September 14-20 Edition
Jonathan Aquino's August 2013
Diaries (2 of 3)
August 16, 2013
4:58 p.m., Friday
Fuente Osmeña Circle
Cebu City
I'm deeply moved by how Paulo Coehlo's quest came to an end
in The Pilgrimage, which I just finished at the Cebu City Public Library in
Jones Avenue. My own spiritual journey is like his trek along the mystical Road
To Santiago de Compostela. In the end, you realize that what you're looking for
has been there all along: within you.
I always thank God for everything,
even the smallest things most people take for granted, like the gift of sight.
I won't say "Thank God it's Friday," though, because I'm on a roll
writing my latest series of articles and the library is closed on weekends. But
it's a very productive day and I have no complaints. Only gratitude.
One of the many books I read today
is Genius and The Mind: Studies of Creativity and Temperament. There are four
famous people on the cover. One is Lord Byron, one of my favorite poets.
Another is Richard Feynman, who is the subject of my article in the latest
(August 11) issue of Philippine Panorama, the Sunday magazine of The Manila
Bulletin.
"Important differences
regularly appear between creative and non-creative scientists," writes
Robert S. Albert in this collection of essays published by Oxford. There is a
chart drawn from various studies. On top of the list of qualities of successful
writers, mathematicians and architects is: "High aspiration level for
self, is certain of the worth and validity of ones's creative efforts."
As I left, I passed an OB van of
ABS-CBN, showing the anchors of their regional network here in the Visayas. The
building also houses the city museum and on the third floor is an auditorium
where the media is covering an event. I feel at home in the library with its
impressive architecture and more important, I can go around and choose any book
from the shelves. That's how libraries should be. I made it part of my amateur
short film Cebu: City of Angels.I also shot footage of Magellan's Cross and
other places, including the rotunda park where I'm now, surrounded by the rush hour
but without the hurly-burly.
For the past couple of days, I'd
have lunch on a cafeteria in the garage of a compound next to a photo shop
which is next to the library. Today I went to a quiet eatery next block in
Llorente Street. The pork blood-based dinuguan was delicious and cheap at ten pesos a pop.
Showing on the mounted TV is Lara Craft: Tomb Raider. She's underwater, and she
punches a shark in the snout. I sort of have this idea than sharks are more
invincible than that: I remember reading an article about it from the iconic
oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. But as much as I find spiritual tranquility in
swimming alone far out into the sea, I don't want to meet one to find out.
August 18, 2013
2:18 p.m., Sunday
Ayala Mall Cebu
A chill ran down my spine as I saw the headline. Two ships
had collided yesterday in Talisay beach. That's my beach. That's where I would
swim, on the strait that divides Cebu and Bohol. I would be out on the sea
everyday, as in everyday. I stayed there in a friend's house just this February.
I'd go down from his porch and in less than ten minutes I would be at the
shore.
The M/V St. Thomas Aquinas and
Sulpicio Express Siete ran smack against each other. There was no casualties, at least no mention
of it on the front page. There are heroes, and they always they come in moments
of crisis. A nurse, Alwin Patosa of Bacoor, Cavite (I once lived there too),
saved the lives of a lot of people. He even revived a baby on the lifeboat
using CPR. Now that's a hero! The story about the other hero, the Navy man,
was, sadly, on the inside pages of The Manilla Bulletin.
I'm typing this in the food-court. I
got some Black Gulaman from a stall with a cute name: Ho-Lee Chow. I'm sitting
in front of a circular food kiosk with lots of blenders. I was thoughtful as I
walked in the mall earlier, mulling over something while fully aware of my
surroundings. A couple of elderly ladies were in front of me, one is having
difficulty walking. So I slowed down even more, which is just as well because I
kept thinking about the apartment I just inquired into not fifteen minutes ago.
Carolyn sends a text message, saying Hi.
"I found an apartment," I
told her. "I like it, condo-style and well-ventilated, similar to my own.
It's walking distance to my new office. But it's over my budget."
She tells what I'm thinking: it's
really expensive here. This is the business district, the city's prime
property. Here is the playground of the movers and shakers of the financial
world. The mall is the hang-out of tourists and expatriates. So, did I take it?
"Not yet," I replied.
"I still have until the 26th to either move or extend another month. My
apartment is fine but it gets hot in the daytime. I feel like I'm in a
microwave oven. I'm in Ayala. I'll treat you to Angel's Burger."
I went around the mall again,
absorbing the sights and sounds. There's a lot of South Koreans. Ah-nyong
haseyo! I remember when I was an English teacher in a Korean school in 1993,
near U.P. Diliman campus, and I would always be in the Sunken Garden with my
sketchpad. There was a commotion. Apparently there's a celebrity on the lower
floor. A lot of people are screaming and waving their cameras. I didn't see who
it was. Frankly, I didn't even care.
My bookstore agenda was to get
materials for an article. Is that possible by just browsing and taking a few
notes? Of course! I did just that. In other words, I was turning the time to
gold. So I got my selections: Nobel Prizewinner Muhammad Yanus' Creating A
World Without Poverty; James Montier's The Little Book of Behavioral Investing;
Robert Cole's The Unwritten Laws of Finance and Investing; Dave Kerpens'
Likeable Social Media; Pat Dorsey's The Litte Book That Creates Wealth; Robert
Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad and George Clason's classic The Richest Man In
Babylon.
Imagine this scene: some dude
spinning a large hardcover 'round and 'round. That was me reading the spiral
symbol from Dan Brown's Inferno. The newest adventure of Harvard symbologist
Robert Langdon was inspired by the Italian mystic and pedophile Dante
Alighieri. It's a story about hell. That's a hell of a story.
August 19, 2013
6:22 p.m., Monday
Lahug City, Cebu
I feel a sense of melancholy in the twilight. Darkness is
creeping up into my room as I write this. I remember the bats flying all around
me whenever I would go into the woods when I was a teenager in Morong, Rizal. I
had the same feeling when I was in a farm in Balagtas, Bulacan, where I saw an
aswang. Come to think of it, it's not as hair-raising as when I encountered my
first ghost in Antipolo, Rizal, where I grew up.
There's something about the coming
of night that evokes in me a sensation of primieval remembrances of things
past. I feel this keenly when I'm close to nature, surrounded by forests or
being embraced by the sea. Maybe what it evokes is something that mankind all
share. Everything is somehow connected on a deeper, or higher, level of
existence. Whatever it is that defy our finite understanding, the soul never
forgets.
August 20, 2013
8:01 p.m., Tuesday
Lahug, Cebu City
It's been said, many times and many ways, that you won't
know the value of something you have until you lose it. Thank God I haven't
lost anything, but that slumbook slogan came to mind while house-hunting this
afternoon. I now began to appreciate my present lodgings when I saw the
alternatives. My place doesn't serve all my needs though it has its good
points. The ones I checked out won't be able to either. None of them even have
bed cushions.
Walking around and going into
strange alleys, it occurred to me that it really is part of Filipino culture to
live in self-built plywood houses on maze-like mini-streets, with all these
trash-talking little kids running around while the shirtless grown-ups are
having some brandy al fresco. Technically they're not squatter areas, but these
are not places for people who grew up on other cultures like Japan or
Australia, not to mention the United States. The knee-jerk reaction is poverty,
and and that automatic response is also part of our culture. They got
refrigerators and surround-sound sub-woofer speakers and they will still
complain they're poor.
"Oh, Lord, we have a
flat-screen TV, have mercy!"
One crucial element I have in my
brownstone-style apartment is privacy. That is non-negotiable. So I mentally
X'd the ones where I had to pass the owners' living rooms. There's one in
Escario I might have liked if not for that kind of set-up: it's bigger than a
studio-type condo pad. It's like a scene from an 18th century period movie. The
landlady is renting just one room upstairs so there would be just me, her and
her two young sons. Sounds home-y. But I'd rather have what I have right now,
alone and undisturbed. But I'm still on the look-out even if I decide to extend.
I still have a couple of days. In the meantime, I'll play it by ear. The right
decision will come in the right time. It always does.
11:52 p.m.
Couldn't sleep. My head is swimming with ideas. Good ideas.
I seem to be obsessed with a specific personal project. I think that's
positive. I don't worry about neglecting other things because I never do. I
don't lose sight of the Big Picture and I always think long-term. The road
ahead is compelling me forward. Most of the stuff I'm coming up with is in the
spirit of kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement.
August 21, 2013
11:31 p.m., Wednesday
Lahug, Cebu City
I'm doing that thing I do like how software engineers do it:
one bit of code at a time but already seeing the applications even before the
initial flash of the graphic interface. I feel that my mind is going full speed
in processing new information, setting their configurations to sync with my
vision. I'm lucky that I have a driving passion which consolidates my focus.
Otherwise, I'd be chasing one ephemeral interest after another, running around
like a headless chicken.
The dam floodgates in Central Luzon
have been opened. I saw the banner photo in one newspaper with a car engulfed
in floodwaters, threatening to drown the people inside. It's Ninoy Aquino Day.
Ninoy's assassination on August 21, 1983 triggered the 1986 Edsa People Power
Revolution. That watershed event ignited the series of non-violent mass
demonstrations that overthrew dictators around the world. One man changed the
course of history.
I look like a college kid, reading
a book under a tree in the park. The library was closed so I spent a
brain-refreshing afternoon in Fuente reading a biography of George Lucas. He
gives me strength to stick to my creative guns and to not compromise my
artistic freedom. A group of students were rehearsing a choral stage
presentation not far from my tree. There was a guy juggling bottles in the air,
like Tom Cruise in Cocktails, as I left the park.
Kokomo
The Beach Boys
[Theme from Cocktails]
August 22, 2013
10:29 a.m., Thursday
I just saw a vision of the future. I had an awesome dream.
Gilbert Bolante, a close friend who died in 2009, was teaching me how to use
his mobile phone to materialize objects. It looks like an android but a little
bigger. I texted "coffee" and put the phone down. A mug of steaming
coffee materialized over the screen. Wow! There's also a tablet for bigger
stuff. I typed in "fried chicken" on the phone and beamed it like a
POS scanner in a grocery store checkout counter. The tablet's screen shimmered.
A whole piece of fried chicken hologram-ed out of it. Then it became real,
piping hot straight from the kitchen. Gosh, that is so cool!
"I don't worry because I know
things always turn out well in the end," I told a living friend in the
present, my reply to a text message I got just now in my waking life.
"Everything that happens is good. I've been on the brink many times but by
twists of fate I didn't fall. There have been also times when I plunged down,
'but somehow I survived, with no rhyme or reason,' like in the Boyz II Men
song. But I'm human enough to be cautious. I think that's a good thing
too."
Color of Love
Boyz II Men
5:53 p.m.
It began to rain when I got home, just a few minutes after I
inserted my key into the doorknob. I'm showing solid progress in the articles
I'm doing at the library. I hope to finish everything before I start work on a
year-long project in September. I don't want any distractions nor any
last-minute surprises. I want my life to be smooth and easy, like cruising on
the freeway with Feel So Good by Chuck Mangione, the Master of Fusion!
I'm in the Visayas, praying that
the people I care about in Luzon are alright. I read that fifteen people were
reported dead from tropical storm Maring, and 83 cities and municipalities in
Metro Manila and Luzon have been declared under a state of calamity. It's not
exactly paradise here in Cebu either: there was a landslide in a village called
Casuntingan in Mandaue.
Egypt seems to be on a state of
permanent anarchy. Pope Francis has called for an end to the chaos. It's a good
thing that Pope Tawadros II, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, supported
him. The two Popes may differ in doctrines, but since the raging violence is
against all forms of religion, I'm glad they agree on that fundamental
principle.
There's another piece of uplifting
news. A 26-year old Cebuano triathlete, John Philip Dueñas, finished second or
third in the Ironman triathlon in Mactan even if he almost died from
dehydration and exhaustion. Dueñas swam 1.9 km., biked 90 km., and ran 21 km.,
in 4 hours, 33 minutes and 18 seconds. Incredible.
"I was closing my eyes because
I can't handle the pain anymore," he tells the Cebu Daily News. "I
just told myself that if I give up, I would just waste the months of
preparations and all the sacrifices I made. So I just embraced the pain all the
way to the finish line."
August 23, 2013
8:45 p.m., Friday
Lahug, Cebu City
What's an elephant? An elephant is a mammal with ivory tusks
and a trunk. It's big and long. But that's not a definition: it's a
description. If it's hard to define something that's tangible, what more those
that are not? John Stuart Mill tries to define "nature," as in the
perceptible existence of a phenomenon. I finished my article which includes
that and stories about the ideas of other great philosophers like Spinoza and
Descartes. I spent the entire day at the library, very productive and
intellectually stimulating.
I finally found Linda Goodman's
Star Signs which has intrigued me for years. I first read about it during my
teens in the 90s: I remember that chapter excerpt on the now (sadly) defunct
Astroscope magazine about spiral cell regeneration and physical immortality.
Based on my life-long study of metaphysics, I believe everything Linda says
about the deeper workings of karmic forces. I learned something new: once you
achieve enlightenment about the true nature of your soul, you are set free from
the confines of your astrological birth chart.
"Immortal humans also have all
the earth time they need to master body purification techniques," she
says, "including the mastery of eating habits and sleep with conscious
recall of astral experience."
When I read novels, I see the
scenes like a movie. I'm the director, cinematographer, film editor and
production designer. I just finished two recently. Here's my cast:
Po Bronson's "The First $20 Million Is Always The
Hardest"
Andy Caspar: Huggybear
Darell Lincoln: Andrew Garfield
Salman Fard: Dev Patel
Tiny Curtis Reese: NIck Frost
Francis Benoit: James Franco
Hank Menzinger: James McAvoy
Lloyd Acheson: Matt Damon
Papa Lewis: Robert Downey Jr.
Nell Kirkham: Kirsten Dunst
Alisa Jennings: Amanda Siegfried
Condrad Goss: Bruce Willis
Ronnie Banks: Jonah Hill
Donny Williamson: Colin Farell
Exit Interviewer: Tim Curry
Jimmy Porter: Billy Bob Thorton
Paulo Coehlo's "The Pilgrimage"
Paulo: Huggybear
Petrus: Sean Connery
Master: Liam Neeson
Father Jordi: Anthony Hopkins
Possessed Woman: Sally Field
Paulo's Wife: Anne Hathaway
Devil: Viggo Mortensen
Mme. Lourdes: Maggie Smith
Manolo: Antonio Banderas
Popcorn Vendor: F. Murray Abraham
Bar Owner: Michael Rispoli
Priest: Elya Baskin
Old Woman: Brenda Fricker
Shepherd: Ronald Pickup
Templar: Joseph Gordon Levitt
9 comments:
"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second."
~William James
"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand."
~Henri Nouwen
"Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship."
~Buddha
Huggybear's First eBook!
I'm sharing one of my novels for free. It just went live yesterday.
The title is "Jukebox," a love story inspired by Maalaala Mo Kaya.
You can download it to your phone, tablet or PC for free.
I hope you like it.
Click HERE
Thank you and God bless!
Sincerely yours, Huggybear
My article, The Art of Solving Problems, appears today in Philippine Panorama, the Sunday magazine of the Manila Bulletin
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."
[]Dalai Lama
"God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless."
~Chester W. Nimitz
I first read The Pilgrimage when I used to spend the whole day everyday at the Cebu City Public Library for weeks. I love that time in my life. A lot have happened since then.
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"Immortal humans also have all the earth time they need to master body purification techniques including the mastery of eating habits and sleep with conscious recall of astral experience..."
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