a sense of touch

even if i had watched this film a number of times, there is a particular scene that never fails to move me.

when the racist and lecherous officer attempts to rescue the incapacitated woman, a woman he just molested the night before, she understandably and heartwrenchingly pleads and screams : "NOT YOU! SOMEBODY ELSE, PLEASE! ANYBODY BUT YOU!"

this scene moves me for two reasons. the first is the primal fear and hatred that she has for the officer. the second is the ironic outcome of the officer having to ask for the woman's permission to TOUCH her in order to free her from the seatbelt's grip. allow me to elaborate my views further.

it is important to notice that for a moment, the woman forgets that her life is in danger. upon seeing the officer's face and recognizing him as the violator of her dignity, she forgets that she is about to die. in this case, her survival instinct is overwhelmed by other forces - HATE & FEAR.

hate & fear make us forget that we are destined to live. hate & fear make us forget who we are and who we are with. hate & fear reduce us to instinctive animals - screaming, scratching and gnarling at anything that tries to come our way. hate & fear removes our capacity to recognize a face who at that very moment may care. hate & fear prevents us from taking a hand which at that very moment may be reaching out to ours. hate & fear causes us to focus on our wounds, on our pains, on our tragedies. we rant on endlessly. needlessly. nauseously. we become broken records of our own broken-ness.

hate & fear make us forget who we are and what we are capable of. we are far more capable than hating or fearing all the time. we are far more capable than closing in to our own world and shutting everybody out. we are far more capable of living life freely, of sharing a love fully, of being humane completely.

how do we move out of hate & fear? the film is very clear on this point. we move out of fear & hate NOT by pouring out fear & hate in return. we move out of fear & hate by TOUCHing the lives of others and allowing others to TOUCH our own.

it is with a TOUCH that the officer freed the woman from the obstructive seatbelt. it is with a TOUCH that the officer comforts her after he saves her from the blazing inferno. by not giving up on her even if he was already pulled out by his companions, by choosing to go back to pull her out from a certain death, he realized he could no longer be the man he was before. that he could no longer live the way he did before. by TOUCHing her, by FREEING her, he profoundly FREED himself.

i know that you have been hurt once before. all of us have once swore never to be fooled again, never to trust again. we have seen how cruel some people can be. how cruel this world can be. if one were to be truly honest and reflective, we have even seen how cruel we can be.

now i'm not going to say that everybody you meet from now on would be kind, that the world would be a perfect place just because you watched CRASH.

the question in life is, in the midst of people's unkindness, in the face of people's indifference and lack of concern, DO YOU DO THE SAME? when people refuse to TOUCH each others lives and choose to spill out words of and act from HATE, IGNORANCE and FEAR, DO YOU RESPOND IN KIND?

do you also speak and act from HATE, IGNORANCE and FEAR?.

as the movie has artistically shown, we can never help "CRASHING" into each other's lives. i am here and you are there. wherever you are, other people will be with you. we cannot spend our lives shouting "NOT YOU! SOMEBODY ELSE, PLEASE! ANYBODY BUT YOU!" if we do, we will end up dying in an overturned vehicle of our pains, fears, hatred and sidetracked dreams.

take a chance. TOUCH someone's life.

a faith-ful God

a fresh start.

a clean slate.

it may not be obvious but that is what is given to us every second, every moment. a fresh start. a clean slate.

think about it. when was the last time you committed a blunder you felt your world was about to end? when was the last time you made a mistake, you felt that you would never recover?

did the world come crashing down on that very instant? did the walls come tumbling down? did the ground shake and open its cracks to swallow us whole, did the churning sea send out a devastating wave to drown us or the mighty heavens roar in righteous anger?

NOPE.

even during moments when we feel lost and alone, such feelings will soon pass. when we compose ourselves and allow our emotions to settle down, we realize, there is something bigger than our mistake. there is someone bigger than our problem. there is someone more overwhelming than our tragedy.

OURSELVES.

we are bigger than any mistake. we are greater than any problem. we are more overwhelming than any tragedy.

whatever may happen, we will endure.

so what if you got a failing grade during the midterm? so what if you are already the frontrunner for Mr. & Ms. Tardiness for the third term? so what if you haven’t even seen our blog? so what if you've been wasting the past 15+ years of your life?

that was THEN.

NOW is um… well, for lack of a better term, NOW.

now, you are given the chance. in fact it’s more than a chance, it’s an opportunity. hey, let’s go even further. it’s not only an opportunity, it’s a GIFT.

why? nature never gives you second chances. in a jungle world, survival of the fittest is the only law. eat or be eaten. kill or be killed. no if’s, no but’s. no “sir kasi, traffic” no “sir, i wasn’t able to wake up.”

having a second chance is not a right but a GIFT. if it is a gift, it comes from someone special. as with all gifts, it comes from someone who believes in you, probably more than you believe in yourselves.

thankfully, we have a God who believes in us, infinitely more than we believe in Him.


*for a related entry, see my own personal blog at http://woodpaths2.blogspot.com/2005/12/faith-ful-god.html

answered questions

the day is here. the time is now.

i know how examinations are seen as a chore, a bore and a sore. i myself disliked taking exams when i was in college. i mean, who wants to memorize all those principles, those formulas and those stories? wouldn't it be better if we spent our time playing our DotA's, fantasy basketball leagues, ragnarok's and final fantasies? don't even get me started on the delight of our ds's and the whee(!) of our wiii's.

for some, the most meaningful and painful question they hurl to the cloudy heavens (apart from "why are they airing those political commercials?") are "why are there exams? why? why? why?"

since we have been holding exams for over a millenia (did you really think you were the first students to complain about tests?), heaven has answered with finality. to our ceaseless "why?!!!", heaven responds with an enigmatic "why not?"

while it may seem that heaven is being deaf to our cries and supplication, the heavens are actually being sensible. exams are part of the rules of the game called "school life." you can't participate in a game and then all of a sudden question its rules. imagine a basketball player suddenly hugging the ball in the middle of the court and demand that "hugging the ball" merited 5 points in his opinion... or a DotA player suddenly saying, "you know what, instead of attacking the enemy's frozen throne/world tree, i just wanna bash my other teammates"... or a fashion designer suddenly saying, "i wanna be unconventional and unique. for my next runway show, there will be no models! clothes will be paraded using moving hangers on a wire!"... to complete the picture, let's imagine a theater director who is supposed to mount a musical suddenly say, "I'm the director and I say for this musical, actors should be silent and mime their lines! This should snag me a Tony!"

for our class, we had just finished the final stretch of the oral exams last tuesday. i must say, i am very impressed with students who really made their own outline and gave a relatively concise presentation of the discussion so far. i was equally impressed with the answers i received for the follow-up questions i sent your way. lastly, i was edified by how people handled their nerves by just speaking in front of an instructor and several members of the class.

which brings me to our points of discussion for this blog entry.

(1) what have you realized while preparing for the orals and the written exams? what were the feelings, emotions and reactions you had when you had to prepare your own outline?

(2) did the lessons make more sense as you were making the outline and preparing your presentation? or did things become muddier and more confusing?

(3) what are some lessons, principles, insights that you can share after going through and surviving the oral exams? were there confidence/self-esteem issues? do you feel you were able to express yourself enough?

reactions, comments and what-have-you are most welcome. post. reply. share.

remember: you're not the only one making the journey towards understanding.

all of us are.

the freshest oysters

things just couldn't get any better.

there i was with longtime friends, overlooking the thankfully unlit bay of manila. since almost everyone in our barkada had families of their own, it was rare to gather once again for a boys' night out. the difficult thing was convincing their respective wives that we would only go to wholesome and family-friendly hangouts. the next difficult thing was convincing my friends to abide by this promise.

question: what do highschool buddies talk about when they meet up years after graduating from highschool?

why, highschool life of course.

somehow telling the same jokes (that we all heard a thousand times before) and talking about the same stories (in which we were all present when they happened anyway) was enough to make us laugh, turn red and bang the table several times.

the stories were unending. my peers, relentless. everybody had an event to share or an incident to recall. from painful basketball games and sun-drenched C.A.T.'s to near-drowning moments in the swimming pool and aimless bat-swinging on the baseball field. from theatrical english-lit presentations and morale boosting interschool victories to those nerve-wracking highschool dances and the more-often-than-not unsupervised soirees.

each story was throbbing with character, passion and life. no one stayed in the back seat for long. everyone took turns driving our bus down memory lane.

it was such a ride that we never noticed that time -along with several platefuls of juicy oysters, had gone by. in the end, when the stories had been told, when the laughter had died down and the oysters relocated to our bellies, we all gave a collective sigh -- in celebration and thanksgiving.

sigh.

life is so much more meaningful when you have friends.

but here's a secret. our lives can be more meaningful. it's when we realize that all along, all our lives, God wishes to be our friend. more than a King, and a mighty Ruler, God is our Friend.

sounds insane? not really. look up john 15:15-17 to see what i mean.

we are not His servants, but His friends. go on, talk to Him as you would any true friend. He'll be sure to listen to you. in time, you will realize that He has been speaking to you all your life.

heaven is where we'll share stories, jokes and undoubtedly the freshest oysters with our Lord and Friend.

sigh.

===
apart from commenting on the content of this blog entry, feel free to share your stories of friendship with your barkada's or even the Lord's. how and why is friendship important in your life?

waiting...

okay, here's an admission...


i was really excited about creating a blog for our class. i thought that your response and enthusiasm would be so overwhelming, i'll be spending most of my days editing, posting, replying and re-posting some entries and comments.


i even thought that it would come to a point where comments and reactions would be so numerous, i would have to beg you to stop posting more than once in a day.


so i posted our first blog entry on jan10 and even made a sample comment the day after.


then, i waited...


and waited...


and waited...


finally a wonderful comment came in at 3:25am from ms. ging dyosa*, quoting lines from what i'm assuming to be one of her favorite shows, one tree hill.


and then other comments began trickling in. slowly but surely, people are beginning to discover and participate in our online blogging community.


it's not going as fast as i hoped, but hey, it's a start.


a very good start.


so there you go, these are my expectations for the online component of our class.


now, it's your turn to speak.


what are your expectations for our class? what are your thoughts on the class so far? what are the difficulties your encountering as early as the third meeting?


post. reply. share.



====


p.s: just so you know, i have shelved off my dream of becoming an instant online editor. it's currently stacked up with other shelved dreams: astronaut, stealth fighter pilot, stand-up comedian, award-winning cinematographer. but hey, who knows? :)

now, what are your dreams and aspirations?



*further research has unearthed that ging dyosa is a.k.a. (also known as) ms. margarita bartolome.

**photo courtesy of flicker user p2wy. cf http://www.flickr.com/photos/p2wy/359998201/

aha

aha!

so you were listening in class when i was discussing about the blog.

aha!

you may have wondered if i was merely joking (yet again). but your visit here dispels all doubt. there really is a blog.

aha!

we say "aha" whenever we discover something new. we say "aha" when we meet an old friend. we say "aha" when we finally understand a point during discussion. it's the more complete version of the "aaaaaaah!" we utter in a sing-song manner.

this is your blog. (aha!)

feel free to do anything you want. read. react. rant. rave.

but remember the guidelines we set in class.

be honest.

be creative.

most of all, be respectful.

after all, this is not only your blog.

it is also ours.

as it is in life, our choices affect others too. our decisions have consequences well beyond our understanding. our actions affect the world in which we all live in.

for in every moment of every day, we are called to choose. right from wrong. better from best. life or death. every moment of every day, we are at a crossroad. here, in these crossroads we are invited to live life fully.

to live honestly.

to live creatively.

and to live respectfully.

aha.