest. And actually, it’s nice that everytime I think about it I get reminded that I cannot just have anything that I desire. And that if what I badly want doesn’t really fit me, then the fact that I’m never going to have it should be easier to accept.

It may not be easy to rid oneself of his pretensions and insecurities, so I’m keeping my spectacles. Go get yourself one also, you just might like it.

Coming soon: “Love and papercut”

I’ll start off my ‘Expressions ABC’ with this one, which I got from one of my charming mentors at the workplace, FCN.

I’ve always liked ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ as an expression. But it was the first time that i heard this interesting spin-off.

I guess, to me, this means the possibility of losing out on things that people would have shared or experienced together when they do not get to see each other often, or do not see each other at all for a long time, leading to the eventual ‘falling out of love’ so to speak.

Muntik nakong mahulog sa kinauupuan ko kagabe by the entrance of the building where I work nung maka-receive ako ng message na “Pre, ano sa english yung pambomba ng inidoro? Txtbk.” Pucha talaga! San nanggaling yun?! initial reaction ko. The message came from one of my dearest friends (a kumpare, in fact) whom I’ve long come to appreciate over years of sad and happy moments that we shared together with the relatively small circle of friends that we have.

Hindi ko alam, pero what probably took me off was how it came as something that’s totally unexpected, pero alam mong smart humor kaya it was hilarious.

Nung tanungin ko kung “Saan naman nanggaling yan?!” Sabi e “may 100 daw ang unang makahula nun sa kanila.” Apparently, parang trip trip nilang magkakasambahay. Nung i-text back ko sa kanya kung “sink pump” ba yung sagot, hiniritan pa ako ng “ah, ganun b? kla ko kse toilet bomb eh.” Utangnaloob!

It both amazes and saddens me how one can grow too accustomed to the scripts that he/she portrays on a daily basis. (Self-assessment ba ito?) Alam mo yung you wake up in the morning, commute to the office, work, have some laughs and chats during the day, commute back home, then sleep, only to wake up the next morning and perform the same routine all over again.

Actually, I think what my kumpare was trying to teach me thru that text message of his was that nangangalawang na ata ako pagdating sa aking sense of humor, and perhaps on some aspects other than what I normally do in the office.

He posed a challenge to me, and thru this I intend to do the same to you: break out of your routine once in a while to get a different perspective. Don’t kill your creativity by lazily nestling in your comfort zone. Allow spontaneity in your thought processes. Try new things. Hehe, and there’s this other thing, keep in touch with your friends and get pleasantly surprised by them.

*This one’s still on Human Nature

Hi. Thinkers who lived even 500-800 years before Christ pondered on whether or not there indeed is a higher being: a creator, if you will. And whether his existence can be validated; that man does not only believe in this higher being, or "source" as some philosophers thought he/she/it was, because he fears of eternal damnation after the death of his physical self, but because he in fact knew he/she/it was real, true. The egyptians, 3500-5000 BC, in trying to investigate the heavenly bodies, using their astronomical observatories, the pyramids, did in fact cognize of a certain proportionality that keeps the universe in order. The more they learned about the stars, the more they realized that nothing happens by accident. This certain proportionality, divine or otherwise, was the same principle employed by Socrates "or Plato" in the Republic: in trying to conceptualize the idea of a perfect community of people. This certain proportionality was in fact the same springboard of the mind of St. Nicolas of Cusa in his "On Learned Ignorance."

Investigating geometry, Cusa said in effect, that the more he thinks he knew about something, the farther away he gets to the knowledge of it, as understanding something seems to bring about more and more questions on the nature of the things within the universe.

Anyway, for whatever its worth, those are just some thoughts.

I fail to understand though that (on the question of a "limitless mind") man’s mind only reacts to external stimulants and that he learns and acts based on experience: as may be implied a previous post in this forum. I’d like to think that man does not learn (or know) through the senses alone. In fact, I think man knows and learns through reason, hypothesizing, rational cognitive processes. Remember, what’s more perfect is what’s in the mind, not the physical representation of the idea. This is why i think Christ is immortal, because even as his physical manifestation died 2000 years ago, the idea of a Jesus Christ remains, what he represented and represents lives up to today. Say, if you kill me for having presented a dissenting view on any topic here, i would have been physically dead, but does that kill what I represented, the ideas, concepts I am trying to get accross?

Man’s creativity is the distinct feature that makes up the nature of man- separating us from the animals. We can probably say that it is a unique gift from our God, our "source."

But don’t you think we should inquire, the same way other people who came before us did, how we know that God is real? Yes, it is because the bible says so, but how do we know? More like asking ourselves, how do we know the world is round? Yes, we have learned that it is round from our parents, TV, schools, textbooks, but how do we know the world is round?

Till next time. Thanks.

From one of my posts in forum "Rizal: A Universal Genius"

Hi. Had Rizal acceeded to that time’s calling for him to lead the revolution (at least the physical-battle, survival-of-the-fittest type as might have been envisioned by bonifacio), could it have meritted more to our history? Would they have been able to accomplish more If they were able to kill more key Spaniard officials in the Philippine society at that time under Rizal’s leadership? Would it have stopped ‘imperialist-Spain’ and the other foreign forces that came after it?

Was Rizal actually being less effective as a societal change agent when he chose to not take up arms and kill people? If one kills to triumph over another who represents something that is not good, is it more effective to kill the person, or the idea/philosophy that that particular enemy represents?

Was he not right in deeming that the best way to defeat the Spaniards were to organize the Filipinos around the right kind of ideas; and not just agitating the people to take up arms?

Even if their movement was able to kill more enemies, and say, was able to kick the spaniards out of Philippine soil after a possible long-running war, longer than it actually lasted, could the survivor-Filipinos have the right kind of ideas to lead a war-torn country that just spent 300 years in the convent before our beloved country’s 30-year experience in Hollywood?

*Another attempt at Philosophy; feeble as I am

This dead guy who once said "wisest is he who knows he does not know" is one of the greatest minds who ever lived on this planet.

It was an honest remark by him. It was no mystical or rethorical statement. It was the truth. He, like the other thinkers who came before and after him, like Socrates, Plato, Nicolas of Cusa, the Egyptians even, Johannes Kepler oddly, in trying to investigate the nature of finite things in this world, all, in the end, learned best that the more you know of the universe, the more questions who have in your mind.

Using this distinct capability that only man was endowed with - reason - there is this inherent drive of man to know (this passion for knowledge that has been bastardized by a consumer-culture and sex-rock-drug counterculture). Now of course, the finite will not be able to completely understand the infinite. The process these philosophers had gone through in trying to "master the universe" only ultimatley led them to the better realization that a higher being - a creator if you will - is indeed the source of everything.

This realization though did not stop them from achieving the genius and greatness in them. Because in the process, they learned and knew what their purpose was as human beings, distinct from all other creatures, who have this unique proportionality with God and the universe.

The Egyptians investigated this proportionality and learned from the stars and heavenly bodies that there indeed lays a "divine proportionality" that keeps everything in order holding true the notion that nothing happens by accident. This same realization presented the Egyptians with a "universal physical principle" to work on in trying to establish their connection with this ultimate infinite source of all things, and their purpose on this earth.

Thanks for reading. Till next time.

The following is an excerpt from a previous post in a forum entitled "May Pag-asa pa ba and Pinas?

The continuing decline of the country’s standards in many aspects of life, I think, is not distinct from most of the rest of the world. Admittedly, there stares us right in the face, the cultural, moral, and intellectual decadence of today, as a people and as men (and women). It is indeed alarming that there seems a general notion of hopelessness among our people that perpetuates a feeling of passiveness inasmuch as any efforts may not do anything in the overall context of bettering the standard of living of the common man.

We very well know that the tradition of the "advantage of the other" concept of Colbert and Mazarin (in the Treaty of Westphalia), and the "community of nations" concept of FDR (in the Bretton Woods Agreement) was working well for us until it was overthrown by the ideas that were mostly generated during Nixon’s presidency (as evidenced by the act of pulling-out of the BWA) in the mid-60s to the early 70s. This is largely economics, but corollarily, political actions were implemented and effected elsewhere e.g. culture, morals, the general mode of thinking of people in the US and elsewhere in the world.

Thus, the result of diverting man’s potentials away from unit-productivity and the inherent pursuit for hapiness and beauty (in the context of the classical tradition). This situation is undoubtedly, even more degrading. Remember Woodstock? LSD? sex? consumerism? the "peace" sign?

The concept of the Filipino, not having the right mindset, culture, morals, enough to uplift the country, may be best situated when we review what international poet of freedom, Friedrich Schiller put as "a patriot of your country, a citizen of the world," and also Rizal, in saying that "a genius is universal." These two brilliant minds recognized, and at a certain level, taught some people, like me and my friends, that geographical boundaries should not limit man’s creative potentials. Because before we can say that we are Filipinos, we should be able to accept (and know what it means) that we are human beings-separate and distinct from animals, with the power of reason.

May Pag-asa pa ba ang Pinas? Meron!

Ang isang nakikita kong pinaka-produktibong paggamit ng ating kakaibang pag-iisip bilang mga tao, ay ang pagpapatuloy ng pagtuklas natin sa loob ng universe na ito. Now, our minds may be limited (as it cannot understand the infinite), but I certainly do not think that man is at the point of his minds limits today. We should continue to search for some universal physical principles in and out of this earth of ours and use these certain truths for the betterment of our race-the human race. This is science and technology, this is common logic. In economics, this may be exemplified by large-scale, long-term infra projects, application of breakthrough technologies within the premise of humanistic international policy standards and practices. Kung ang halaga ng fossil-fueled power generation ay 13 pesos/KwH, at ang hydro-generation ay .50 pesos/KwH, and nuclear power generation would cost us a lot less than that, ano ang dapat nating gawin? Kaya lang, saan kukunin ang pera? Wala na nga tayong pera diba?

Well, ano ba ang yaman, yun ba ay ang pera? Hindi ba’t ang pera ay representative lang of something else? Hindi ba it was only invented as a means of trading of commodities? Ano ba ang ginagamit natin sa paggawa ng railroads for example, pera ba o bakal? Kaya lang siyempre hindi ka makakakuha ng bakal, kung wala kang pambayad na pera! Okay. kaya lang, nandyan na nga yung resources na yun e, the ability/technology in creating steel for example. Pero hindi pa rin natin magamit? Dahil lang sa wala tayong pera? There must be something wrong with the way we see our economics. God certainly did not create these resources to be used selectively by a selected number of men, for their particular interests. If anything, I think it is all here for the consumption of the general welfare. But we are gradually using it all up (natural resources)? This is where man’s creativity comes to play, I think. We should ensure that instead of us living off at the expense of the next generation, we should be able to lay the best groundwork for them to improve on and develop even more to posterity. This way, we are not living off at their expense.

May Pag-asa pa ba ang Pinas? Meron!

Kaya lang, kailangan nating seryosohin and pagkakakilanlan natin sa ating sarili, alamin kung bakit sa possible 2 or 3 million years of human history, nandito tayo ngayon (for 70 or so years) at this particular time. Don’t you think that our purpose is to take part in a continuing process of creation? Isn’t this what charity/agape/love means? Isn’t this our purpose? May Pag-asa pa ba ang Pinas? Meron! Kaya lang, malaking porsyento ng ating budget ay ginagamit na pambayad sa utang na panlabas? Malaking porsyento nga nitong binabayaran na ito ay hindi man lang naten nagamit e (because of the fluctuations and the interest).

Sorry, just some random thoughts. Shotgun no?! Arrgh!!

*How corny can you get talaga, sometimes.