An Anonymous Thanksgiving

 By Gener

The boy picked up a pebble and threw it far into the water
And waited for the ripple to appear,
In his young mind the circles seem like a fairway's dizzying ride
On a fourth of July or Canada Day.

Then he stood up and sailed through the wood's thorny trees

Stopped by and picked a twig
Examined it and made a walking cane
Or is it a stick to ward off the snakes

In his jolly he forgot about the errand to make
While his mother waited at the shack they shared
Pounding the flour and kneading for a bread
The supp'er they'd partake
As in the Lord's last ever day.

"My father'd be gone," the boy uttered beneath breath
And so soon in my youth he'd never be understood,
For the things I heard 'bout him
He was a fine lad gone mad.

In all his twelve years the boy leaped for faith
For a father he'd hardly known,
Inside a cell the old man lived
And will die alone in self.

As the Mother saw the son she smiled and wiped a tear
Her bread was fast rising and the corn soup a'boil,
Her turkey smells a jewel, her potatoes just as well,
The son and father would have laughed
As they all shared Thanksgiving before.

Not a minute more.

"Wait a minute or hold a sec," says the person on the other line.  And you wait, and listen to the champagne music playing. Or if you dial a corporate office, the operator or call centre will say, "all our representatives are busy right now, please hold for the next available person."

There's call waiting at work.

In personal or love relationships, waiting is an endless effort. People tend to give the partner or loved one more than enough chances to change for the better, to say the "I love you," phrase, or say sorry, or ask for marriage.

Parents give children enough leeway to mend their behaviour, and in offices, workers wait for the raise or promotion year after year.

The public wait for their government officials to do the right thing.

And for those who do wrong, seeing the fault and righting it could also take forever. 

When does the tipping point come?  When does the seam snap?  When do people call it quits?

There are those who wait endlessly; there are those who say not a minute more.

There are those who can move on easily from hurt; there are those who wallow in it.

There are those who see the light; there are those who stumble in the dark.

There are those who commit misconduct, feign ignorance and never read the signs of doom.

The beautiful waiting is in praying.  We wait for God to answer our prayers in His time.

Porcupine and perfectly un-fine.

Get away from me!

Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend and camouflage them from predators. They are indigenous to the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa.

They are dangerous to humans because their quills are sharp as shark teeth. And the quills are too sharp to touch. If you touch one quill your hand will bleed.

if the animal feels its life is at risk, it raises its quills. The normally flexible connective tissues beneath the skin stiffen up. When the quills make contact with an outside surface, they are forced inwards on the porcupine with as much force as they are forced into said outside object.  As the quills press into the porcupine, the now inflexible connective tissues break, allowing the quills to be easily released from the porcupine's skin, pulling loose as the object or person backs away in surprise.

Are there porcupines in your life?

Someone who may look threatening but simply protective of him/herself?  Or anyone who actually intimidates and harangues people by his/her confrontational behaviour and pronouncements?

Stay away from porkies.  It will save you aggravation, stress and  harm.

Human porkies feel elated that they appear dangerous and powerful, and those endowed with true wisdom avoid them like a plague.

Bagong Mukha.

Netizens with facebook, twitter, and other networking sites have profile pictures, or an image by which they can be seen in public. Often, these profile pictures are changed.  Why?

We want to put our best foot forward; we want our freshest and nicest faces to be seen by everyone. We also keep on changing our images as we change moods, situations, and dispositions.

Sabi nga sa showbiz lingo, bagong image.

Especially those people who've gone from being poor to rich, those who've been ugly into beautiful, or those who've been bad to good would want to expose their new personas.

But what about those who've gone from being good to evil?  Would they want to capture and show their new faces?

Tag serial killers, those who flaunt their crimes would use fake images.  Take for instance Ted Bundy, notorious for killing some 30 people; he used his good looks and charm to lure young girls whom he raped and murdered.

Theodore "Ted" Bundy

St, Mary of Egypt 

Sinners who'd repented and became servants of the Lord project a different aura, one of holiness. St. Mary of Egypt was a prostitute until she went to Jerusalem, at the Church of the Exultation of Holy Cross where she was barred from doing so by an unseen force. Realizing that this was because of her impurity, she was struck with remorse, and on seeing an icon of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary) outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to give up the world (i.e., become an ascetic).





Our faces sometimes become our masks, the "hidden self."  Yet in countless stories of transformations, people reveal their encounter with their conscience, a new force, their Creator, and come out with new glow and peace in their countenance.

But those who dwell in darkness and righteousness emit the bowels of hades, like a fluorescent light which gives fake light and a most expensive glimmer. 
 

Not a joke.

Pinoys are the kings and queens of drama.  Madaling mag-emote. (They easily show their feelings).

And when is the best time we, Pinoys, do the emoting?

Let's eliminate the feelings while watching soap operas, and go down to the basics.

When it comes to singing, Pinoys would grab the microphone at karaoke parties, and sing to their lungs' delight.  Bigay todo at full expression, ika nga.  (Full of gusto and feelings).

When it comes to expressing their love, Pinoys would emote top of the line.  Whoever started the harana, (moonlight serenade) anyway?  If yesterday, our grandfathers strummed their guitars to our grandmathers' hearts, today's Pinoy Casanova or Bella would exchange playlists with the object of their desire.

The palengkera-style (below the belt) of quarelling with the loved one, with the neighbour, with the in laws or rotten friends and pasaway na mga tao , is another venue for Pinoy emoting. Colorful oral and body languages are utilized in such scenarios.  May sabunutan, may finger pointing, may murahan, may umbagan.  

With the increasing popularity of social networking and digital communication (wireless, cell phones, etc), Pinoys have been a solid bloc in venting their anger, appreciation, angst, adoration, acrimony and adulation. Be it in politics, showbiz, rumor mongering, and other issues, Pinoys would not forget to add the trademark Pinoy humour or joke - another form of Pinoy emoting.  Magaling magpatawa at madali ring mapikon. 
 ################################################
Sample below of Pinoy humour.  

ERAP JOKES
(Para sa mga Pinoys)
Classmate 1: What is 5 plus 4?

Erap: Eh di 9!

Classmate 2: What is 4 plus 5?

Erap: Gagaguhin mo pa ako eh binaligtad mo lang... eh di 6! #################################################

And when Pinoys get married, the emoting can burst at the seams. Parents of both bride and groom would both cry out of joy or gloom, and the wedded couples would even resort to gimmicks to celebrate their unions, such as elaborate themes, and out-of-church practises.


But one area where Pinoys are unbeatable is in time of sickness and death. We express our sorrow, pain and loss by visiting the sick, lending support to his/her family, attending the wake and funeral. Even in Mang Dolphy's wake, one could see the "emoting" even of celebrities and ordinary people.

In the average Pinoy household, relatives come together or even have reunions when a family member dies. In some wakes, family members settle their scores with one another, at times becoming destructive, while others make the wake a staging area to upstage friends and family. May naghahalukay ng lumang isyu sa familia, may nagmamayabang. There are even people who'd scream, "sasama na ako sa'yo sa hukay."  But deep in the heart, Pinoys are really cry babies, mababaw ang luha.














The most disheartening kind of emoting is when family members forget their manners, duties, responsibilities and simple ethics. Couples leave one another, children disrespect and disown their parents, and members forget the good deeds and only remember the bad ones.

In Memoriam - RITA DESIDERIO- seated in white blazer

                                                                  Of Bustos, Bulacan
                                                                  May 1928 - Oct. 7, 2012
                                                   MAY SHE REST IN PERPETUAL PEACE.

They say that Pinoys are prayerful. And this is where emoting is best.  Pinoys sing during the mass and service, and observe many practises and rituals.  In the Philippine Catholic tradition, there is the pabasa ng pasyon, the Santa Cruzan, the countless novenas, devotion or the panata, among many other practises.