A Haunting poem

TOMORROW…PERHAPS

All day today, I have looked for you

In the secret places

Where I keep you hidden, like a jewel,

Too precious to share with others.

I like to think that you are mine alone,

Although I know others have as much even more claims to you than

I might have.

I choose to delude myself

For in the mazes of my thoughts,

My passion is yours too.

And so I look for you,

Knowing you will be there

For me…

If not today

Perhaps…tomorrow.

Pie Thrown on a human face - not funny at all for Asians

A famous comedy duo that appeared in films just before World War II somewhere in the mid thirties, were Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Laurel was the thin one and Hardy the fat one. They were of British descent as revealed by their English accents. Most of their comedy routines stemmed from funny situations. Laurel is the straight man who always plays the part of the better informed half of the team while Hardy is the foil or the fall guy who gets it between the eyes and his whole corpulent body shakes with anger when it happens. 

One characteristic of the two is that in all their movies, they never used the “slap stick” technique at all. To the aficionado humorists, the highest form of wit is intellectual or double meanings similar to the type of humor that Bob Hope uses. 

The lowest is slapstick. With the Laurel and Hardy team, sometimes one would hit the other gently to emphasize a point but that was all the physical or visual effect. Often, they depend on the situation itself using the power of pantomime, enough to produce the desired laughter. 

On the other hand we have the very popular American spawned The Three Stooges known and liked by many over many decades and in fact their films are having a comeback these days. These three were totally dependent on situations and with the ample use of slap stick – and I mean hard hitting slap, bops on the heads, and falls of various types - to get a laugh. One plays the straight man in a superior position and the other two stooges is supposed to obey or imitate what number one stooge wants. Usually the two follow wrongly and therefore get bopped by some hard object depending on what is within reach or available. Mock anger by the number one partner produces the comedic effect and the other two nursing a painful head or nose or back provokes the laughter.

               In many American films, it is almost certain that a slap stick comedy sequence would be topped by a pie in the face sequence. And this act usually gets terrific reaction from the audience – a non Asian audience. Why do we say this is so?

              In Asia the human person’s face is considered delicate and priceless. The fact is in effect the person's logo and should not be mistreated. It is his whole being, his public image. Over the developing period of Asian societies the basic elements of human relations rested and depended largely on how one honors one’s face especially in business transactions. Bartering – which preceded the exchange of currencies – which is to trade with one another using items or services and not money - depended principally on the quality of a person through his face. When one made a professional commitment orally facing the other party one has to stake his face and must meet the commitment before or on agreed time. His face is his asset, and of course his visual word of honor!

In early agricultural society Asia, a man’s face stands for his individual integrity, family honor, prestige and standing in the community. That is why the term “losing face” and “face the music” “face value” originated from and often really refer to that commodity, precious and fragile which is one’s face. It is his ticket in polite and honorable society. It is supposed to represent his willingness to abide by the common code of conduct and business relationships.

              
              Thus, whenever one who is Asian or of Asian descent views the American film comedies featuring the pie thrown on one’s face, it creates a slight psychological trauma within his own Asian bred body and soul. The person not ready to laugh at this physical humor. But one asks, does it follow that because the Americans who make use of this type of humor has no honor and that he does not value his face at all? And the answer of course is that American society values the totality of the person and not just the face and attributes one’s personality and integrity as his credentials as a member of society. Having a pie in the face, to the American mind, does not diminish the person’ honor, nor integrity for it is done in jest, it is a "child like" moment and for humorous effect without giving the act of throwing pie on the face any other meaning.

A GOLDEN BOUNCY EVENT...

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OUR GOLDEN WEDDING ANNIVERSARY -

On August 5, 1959, Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J. officiated at our wedding held at the Pinaglabanan Church, San Juan Rizal. A small reception followed not far from the church. This picture on the left is Fr. Reuter blessing the rings. (on the left)


On August 22, 2009 we commemorated our 50th wedding anniversary with a 
Mass held at the St. Francis 
of Assisi Parish in Sacramento 
City officiated in by Fr. Anthony 
Garibaldi. A reception was held at the  
Embassy Suites Hotel ballroom not far from the Church.

Philippine presidential hopefuls...

TONY ABAYA


I am not a political writer but this time - for the first time - I have to make mention of a relevant individual who knows much and with quality substance about the coming presidential elections in the Philippines in May 2010.

I am referring to Tony Abaya, a dear friend and dynamic, articulate writer in English. Here is his latest column.


Also, his website

Biography of Nick Joaquin

I am in the process of writing the official biography of Nick Joaquin National Artist for Literature. I have started this project one year ago but I am still interested in getting in touch with people who can help enrich the writing of the book,” he added. I can be contacted at my residence at 4645 Winter Oak Way Apt. 309 Antelope California 95834 . Contributors can also call tel. no. 916 348 8414. My e-mail address is tony.joaquin@gmail.com Contributors are asked to send photos of Nick Joaquin or of themselves if these are available via email or mailed via postal service. Nick Joaquin died on April 29, 2004, at 82. Shortly after his death, two of his written biographies were published in Metro Manila, one on the journalist Emilio (Abe) Aguilar Cruz and the other on Sen. Edgardo Angara. My father was the jazz pianist Porfirio (Ping) Joaquin, older brother of Nick. Nick was my teacher and inspiration.

SR. JOAN CHITISTER- SPIRITUAL WRITER

In her excellently written book, The Gift of Years, Sr. Joan focuses in her introduction a scene:

It is a January morning in County Kerry. the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the craggy islands below me is roild with whitecaps and angry palisades of water crashing against the tiny islets in their rocky midst. the windstorm of the last two nights have drenched the hills on which this small Irish stone cottage clings, left them dripping water from bare branches hours later, sent the tiny rivulet of water outside my window rushing wildly down the mountainside to the valley below. It is an average Kerry winter day.

But not average for some. In the last two days of rocking, howling wind, five Irish fishermen and their trawler have been reported missing at sea. This morning, they were pronounced dead, the sea too wild yet to even attempt to recover their bodies.

Who they were, how old they were, I do not know. But one thing I do know - life and time are ghost creatures for us all.

Most of us, inch our way through life, sure on the one hand that it will never end, certain on the other that it will surely be ending for us soon.

Is at moments of such quiet consciousness that is is important come face to face with what it means to age, to be older, to be old, to become an elder in society."

Sr. Joan continues and states that Life is about becoming more than we are, about being all that we can be. Whatever we are doing, however old we are, wherever we fall on the social economic scale

THE GIFT OF YEARS is for those who are on the brink of "old age" ...and knowing themselves to be young and healthy, are very surprised by it.

On the chapter LONELINESS she writes -

A burden of these years is that
we will hole up somewhere and mourn our age,
our change in life, our losses.

A blessing of these years is that
we will make ourselves available to the
world that is waiting for us even now. even here.