in retrospect…

NOTE: the following is not for me… it is for a person i know… he is not even close to me, and yet, i feel what he is going through right now…

he is your eldest, and you were very proud… you’ve watched him grow up, tended his knee scratches, consoled and taught him when he got into fights, you’ve taught him everything you know… you were around when he met his first girl… you were there when he got his heart broken for the very first time, and everytime thereafter… you put his medal on him when he graduated in elementary and high school, and later on, in college, you were very proud of him thinking that this is the beginning of a new life for him…

you egged him on during the times he was looking for his first job, and failing miserably… you even lent him money and your car [without the knowledge of your wife, of course] just to make it easy for him… and you were still proud of him…

and during all of these times, he was always there for you… he was all the way behind you when one of your daughters had a son out of wedlock, and later on got married outside of your religion… he was behind you when another of your daughters went astray… and he was behind you countless number of times throughout the years… and you were still very proud of him…

and yet, now that he needs your strong backing in his latest endeavor, you left him out in the cold… when the question of religion [or the lack of it] comes up, and the problem is that it goes against your own beliefs, you are not willing to give way, not even an inch… your son will soon get married to a woman whose beliefs are different from your own… and since he loves this woman, he is willing to get married in this woman’s church… but now, you are proud of him no longer… you are willing to forsake your son and let the question of religion come between you…

mamamatay ka na lang, yan pa rin ang iniisip mo… tsk tsk tsk…

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”

Ciao, sweetie…

because of the basically Catholic upbringing of Pinoys — which, in itself, is already bad enough — we were brought up that sex is a bad thing [no, it's not!!], that it can only be used for procreation, that we can only have one — and only one — life partner, that, once married, we are committed to this person “till death do us part”, and that we cannot have more than one relationship — sexual or otherwise — with anyone else anymore… because of this very strict upbringing, men most specially, hide their “other” relationships from their girlfriends or wives for fear of reprisal from them and from the community they belong in… bigamy and polygamy comes into mind, then… but then again, these references only reflect states of marriages…

but what if, in a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, one or both of them enter into another relationship with another person, an intimate relationship akin to having another girlfriend or boyfriend?? not in a sexual way, of course [it may be a part, though]…

enter polyamory (poly=multiple + amor=love)… Wikipedia describes polyamory as “the desire, practice, or acceptance of having more than one loving, intimate relationship at a time with the full knowledge and consent of everyone involved”… polyamorouse relationships is also described as consensual and/or responsible non-monogamy… i know, i know… your restrictive backgrounds prevent you from even considering one other relationship with another… but multiple??

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY, everyone!!

don’t do what i wouldn’t do…

have you heard old people [which include me and the wife...] say the term “panahon pa ni mahoma” everytime they want to say that something is really really old?? well, i did hear someone say that just very recently, and it got me wondering who this Mahoma was… he clearly was a person, but not any person i’ve heard of eversince i first learned my Philippine histories…

and so, i fired up my browser and went to my favorite search engine, Google, entered mahoma and pressed enter…

ok, so there is a specie of a fish in Spain with scientific name Dipturus oxyrinchus with the common name mahoma…. not that…

there is also a Ranch Mahoma in the Dominican Reppublic… moving on…

and finally, there was an Arab named Mahoma who was born in the year 570, which alone qualifies him as the point of comparison when taking about age…

but how did he become part of the local lore of the Philippines?? what was his connection to us?? or us to him??

according to the translated text, Mahoma was born in the year 570 in or near Jordan who, apparently, was the founder of the Islam religion… he was 52 years old when the birth of the Islamic religion took place, and he was remebered as “the man who managed to turn to his creed all the tribes of the Arabic peninsula and transformed to the mercantile republic of Mecca into the spiritual capital of a religious empire.”

so that clearly means the saying panahon pa ni Mahoma came from our Muslim brothers!! Tagalogs then adapted the name Mahoma to signify age!! or did we?? if it was us, why did we not name a person more known [more known to non-Muslims]??

there’s only one answer to all these questions, and that’s the saying started from the Muslims and that we jsut copied it from them… eh?? now, i just have to find my Muslim friend and ask him…

Ciao, sweetie…

is it only the magic of Christmas, or people really are in a gift-giving mood theses days? for the past few days, either i’ve read or heard in the news that the govenrment announced a ceasfire with the NDF, or that the LTO launched Oplan Isnabero to help commuters, and that oil firms lowered gas pump prices by P2.00… how very generous of them!! :s

but the question really is, why can’t the government do all these things [and more] all year round? why only during Christmas? why can’t Arroyo finally announce a unilateral ceasefire and once-and-for-all talk sincerely with the rebels? why can’t the LTO [and the MMDA] crack down on abusive taxi drivers who haggle for more fare from their passengers and simply leave if they can’t? why can’t oil firms lower their pump prices for the whole year?

if that is the best they can do, i hope it is Christmas each and every day of the year…

the only problem with this is that people will have to contend with the never-ending carolling of small children ["kapag sumapit ang pasko, namimili ang nanay ko" accompanied by the clanging of spoons and forks]… and the commercialization!! have you been to Policarpio Steet?? even before you get to the actual place, street hawkers litter the street selling all kinds of stuff, from toys, fake watches and DVDs [where's the OMB when you need 'em??], all kinds of food and drink, and fake t-shirts… a veritable mall sans the building, aircon, and the comfort a mall offers…

and when you get to Policarpio Street itself, what was once a street free of stalls are now filled with them… this one place [in front of the Santa House] i used to admire because of thousands of lights adorning the house which makes it very beautiful… but now, thousands of lights still adorn it, but a small tiangge can already be found in front of the house… maybe the owners are already hard-pressed to find the money to pay for all those lights and the electricity they will use??

but in any case, i’d still wish for Christmas for the whole year, but without the accompanying commercialization of the season… for the year, my wife and i simply decided to get our kids some new shirts, and that’s it! no gift giving to other people this year, not even to each other… we already have love and that’s all the gift we’ll ever need… right sweetie??

yes, we have no money to buy gifts, but that is beside the point…

Ciao, sweetie…

and that was why i have forsaken Catholicism, or any organized religion for that matter… as a friend would say:

This. Is. Pure. Crap.

well… i would say shit, but Crap is better… thanks, Kay!

sucks to be Catholic now, doesn’t it?? :d

Ciao, sweetie…