Bacolod 2010

My Lakbayan grade is C-!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!
Created by Eugene Villar.

My wife and I had an unforgettable time alone at Bacolod. She initially hated the idea of going there, thinking there was nothing to see and do other than attend the wedding of my friend. After dining on the best chicken inasal at the Manukan, buying a mask and looking at furniture at the ANP Showroom, attending the beautiful wedding ceremony, dining on the best lechon and dessert during the reception, exploring the grand old houses of Silay, having a great conversation with the irrepressible Ramon Hofilena and seeing his impressive art collection, and then capping the weekend off with an overnight stay at the Punta Balata beach - I am sure the trip will now be part of our fondest memories. Besides, I also upgraded my Lakbayan score from D to C-!

A History of Britain

I have just completed all the episodes of A History of Britain by Simon Schama. And only a few days ago, I completed watching eleven episodes of the series Churchill’s Bodyguard. I have found my personal hero in Churchill. He is the embodiment of my mission: to speak, to lead, to inspire.

They don't make leaders like Winston Churchill anymore. Impetuous, passionate, courageous, and tempestuous, he was conscious of his place in history, and strove hard to fulfill his destiny. He was a force of nature. He was the obstinate war leader of Great Britain when Nazi Germany pounded London ceaselessly with bombs. He won the war with courage, conviction, and, more importantly for a debater like me, the power of his words.

They don't make leaders that speak like Churchill anymore. It was he who said he had nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. It was he who spoke of their time fighting for freedom as an era the British would remember as their finest hour. Churchill's words did not win the war by themselves. But they steeled the British nation and the world to fight back with grim determination in the face of an almost unstoppable Nazi war machine.

Churchill not only made history, he often read and wrote about it. He was as much the chronicler as he was the hero. He even won a Nobel Prize for Literature for his speeches and histories. This relationship to history is one more reason I wish to emulate him. Only destiny can tell whether anything I accomplish will be worth writing about for posterity. But there is nothing stopping me from learning more and writing about our past and how it offers lessons for our future. Our nation is at a crossroads. We are on the cusp of greatness if only we are willing to seize it. Understanding how we came to this point will help point the way to our own finest hour.

Things I Learned Before I was Born

Since my mother-in-law reappeared in my wife’s life as a born again Christian, she has given me several books on Christian spirituality. So dutiful son-in-law that I was, I began reading books I would not have been caught dead touching back when I was an atheist. Gracia Yumol’s short work Things I Learned Before I was Born was the sort of short, but sincere testimonial that gave me the jolt of inspiration and perspective I was looking for. Its three lessons were simple, but nevertheless true.

Losing is gaining. Indeed, I have learned a lot from life because I have lost a lot. I lost a competition I prepared hard for, but emerged tougher and wiser relative to my age. I lost in love for a moment, becoming embittered in the process, but I won again, realizing how painful love could be, but that it was still all worth it. I lost my chance at graduating with honors, and having a long bachelor life, but I gained the work ethic, focus, and determination of a young father who wanted his children to be proud of him.

Less is more. My quest for financial freedom sometimes blurs into a never ending race for more material things. I remain almost Puritan in my guilt with buying anything for myself, but I should guard against becoming too attached with worldly pleasures. It is good to savor the fine things in life, but I must always remember they are fleeting and illusory. They do not make us truly happy.

Love is the answer. This is the greatest cliche of all. Need I say more?

The Elephant Vanishes

Three weeks ago, I craved for McDonald's cheeseburgers so intensely I remembered the short story "The Second Bakery Attack" in Haruki Murakami's collection The Elephant Vanishes. To me, initially, it was the funny story of a couple who were so hungry for bread they held up a McDonald's store in the middle of the night. My wife later explained to me it was a metaphor for something missing in their marriage, a hunger pang so deep it could no longer be satiated. I do not know if was typically being insensitive, but since I was not aware of any such profound issue in our marriage, I went ahead and dragged my wife and my kids to the mall where I did not have to attack McDonald's to get my fill of cheeseburgers.

The other story I liked was "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning" because it perfectly captured a perfect moment that never was. I used to think perfect moments are movie cliches, but I have had several perfect myself - seeing my son for the first time, sensing I was giving a moving speech, falling in love with my wife, and others too mushy to mention. Murakami, by keeping the moment from taking place, succeeds in illuminating how perfect and rare it is.

Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is Robert Pirsig’s semi autobiographical account of his journey across America on a motorcycle together with his son. Along the way, he expounds on his ideas about motorcycle maintenance, his attempt to bridge the gap between the romantic and the classical approach through the concept of Quality, and his thoughts on sanity.

I doubt I will ever go mad like Robert because of an intractable intellectual conundrum. I am no longer as enamored with purely intellectual quests as I was once was when I used to dream of becoming a scholar. I no longer seek immortality through an original idea. I am more interested in making a profound impact in the lives of the people closest to me: my family, my friends, and the people I lead. If a great moment is thrust upon me by destiny, I will seize it. But if it never comes, and I have made the people I love happy, I will die a happy man.

But I seek to be like him in his appreciation of the here and the now. His careful attention to detail, his mindfulness as he takes one patient step at a time to fix his motorcycle, and his appreciation for the precision of tiny machine parts are all manifestations of his ability to focus on what he is doing at that very moment – meditation, in other words. The long journey on the motorcycle, where one is simultaneously with a traveling companion yet at the same time solitary in the experience of moving against the wind, and where the consciousness of nature is visceral and unmediated by a car window that looks like a television, is also one big meditation.

Millionaire Meditation

I still cannot believe I downloaded this book by Paul Farrell for free. The Internet has been the best response to those who say there is nothing in life that is free. Farrell used to be a highly stressed and highly paid investment banker before he walked away and pursued his true passion - writing. The book is a compendium of nearly every type of activity that can be considered as meditation - running, martial arts, writing, painting, acting - anything at all that allows one to lose oneself and be one with the moment.

Farrell agrees that meditation is one of the best ways to reduce stress and live a full, wakeful life, but argues that traditional sitting meditation may not work for everyone. Indeed, even for someone like me who has read several books on meditation and Buddhism, it is still a challenge to concentrate and watch my thoughts while meditating. Farrell gives countless examples of active meditation where any activity, provided one is focusing on what one is doing at that moment and nothing else, can serve as a path to enlightenment.

I like Farrell's approach. He shows true compassion for the predicament of millions of individuals who feel trapped in the relentless pace of corporate life. He does not tell us to run away and live in a monastery. He gives us hope that we can see our work for what it is and be happy. Reading his book has itself been a great meditation for me.

Multiple Intelligences

As a parent of two small boys, I am concerned about the intellectual development of my children. My wife and I are both academically intelligent, having first met as members of the debate club of the premier university in the Philippines. Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences has become so popular it is almost taken for granted that verbal and mathematical intelligence do not constitute the full range of human intellectual capacity. It may have been revolutionary when it was first published, but today, like many parents, I find it normal to want to raise multidimensional children able to think logically, but also to express themselves creatively.

Multiple Intelligences is a an assessment of the status of the theory 25 years after it was first expounded. Parts of the book, especially those detailing the mechanics of pedagogy, were not particularly interesting for me, but the first few chapters, which critiques the limited approach provided by IQ tests, pave the way for a broader and deeper understanding of human faculties. As someone who has read about and seen the success of people with low verbal and mathematical intelligence, this really sounds like common sense. It also reminds me to be open minded about the talents of my children. They may not turn out be as good as me when it comes to standard IQ tests, but might turn out be geniuses in the arts or in sports. Ultimately, I think, MI engenders a more tolerant and inclusive attitude to talent, providing more opportunities for growth and recognition to those who would otherwise have been branded as not being smart enough by narrow measurements of intelligence.