any single wednesday

We all believe we have the “patent on pain,”….nobody truly feels the way we do. We walk around town looking at the sea of faces, and we think to ourselves “If you only knew what I’m going through,” when really there could be quite a few people worse off than us. Why do we always feel so separated from the rest of humanity, feeling that nobody else goes through what we go through, when in fact pain is pain, joy is joy, and somewhere in-between is where we live?

I was reading this pocketbook titled “Till Death Do Us Part” (yes sometimes i read everything)where the character Benjie lost his girlfriend Avery to cancer. Mat, a friend, said to Benjie shortly after Avery’s death, “Is there anything I can do to help you?” Benjie’s answer was “Bring her back.” In the story, the guy’s one of the richest men in the world, having to come to grips with loss and pain, and I’m sure the character Benjie would gladly trade every dime he’s ever made to bring his beloved girl back. We are born, and all around us are people who are also born and eventually die….and as we travel along the road of life circumstances push and pull at us in all directions. At some point we get a grip of some of the mystery of life.

Doctors, lawyers, secretaries, electricians, plumbers etc….we all rise each morning doing our work, hoping for a better day. The Family of Man, looking at its differences, when all the while the strengths are in their similarities. When you hurt, reach out…there are others too who have felt the same way you do. When you feel great happiness, share it…because the pendulum swings both ways. You see, we really are a family on this planet with much in common….sharing all the pain and all the joy.

Is the grass truly greener on the other side?

A wise man i know once said, “There can be no measure for pain no matter what the walk of life.” Mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, neighbors down the street….the voice half a world away….we all juggle the intricacies of life daily. We all feel others don’t understand us, but we may be surprised. So is the grass always greener? or is it just a false perception of someone else’s life.

Hey, even Bill Gates has a bad hair day once in awhile and has to go to the dentist!!!

Let us tend our garden

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Aside:

So many of us watch daily the comings and goings of our favorite Telenovelas. How seriously do some take this fetish? Quite a few who work during the day hurry up and run like hell after work just to catch their fave dramas. My aunt never misses an episode of Gulong ng Palad (the shitty remake), even though she already watched the original story way back in the 20’s, just kidding, in the 80’s I think. Soap Operas…a little touch of creative writing, with characters who sometimes can feel like next door neighbors.

In the Soap Opera genre, we watch the comings and goings of other people’s lives….but really, how far off can they be from our own lives? Humorously, don’t we also live our own personal Soap Opera daily?? Couldn’t we all fill up an hour of airtime based upon our experiences of the day? Our daily lives, a continuing story on the roller coaster of life, that can enter any climate at any given moment.

Think to yourself, don’t you too have your friends and acquaintances, and an appearance of a villain once in a while? Perhaps we too are writers of Soap Operas. Some record their Soap Opera in the form of a diary, so that they can read back over the years to see how the story has unfolded. Others do it through photo albums. Here’s an idea….how about someone in the family assigned the task of jotting down the lives of the members of the family for the week? Then, each week or month all get together to listen, laugh, and learn. Of course, we would try our best to not hurt anyone’s feelings…but, it’s a nice way to see how close to each other we really are, i got this one from a book (I already forgot the title) full of game and past time ideas. It could be called, “The Santoses,” or “The Villacorta Family,”…..you get the idea. We all are characters in one Soap Opera or another. Our own, and other people’s. Many times we decide what role we play.

Strange, isn’t it….. we sometimes think someone else’s life is more interesting than our own……while all the while the classic story could be all around us….

the story continues…