here's another fine addition from Gabby of B86 to the ever-growing collection of prose and verses in the soon to be literary hit "The Book of Sano" :-p
A Matter of Waiting
by Gabby Lagamayo, B86
The problem with the future is that we don’t know how it will unfold. We can make some logical predictions based on history and observation, but there is always that x of an unknown that no one can anticipate. The vastness of predictive studies, and you can add the unscientific ones, could only comprehend things that have transpired.
Neat intro, huh? No? I thought I’d make a great impression. So what am I anxious about? In two measly weeks (as of the time I’m writing this piece) I’ll be joining the club of the big four-oh; entering the twilight zone where, they say, everything gets bad or good depending how you live your life. I’m the eldest in the batch so I get to become forty first. This post is about being that.
click here to continue reading the writeup at the b86 blog...
Remember the legendary english teacher Ms. Resurreccion and the equally legendary required english lit topic --Beowulf? Here's Gibbs' entertaining writeup about them... (i hope ms. rexy is doing fine these days, any news about her?)
Aha, so it's pronounced “BAY-wulf.” All these years my high school classmates and I have pronounced it “BEE-wulf,” like how were taught in English literature. The release of the movie should prompt us to consider holding one of our usual reunions just so we could officially adopt the proper pronunciation of the name.
You see, “Beowulf” isn't just a story to us. Mention the word, and it brings back a lot of happy memories. We're silly sentimental SOBs like that.
We learned about Beowulf and Grendel and Grendel's monster mother not from Neil Gaiman, but in traditional high school English literature. I'm not sure if students today are still taught this old English epic poem. Our teacher was Mrs. Resurreccion, a white-haired, motherly, tiny bird of a lady, all 4'11" of her (perhaps even shorter).
continue reading gibbs' writeup here...
By Gibbs Cadiz (B87)
"We ask you this through Christ our Lord, amen."
Time for First Reading. The boy, shy and nervous, walks towards the lectern. It's his first time to do the reading, a task he'd avoid at any cost if he could. But there is no way around it. As a junior in this high school seminary, he and his classmates have to take their turn on the altar, before a mass of other boys ready to jeer, heckle and remember any fumble he'd make for years to come. Freshmen and sophomores act as acolytes during daily mass, juniors and seniors serve as readers. None gets a pass, and now it's his turn.
He swallows hard, then opens his mouth. "The first reading is taken from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel." Can that strained, high-pitched voice be his? Did I pronounce it right, Ee-zee-kiel? His throat feels parched, sandy. His white polo shirt and black pants seem terribly hot, and he can feel his armpits steaming up.
He plows on. The lines are a blur. He tries to go faster, but then remembers the priest's admonition. It's the Word of God, give it respect, read it slowly! So he enunciates his words, never looking up from the book, determined not to get distracted by the funny looks on his classmates' faces.
Last two lines, yes!
Finished. The end. Wow, he's done it. Read right up to the last period without a hitch. Success! Must breathe easily now, wrap it up, wrap it up. A pause, then one more thing left to say: "This is the Word of the Lord."
And his mouth says: "This is the end of the world."
A second of shock, then pandemonium in the chapel. Even the priest starts giggling. He looks up, startled, realizes what he has just said, then stares horrified at the laughing mob. Nothing to do now but trudge back to his pew, face all crimson, his future flashing before his eyes. He'll never outlive this, he knows. From this day forward, at least among his peers, he's toast.
Our 25-strong high school seminary batch is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Since our graduation in March 1987, four have become priests, many more have gotten hitched, a few now live abroad, and one has passed away. But we remain extraordinarily close to one another, and have enlarged the friendship to include the wives and kids. All first-borns in the circle automatically get a ninong in the other 24. Getting gifts on Christmas and birthdays is another story. When we hold reunions, which is often and irrespective of a quorum, we always end up killing ourselves with the same old stories. God willing, we'll never stop laughing. The anecdote above is a perennial. Yep, it's a true story.
by ol arcos (b92)
(April 8, 2007 10:16 PM Easter Sunday)
While lying in bed and waiting for sleep to descend upon me, some questions popped into my lazy brain. Why are we here on Earth and why do we have to exist?
Everything around us has respective lengths of lifetimes. We travel in a four dimensional curved space time. So what is the meaning of the events across some points or happenings in between? Everything has opposites from one point or end to end. Like Genesis and Apocalypse, birth and death, ying and yang, matter and antiparticle, quantum physics and relativity, big bang until our expanding universe ends. Can we defy the boundaries of time, travel to the future or go to the past? Can we go forward or backwards? Can we travel through worm holes or black holes to defeat time? Can we remember the future?
Physics says that only if we can travel at frequencies with at least the same with the speed of light can we tweak the so called time. But no matter on Earth can go faster at the speed of light without disintegrating. Our bodies are not designed to travel at that frequency though we are convertible to frequency. Energy is frequency.
One event that comes to our minds in experiencing the past, present and future is the light energy, light frequency or photons emitted by distant stars across our universe. Emitted several years ago before we were born or million of years ago, traveling at some point somewhere in the cosmos, galaxy or universe at the present and will reach Earth maybe tomorrow, next decade or maybe beyond our lifetime. The light energy of the sun takes eight minutes to reach the Earth. Consequently, other stars in the very very vast universe will take longer.
The only frequency that I can think of defying the boundaries of time is the frequency of déjà vu and premonition which some or all of us have had experience. These are the events that we already knew from the moment it happens, and then from thence we remember the future, a pre-designed parallel universe and the inner working frequencies of our own subconscious minds. Some of us rely on tarot or card readings to foresee the future when in fact it is just the frequency of our subconscious channeled to the cards. The subconscious already knows though biblically it is not acceptable. It solely depends upon us on how to tap that frequency when will it occur. Controlling it to go forward to see events in our lifetime, or maybe put the frequency into a device for us to know some events in the future. But how about our mortal bodies? Can we convert our chemical compositions, our molecules, atoms, DNA mappings into a set of frequencies and go from one place or event to another without compromising human structure, life force, will and the human soul? At the present here on Earth we cannot, but in the future who knows? How about terrestrial intelligence outside Earth? We never know here.
Everything will work on a set of frequencies. Even the unseen works on frequencies. Will the devil in Apocalypse or Revelation use frequency? Eventually all business transactions will work on frequencies as telecom and internet protocol will converge. 3G in telecoms which is still in infancy will soon be replaced by 4G in the future. We are wired. Cables, fiber optics, and every communications media are already laid out upon the four corners of the earth. It is just the roll-outs of technologies that are being worked out. Integrated circuits in the future will work embedded into humans - from banking transactions to going to groceries and everything . Chips with sign of the devil? Just a thought. Who knows? It is in the Bible anyway. Can we go back in time to witness the creation of the Bible, witness the evolution of neanderthals, or explore the age of dinosaurs?
Human brain functionality is not yet totally deciphered, behavior varies, events on Earth varies, uncertainty principle always exists. We will eventually degenerate obeying the laws of entrophy as we always go forward in time. The probability that we are going to perish is computed at 100%, unified physics in everything around us can never be decrypted.
Life is a mystery as do falling in love. It is a mystical frequency. We can never know what is in the mind of God. The only possible and probable reason I come to mind why we exist is to follow His footsteps and to serve Him, whatever event is happening around us in our lifetime. This reason I know keeps me on firm hold to the ropes of sanity.
No further questions asked. Life is beautiful, live the most of it.
( 12:04 AM. It’s time to take a rest.I have to pray to God, for my family, for everyone and for my good night’s sleep. Lights off.)
