By the Jal-o River

Yesterday (August 28) was the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo . I celebrated it in silence and alone with you. I reminded you about it as if you need reminding. All these years, I remain as restless as a young man as he ran in pursuit for some truths to satisfy his curiosity of his carefree days. You are witness to such restlessness. Time brought changes into all those that are. Here I sit a day after the feast day of my patron saint holding on to a past that is already gone trying to rally for its continued hold into the culture that is fast becoming obsolete. It remains present though in a mind fixated to those moments of wild abandon of bygone years. Here I endure and convince myself to accept the things of the present moment that are consequences of such puerile and reckless "indecisiveness." Yet my heart is not at rest. There is stubbornness that wanted to rebel against the "consequenced-past" and the "regrettable present." It is hard to vision

A friend wondered out loud: "Why the frequent absences and the belated updates of this blog?" I smiled back and quietly informed her, "Oh, I been wandering somewhere down the road." She insisted that I elucidate what I mean, thus this entry. Yes, my dear, I been wandering down the road and should you care, you can follow me on my steps: First, let us draw the line. For here is the first stop: At Petrufied's corner. :-). She's kind enough to show me where else to go in my early morning wanderings. The next stop is at Singapore's National Day Celebration where Lee Kuan Yew publicly aired his regrets for seeing too soon the sun setting on his beloved country's tomorrow. Mr. Michael Cook was kind to share "table" with me. :-) From the Lion City, I went back to hear the turno en contra at the Philippine Senate. Sen. Sotto was emphatic defending his ground. Back at home in time for the Feast of the Assumption, the Sangguniang Panlalawi

Olympian Rene Herrera (Photo credit:  InterAksyon.com/Joseph Agcaoili )    He finished last. The diminutive veteran runner and navyman Rene Herrera was the Filipino representative to the 5000 meters race in the 2012 London Olympic. Kaibahang Butch of the DYRU however related that Herrera was much applauded not because he bested the other 20 runners (although he bested himself in the Heat 1 with a record of 14:44.11) but due to his determination to finish the race even if he is the last man running in the stadium. Such attitude is what a true Olympian has to exemplify. It is not to win, but to take part (cf. Pierre de Coubertin ). It is as what Agence France-Presse  wrote in July 18, 2008 and I quote, " True Olympic spirit is often found away from gold medalists with their agents and sponsorship deals -- it is found in its purest sense in those that come last. "  Rene Herrera did finish last because he never quits. And because he never quits he comes first to the h

An elementary pupil was tasked by her teacher of interviewing the chieftain ( Punong Barangay ) of a barangay (village). Such is a hard tasked for a toddler in primary education, I reckoned.  But the child was adamant to oblige the wishes of her mentor. She asked her parents for help, who in turn, asked for my intervention. So one fine day, I arranged the meeting of the child and the village official. Their conversation went this way (in vernacular): Q – What is your name, sir? A – I am Roberto A. Cuare. I am the Punong Barangay of Barangay Morales. Q – What is the nature of your job, you being the Punong Barangay of Morales? A – As Punong Barangay, I perform the three-fold functions of the government. First, I am the chief executive of the barangay government. Second, I am the presiding officer of the legislative council, locally known as the Sangguniang Barangay. And third, I sit as the chairman of the Lupong Tapapamayapa, previously known as Barangay Justice, which is

Aragorn misses his Lady Arwen. The heavy downpour sets him in reverie. Rain. More rain. A dark gray sky. And yet I saw you smile. And I thought, you are weather-proof. Then something inside told me that I ought to smile back. I did smile back, appearing the fool. But honestly, I find our meeting a kind of sweet and memorable moment, although bordering to melancholic. You beckoned me to follow you to your place. Our pretext, oh, we do have lots of pretext to justify such meeting. We walked in the rain under the protective cover of your umbrella. That was romantic, I supposed. My subconscious though saw the two of us walking away with our reflections painted on the wet pavement and from a vantage point in monochromatic blue. That scene was lovely and yet lonely; so true and yet flawed. It was a sad scenery of a supposed happy moment worth remembering. Inside your place, you flooded me with your concerns, subtly informing me that I remain to be the man you can count on; y