Be a blessing
Two years in intermittent lockdowns. And you are still here. Safe at home with your loved ones while…
The art of long looking
Speaking of surge, there is a tsunami that is about to overwhelm us. It’s the digital wave that…
Preserving every hometown’s story
I have never been to Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental. I heard that it is one of the…
Owning more books than one can read
MY overflowing bookshelves have been a constant bone of contention for Aurit, my wife, and me. “Why do…
Designated ‘martir’ in the family
IF there is a designated survivor for a government in crisis, there is a designated caregiver in the…
What empty nest?
IN the traditional scenario, at this stage of our life, my wife and I are supposed to enjoy…
Going back to the wellsprings
With the unexpected death of a former president in his sleep combined with the demise of acquaintances who…
Beauty and strength in our brokenness
Nowadays, many people we know are hurting. Hurting deeply inside. My wife has lately been following a pair…
A nation of ‘pwede na’
“Men bungle their affairs. Everywhere, I see incompetence rampant, incompetence triumphant.” That was in a book written 50…
Shintaro Katsu’s ‘Zatoichi’ revisited
Old timers like me want to revisit old loves and past guilty pleasures. It so happened that during…
‘False positivity’
Thanks to this pandemic, we learned two new medical terms: “False positive” and “false negative.” When a test…
The other Murphy’s Laws
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong or its shorter version: whatever can go wrong, will. This…
Lingering presence
Angelito, Eman and Hammy. Why can’t I seem to forget them? I never had a deep connection with…
The star of your own biopic
One good thing I like about this pandemic is that it has dimmed the spotlight on the “self.”…
Old souls, beautiful souls
I am in my late 60s, going into my 70s. By usual reckoning, consider me old indeed. But…
The inner net
Dismaying, dispiriting, heartbreaking. Those are the feelings I get when I scan the news and the latest social-…
It may be so, I don’t know
There is so much happening in our world right now, and everyone has an opinion about everything. Right…
A listening heart for a suffering world
MY wife sometimes complains that I am too available, giving attention to almost anybody who wants me even…
A listening heart for a suffering world
MY wife sometimes complains that I am too available, giving attention to almost anybody who wants me even…
Observe Holy Week by watching good movies
IT was a hot Sunday in summer long before the pandemic. As the priest was delivering an interminable…
Of captions and subtitles
When watching any film or video, I automatically click on the subtitle option. Subtitles are written translations of…
What Jesus can teach ad makers
One daily habit I picked up as a marooned senior during this pandemic is tuning in to online…
Season of the lens
“OH Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.” I chuckled when I first encountered those words taken from…
Optics is the word
IT was ludicrous. There they were, high government officials and the media all solemnly watching the boxes of…
Of titles and entitlements
Day in and day out, we address people of rank who answer to various honorific titles such as…
Lets make ‘edible’ cities
Living in the city doesn’t pay. It costs. A large part of this cost is the expensive food…
Gift from heaven
IT seems that in Metro Manila nowadays, consumers are increasingly becoming exasperated about the soaring prices of everything,…
Prematurely aged minds
WE eavesdrop on two male friends, inside a famous coffee shop, having a conversation: -Di ba nag-kwan kayo…
Holy four-letter word!
There’s a Netflix series about cursing etymology called The History of Swear Words hosted by Nicolas Cage. It’s…
Benny was his name
When I was in elementary, like all good Catholic boys, I put to memory the Guardian Angel’s prayer:…
Book titles as koans
Some book lovers are ensnared by the cover design. Me, I’m into titles. Catcher in the Rye, The…
Stay relevant: Let your age roam free
Act your age has been the traditional admonition. Today, seniors are told to do the same way in…
A vaccine called humor
Truth to tell, I had this topic in mind for quite a while now but I held back…
A Christmas without end
There was a boy who found a bottle that glowed brightly. Fascinated, he uncorked it and out came…
‘Woke’ the talk of Christmas
This Christmas, as usual my cell phone would be swamped with well-meaning Christmas greetings and messages shared by…
What if the British had stayed?
During the Seven Years’ War in Europe, Spain allied with France against Great Britain. In response, the British…
The view from the treetop
IN my file of old clippings, I came across a news item about a woman who climbed a…
Puppetry: Animation without the huge expense
Long before I was able to have my first glimpse of Walt Disney’s animated characters such as Mickey…
Who really owns your life?
Granted you have a title that says you are the owner of this impressive looking house or that…
Unmasking our human moments
While the pandemic has forced us to cover our faces with masks when in public places, it has…
My personal ‘bakit’ list
Humankind has made enormous scientific and technological progress over the past century. And even though science has pushed…
The monkey trap
There is a Filipino word for this: kapit-tuko. It is an affliction characterized by a great desire to…
A lesson in four letters
Classes in schools all over the country have officially been resumed, albeit virtually. But even those of us…
The lost art of ‘pakiramdam’
IN Batanes in northern Philippines, “Honk UR Horn” signs are posted at every blind curve on steep, winding,…
The Maskerade
‘Thanks to face masks, I see less ugly people,” I quipped to my wife recently. She just scoffed…
The future of learning: It’s not textbooks
I have been quietly observing my grandkids as they trailblaze their way through the new era of blended…
Suffocating me softly
Many of us were shaken by the video in which a black man was kneed down hard by…
Closed to you
IN our childhood, two of the first English words we learned were “close” and “open.” In our more…
So much in just one lifetime
Today, one lifetime can cover as much as 8 decades, depending on one’s physical condition and constitution. I’m…
The times call for ‘kwek-kwek’ thinking
IN primary school, on our way home, a few classmates and I would often help ourselves to cheap…
In the palm of our hand
Given the present predicament that people around the world find themselves in, it is only right to ask:…
In art is our salvation
The steep drop in our GDP (deep recession) and our inability to contain the surging Covid-19 infections have…
Pull the plug on life as usual
“Are you on maintenance?” This is one inevitable question that usually comes up when senior acquaintances and friends…
An inheritance of non-material riches
Maybe something about this long pandemic has made me feel like we are nearing end times. Or perhaps…
‘Kalooban’: The Filipino’s inner core
I am an avid Filipino armchair tourist, and while watching travel documentaries, I sometimes feel a sense of…
Blinded
Part Two IN one of his books about patients with neurological disorders, the late neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote…
Choosing to be blind
Part One When I was in college I witnessed a poignant scene: a line of blind people behind…
The fascinating origins of Filipino words
AS a writer, words are my stock-in-trade. I have written in English as well as in the vernacular.…
Something light to cap the night’s TV bingeing
I have been gorging on documentaries and selected movies during the long lockdown. Many of them are heavy…
Cool lemonade out of lemons
Disruption is a term that the world of technology appropriated to describe the various new app innovations that…
TikTok epidemic
This protracted lockdown is giving many of us more idle time than we can handle. Feeling restless and…
The Filipino as water
IF there is one thing that keeps me hopeful about this pandemic, it’s the feeling that Filipinos will…
The indigenous heart and soul
There is a street in Quezon City where right smack in the middle is an old tree. In…
Walk, don’t drive or ride
While most of us have been marooned inside our respective dwellings, many have been forced to walk: a…
Tourism is storytelling
ON the few occasions I was able to go abroad, what I eagerly sought out were the people,…
Don’t wake me up when it’s over
Many people are having problems about staying at home during this period of enforced quarantine. They constantly whine…
Random notes from the bunker
Like everybody, I have voluntarily stayed at home for the past few weeks, observing the government’s imposed community…
Waiting for the ripe time
“Kung para sa iyo, para sa iyo” – Filipino saying After graduation, my son was very impatient to…
Connectedness
IN the Philippines it pays to be “connected.” The street lingo is, “May konek ka ba?” Konek means…
Self-quarantine can be a good thing
Social distancing and self-quarantine. These are the new terms that have gained traction recently in the wake of…
Learn from the success of ‘Parasite’
By winning the Oscar’s Best Picture, the Korean film Parasite not only made history, it also set a…
Mainstreaming literary works on prime-time TV
Long before Nick Lizaso became CCP president and now NCCA chairman, he often sat down with me simply…
When you get to meet your past again
Just recently, I was able to reunite with my former boardinghouse mates. They are like “ghosts” who came…
Aged to perfection
The title is an advertising blurb for liquor a product, and that it is supposed to project the…
A woman named Elsa
Ageless. If there is one person who deserves to be given that description it must be Elsa V.…
Songs that mentored me
IF someone were to ask me: What were the biggest influences in my 60 plus years? Of course,…
We can never thank them enough
I recently watched an Indian film on Netflix called Billu about an impoverished barber in a remote forgotten…
Travel notes: A senior couple’s trip together
IT is said that if you can imagine it, it will happen. But sometimes even if you don’t…
How my wife taught me what good writing should be
AS the eldest of eight children, my wife, Aurit, had put it upon herself the burden of caring…
Travel notes: A senior couple’s trip together
IT is said that if you imagine it, it will happen. But, sometimes, even if you don’t imagine…
The lighter side of senior life
I once had an idea for a TV show that would be a senior counterpart to the Kulit…
Not old, simply gold
Why the white hair? Don’t you dye it? You look great except for the white hair. That came…
Closure
Remember the time you left home for an out-of-town trip and then the thought hits you that you…
Tales from the LRT courtesy coach
The LRT Line 2 train runs from Santolan station in Pasig City to Recto Avenue station in downtown…
People from my past (2)
“All good things come to those who wait.”—Old Testament People always want to be in total control of…
People from my past (1)
“There are places I remember,” croons the late John Lennon. But in my case, let me tell you…
Techno bane or boon?
THE truth is smartphones can be harmful and even fatal. A snake catcher died after trying to kiss…
Reversal of fortune
SOMETIME ago, Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the Japanese car giant Nissan, had been hailed by the world’s car…
Read, read against the dying of the light
IS anyone out there still reading books? The realization hit me a while ago as I was looking…
The dance called marriage
UPON marrying me, Aurit, my wife, put a finis to a promising career as a concert pianist. That…
The dance called marriage
UPON marrying me, Aurit, my wife, put a finish to a promising career as a concert pianist. That…
Games of the mind
IN an ad agency where I worked during my younger days, there was an account executive who spent…
The gift of an unhurried day
“Dawn pours into the steaming cup We drink the light of day Our days are garlands— strung berries…
The uncertainty of certainty
I WAS confidently and even arrogantly presenting my ideas. I thought they were very good and getting the…
Yes, there is a third act
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD is credited with this famous line: “There are no second acts in American lives,” which…
Rebooted lives: Easter thoughts
“We must die to one life, before we can enter another.” — Anatole France I encountered the term…
The Filipino name game
FIFTY years or so from now, I can imagine grandkids calling out to their Lolo Bryan, Lolo Kevin,…
The man who discovered Nora Aunor
I MET the man very casually while waiting for people interested in investing in a new TV show. …
We are the last generation
THE running joke is that we—seniors, people of the golden sunset—are on a predeparture lounge waiting for our…
Life’s little incongruities
CONSIDER this: As an old friend was on the phone receiving the news that his agency got the…