Joyful Stories

MY family met me in 1975 then I met our youngest brother in 1976. Like you I was made to consume vegetables because it is good for the body. I thought as a young boy that my father was a farmer. He planted Philippine cabbage and other plants and vegetables in our property. I was wrong of course, he was a lawyer. And, later I found out that he was a soldier. And, in high school I knew that he was a writer.

Being born late in the family entails a need to study family history. I found out that Papa was a Columnist for several newspapers. I knew that when he retired he became a radio commentator along with his buddies. Well, I know that he played Battle City a lot and that was a tank game on the Family Computer gadget back in the 1980’s.

My family has a penchant for gelato. I was forced to like ice cream. My parents could not fathom why I did not like ice cream as a young boy. They made me try every flavor. Then, vanilla ice cream became the preferred option for little old me.

Secretly, I wanted to try the streetfoods that was outside of the school premises. We were absolutely forbidden to eat them. It is the only reason now why I eat streetfoods. I was deprived.

I remember the advertisement when a father bought an expensive toy packaged inside a huge box. The son went inside the box and had requested for his older brother to pull the box. The tagline was-- priceless. My brothers and I did that back when we were young, we would use the grocery box as our car as we cruise along the hallway and the living room into the dining room and back.

I want things simple. I want anything complicated explained in two sentences. Sometimes I just read the first sentence and then the last sentence. What makes me interesting though is I am a keen listener and an extraordinary observer. I once asked a security officer working in a foreign department office in another country how long is the processing of an application for a renewal of residency. He has been working in that office for years. He told me he does not know. I watched two applicants on different times and saw them enter the building then waited for them to come out of the exit. Then, I told the security officer it takes approximately forty five minutes for your administration to assist foreigners. Then, I told him that after about ten minutes my family member who went inside would come out with the documents. I was correct.

People miss that sometimes. Going the extra mile. Doing beyond what is expected of you. I worked as a salesman for a large firm in our country and I cleaned our booth with a broom and the whole nine yards while sporting a long-sleeves-shirt and a necktie. The security officer vehemently protested though that it was not part of his job. I do not see anything wrong in cleaning. It is noble. My Monsignor brother cleaned his own parish when he was alive.

Anyway, my room is a mess when I am writing. My room is clean after twenty minutes. Writing takes forever. Let me take you to the immigration department of the Chicago airport back in 2017, and the lady officer saw my Press I.D. Card. She asked me are you going to make a report about the hurricane? I said no Ma’am. That is why here in the Philippines I do not show my Press I.D. Card. Now, I do not look like anything like my picture on my Column. I remember at first giving a side view photo of myself so that people would not recognize me in person. The reason is because I am painfully shy. Thank goodness nobody recognizes me in real life unless I introduce myself.

I remember my Uncle who told me that being a writer makes me have a public persona that is different from my private life. That is not true in my case. I always have written to express rather than to impress.

Otherwise, I would write in this manner, although superfluous, it would drive the point home. If you focus within the pre-conceived notions of the structural beliefs of society. Specifically, its norms and values then you would be constricted in a myopic view of the world which oftentimes could be misconstrued by the false self emerging as a ramification of the social constructs that limit the holistic development of the true self.

Why would you want to be in a status quo similar to the Paleolithic age when the barometer is for the Neanderthal to obsess with food and shelter as the pursuit of existentialism. Instead, why not do as the Phd holders had done which is to cut a slot along the circular parameters of universal laws?

Reader’s Digest magazine has a readability index of about 65 as examined by Flesch–Kincaid readability tests. Using wordcounttools.com the Flesch Reading Ease Score of my entry for this week is 64.3.

See, my dear readers, are you not glad that I just write to make you happy and learn a thing or two along the way? May you be Inspired by the Holy Spirit!