It’s been a Good Year

Why do we prepare and partake on so much sumptuous food on Christmas Eve midnight then devour a different set of similarly sumptuous sustenance approximately twelve hours later the next day on Christmas Day lunch? Stomachs have not even fully digested the pasta, chicken, pork and sweets from the early morning indulging, then a new menu will be arranged for yet another introduction to digestion. It’s not just those. Before the eve and the day itself, I suppose each of us have had a few or some participations in parties in which we have partaken on pleasantly prepared pasta and pork in prodigious proportions. Maybe there still would be some of these gatherings even after the 25th; a party here, a reunion there. Then after exactly a week, we would be repeating that same exploit all over again; an all out feast on midnight and another one on the day after, at lunch. I feel so heavy. Why has this dawned on me just now, after decades of going through this tradition. Don’t get me wrong. The food is always good. This season beats anyone’s birthday or any town’s fiesta. I just wish all of those grub does not go to waste. As I munch on heated ham, I reflectively wish I could send some down south to those oppressed by oh debt, oh death, Odette. But then, how could I ship the spaghetti and the sweets down south?

It’s nice that festive food has become ubiquitous among the Pinoy public. Packs of spaghetti pasta, tomato sauce, cheese, fruit cocktail and the sort are received by the indigent, solo parents, persons with disability, senior citizens and other recipients of outreach activities, that eventually, every family would be able to join in the feasts twelve hours apart from each other, in two sets a week apart. I suppose some of that sustenance would survive within the following week. I don’t know about you, but I and my cousin were still eating the Christmas Day lunch paksiw three days after. It still tasted good. At least, spending those bonuses on free flowing food is far better that burning money on firecrackers. I am so glad that that tradition has finally gone to wane down the drain. I could make a toast to that, with the hope that that its fire does not start back to life.

This year we continued to wear face masks, while riding with plastic curtains, worked from home or had no work, so had to go home where children moped on modules and ordeals with online classes. At least, the problem with the LSI did not spill anymore to this year. (See, I bet you almost forgot that last year, the locally stranded individuals brought Covid to a nationwide scale.) We took a ride on a rollercoaster of lockdowns and loosenings of restrictions. Vaccines were finally injected through arms of Filipinos, even to those below 60 and without comorbitity. But the vaccination did not lose vexation with apprehension and rejection. Towards the end of the year, most of the adamant anti-vaxers (at least, those whom I know) have had their minds opened or thrown in the towel and finally, gave in to get their shots. Come on, everything’s okay. We’re still alive. Oh, does the dying start after two years? Okay, in two years’ time, let’s put that conspiracy theory to the test.

Towards the end of this year, we finally decided that we don’t really need those vision blurring face shields. Drivers also welcomed the liberty of taking down those plastic barriers which could very well may have contributed to some spread of virus.

This year, potential position petitioners finally made up their minds on whether to run or not, and which post to ask votes for. Some veterans and moderate veterans have stood their grounds early on. There were those who ruminated on reflection to delay until the deadline. Then, there were those who rushed in, retreated out, reconsidered again, then retreated once again. (Make your minds up, for crying out loud.) Then there are those who seemed to have treated substitution as a regular part of the candidacy. What a suffering sacrilege! As a prelude, the Senate prosecuted Pharmally and the Congress protected Pharmally. What an interesting irony!

It has been a good 2021. The Philippines had its first Olympic gold medalist and first Nobel Peace Prize winner in the same year.

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” -Ecclesiastes 7:8