Hollywood and Bust

Once upon a time, we trooped in droves to darkened movie theaters and expectantly turned to Hollywood for entertainment and artistry that eventually latched on to us to become treasured ageless classics artfully depicting  people and events  to aspire for and emulate.  

And to this day, we hearken back by repeatedly watching them in the darkened comforts of our homes coming from the newfangled devices we have acquired.  And re-living the missed thrills and emotions evoked from them.

Now what do we get as almost daily fare for our entertainment from Hollywood?  

Movies that feed on our eternal childhood fantasies, as immortalized in the comic books of the past, now made even more escapist and unreal as fast as evolving technologies could churn them out.  CGI gone wild and beyond!  The new blockbusters are simply “adaptations” of comic book heroes of our youth and beyond, as scary and unreal as they can be made to act and look.

Where are the countless creative minds of the past?

Are we now forever shunted to our childhood daydreams, like mature adults refusing to grow up and face our gruesome realities?  Escapism lived to the utmost?

Or is Hollywood simply turning on the money machine via surefire  blockbusters?

And the crowding viewers do not disappoint.

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As a kid, I was an avid consumer and collector of comic books of superheroes and any and all items where their images were emblazoned. I lapped up anything and everything my little grubby hands could reach, though admittedly there were not too many of those items around. But to this day I fancy myself as possessing as much trivia about them as the next guy, or next kid.

I even resorted to drawing them on paper and collecting those, too.

But we understood there was always going to be a point of satiation. And indeed, we woke up one day, and found our interests having shifted to other more mundane things.

That is our usual expectation of life. Moving on to things that matter more.

Hollywood, please take note. It is not always about the money.

Ever wondered why they are called comic books? And not fictional books, fantasy books, or even, dime books? Maybe, because somebody is laughing all the way to the bank?

Seriously, because at some point, most or all of them were part of the “funny pages” of the typical newspaper.

Now it is serious business.

The Walls Within

There are many walls in our lives.  

We see walls in our houses, separating different uses of living spaces.  

We see walls in the houses of our neighbors, isolating their privacy from the public.

We see walls most everywhere, all designed to separate, to keep apart, to protect.

But we can declare that these are walls that do not separate us in alienation and estrangement from the rest of humanity.

But there are walls that do. These are the walls in our minds.  The walls that we willingly or unwittingly build  that put us at odds with the rest of the world. The walls that tend to alienate and make us indifferent of others.

Many believe that solitude is akin to creating walls. But this is not necessarily so.  For many solitude opens to a greater and kinder world, devoid of constricting walls.  Like walls of indifference, hostility, enmity, discrimination, and yes, arrogance. 

Many ardently believe that in solitude one is most attuned to the rest of the world. We are most aligned to our humanity when we do live in the world, but not to be of this world.

Those walls we need to break.  The walls within.

A FRESH MORNING REFLECTION

Nobody, not even God, begrudges a reasonable desire to  freshen our lagging spirit with a change in scenery.   We are simply cautioned against their too free use for it is easy for them to lead one astray

What is needed more for our own good is really a renewal of good intentions and noble motives for serving higher causes.

What is the lasting good for continually seeking new sights?  Doesn’t that pursuit simply distract us from our nobler purposes?

Desire only enough to improve the quality of our lasting good works and our lives.

Worthy thoughts to have as we wake up each morning of the rest of our lives.

This reflection is about something more direct and straight forward.

The temporal nature of man is a big burden he carries all his life, seeping into the very marrows of his existence.

Thus when he begins to address his impending mortality, he initiates the process of accepting and preparing for it. One then finds in most instances that man continues to cater to this fleeting nature with the plans and resolutions he makes.

Thus he is wont to declare, that because he is close to the end of the road, he needs to take life easy, enjoy new sights and experiences, take leisurely trips, bond more with friends and relations, etc. A common thread in all this is that they all partake of the temporal nature of man.

Remember what the Scriptural admonition for death is? Remember the incident about the man who wanted salvation and so asked Christ what he needed to do with his life knowing it would be taken away from him at an undetermined time?  The answer was curt and succinct. Live your life like you would live the last day of your life.

Implying that the inevitability and urgency require that one focuses on spiritual matters that lead to eternal salvation.

Our late father was one person who was gifted with unique insights into the higher purposes of man. Thus, years prior to his passing he had tried as much as he could to shed himself of the trappings and frailties of this life. Devoting instead his efforts to things that transcended this temporal existence.

But he was also a frustrated man. Having wished and worked so much for more of life, he felt that fortune and ease had escaped him.

The lesson left behind for us to learn is the delicate balance we need to put between spiritual matters and the  alluring things that this life dangles before and offers us. As man, we need to steadily straddle between the two. Except that after this life, only the other remains.

This will be a constant struggle throughout our entire lives.

Observing The World About Us

During bouts of sleeplessness or idle times, one scans through social media groups to pass the time.

And invariably one inherits the feelings of helplessness and depression.

For what we read are mostly a litany of the things that are observed as being wrong, most everywhere our heads are turned.

Do we need to be constantly and incessantly reminded?

Do we really need to know all the wrinkles we can observe in and around our surroundings?

Isn’t it sufficient especially after all these times to keep those in mind and accept them as there?

But then start unobtrusively doing whatever little things we may be able to do both individually and collectively.

In our lifetime and beyond, most of these things observed will still be with us.

There is nothing humanly possible to remove all of them.

As one problem is resolved, another one pops up. Life is meant to be like this.

So judge rather the efforts expended than the problems solved.

There is no going around that.

Much like we are admonished, lighting that solitary candle rather than loudly cursing the darkness may be more cleansing.

KEEPING THE MALLS OF CAGAYAN DE ORO DRY

Re our own insular issue of how to keep the LKKS area and environs dry, we simply need to heed nature, and keep away from the paths it has chosen.

Growing up in the 50’s we had more respect for nature and its ways then.  The old Lapasan road from its intersection with Corrales Avenue all the way to the Camp Alagar intersection had always been elevated in relation to the land on both sides.  The trade school campus, now MUST, was traversed by Bitan-ag Creek, and a little bridge allowed the creek to pass through the highway.  And the lazy creek meandered all the way to Camama-an I believe.

And we had expected or took for granted that even without rain when the tide was high, water would fill the areas around the trade school and into the other side of the road which was largely and definitely low-lying and marshy.  Some coconut trees co-existed with other plant life like tangkong and kumpay.  Owners pretty much left the areas alone treating them like estuaries on occasions.

And humans co-existed with the lay of the land that nature gave, adapted their living and nary a word of complaint was muttered from their lips.

And with the patience of Job, everybody waited for either the tide to recede or the rain to abate.  And like clockwork, the waters squatting on land simply returned from whence they came.  And everybody was contented. People harvested the tangkong and fed their horses with the kumpay which flourished.

But after many years, and after the topography and landscape have been inexorably changed by humans, now we encounter a multiple of problems.   And public officials, businessmen, and young folks cannot understand why or worse, cannot even begin to resolve the issues.  Of course, many stop-gap measures are cranked out from the government mill.  To no avail.

Unless we want to do battle with formidable nature, I believe the solution is simple.  Keep away from its path.  Thus, decongest the areas affected. And that most likely include also the smallish poblacion area the city has, which now feels too big for its britches.

 Somber Thoughts On A New Year

Lingering hope gives impetus to continue with life.

It proffers clarity of vision to see through hazy veil

that shrouds our real purposes here on this earth.

That lowly man is here only as itinerant traveler,

preordained to begin his real life in the spirit

devoid of the constrictive trappings of the flesh.

Still, while the mind and spirit share a clear 

and unstinting grasp of our real goals in life,

keeping this frame of mind is mostly difficult.

And calamitous lapses in judgment are typical,

making it necessary to be always reminded 

of guiding principles that should rule daily living