Life isn’t as organized and neat as we would have it. And so I write this post without a clear sense of where it’s going. I beg your indulgence for a little randomness.
It’s interesting how small things can light up your day. Like a free train ride. On my way to work after a three-day weekend, the security guard at the MRT station is waving to passengers to just swing through the station’s toll gates. I don’t hear exactly what he is saying (I have earphones plugged in), but it doesn’t take long to realize that, hey, he’s telling people that the ride today, 109th Philippine Independence Day, is free. Woohoo. Our heroes didn’t die for nothing after all…
Long chat with my sis in Japan tonight. She has a cold and is staying home. Throat no longer sore, but the nose is still a bit stuffy. Drink lots of fluids, I admonish her; and sleep – lots and lots of it. I send her the drafts of articles I’ve written for, well, a writing project. Sister transforms into my personal cheerleader, praising my writing and making younger bro feel like he’s the greatest wordsmith of all time – better than whoever you can name! For a second, it doesn’t matter that one of my pieces needs heavy revisions per editor and reviewer’s comments. I try to tinker with the words here and there, but nothing great seems to emerge. And so I decide to write another day.
We chat about gifted people (like the 27-year old Pinoy who gave the commencement address at Harvard Law and another lawyer who had the same distinction in 2005, who turns out to be the same bedimpled lawyer who was once part of a lawyer team that sis fought against in a case in Davao, which sis won! Hah).
We also chat about family (anecdotes about nephew Tim, a brother’s predicament, keeping things from our parents). We chat about pimples and how she thinks pork and Coke are the culprits of her acne outbreak. If that were the same case for me, I say, I’d rather pop my zits every morning than shun pork and Coke forever.
We chat and chat until I realize that it’s almost midnight (and therefore almost 1AM in Japan). We both need sleep now. Especially her, because of her stuffy nose. Wasn’t I the one who told her to gets lotsa sleep?
Rewind. Before our goodnights, we talk about something insightful that minister brother said – about a bodega, a bicycle, our nephew Tim, and people God keeps in the bodega. It’s amazing and inspirational. But I’ll write about that another day. That one won’t sound well written in random mode.
Meantime, why is a drunk man screaming outside the gate? Is the woman with whom he is in a screamfest his wife or mistress? Why do I care?
Because they’re noisy and I can’t sleep when it’s noisy!
Neither can I write with any semblance of sense or order when I’m supposed to be sleeping but can’t. Hence, the randomness. But I warned you already.
sillyserious soliloquies 