Another Year Older

When my life hit a mid-century mark six years ago, I did a serious soul-searching. I looked back at my footprints, examined the things I did and the things I missed doing. And from that life's  new vantage point, I looked forward and made a bucket list of the things to do in the next 10, 20 or so years. Below is a part of the blog I wrote about the bucket list.

Visiting places I once dreamed to be, tops in my list. In the blog I wrote for my 50th birthday (Turning Five-O), I said  'I know there is a big wide beautiful world out there waiting to be explored. I'd love to meet the god and goddesses in their ancient territories in Greece; climb up to the top the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France; wander around the Stonehenge in England; jump into a camel's hump for a ride around the Pyramids in Egypt; or sample the foods along the streets of Florence, Italy'. Added to this is a visit to the Land Down Under! In my wishful thinking, a week-long travel to any of these places, one place per year, will keep my travel plans booked for the next ten years.

So where I am now so far, 6 years after? I guess, here and there!

                  

  Ayers Rock or Uluru in  Central Australia        Sydney, Australia waiting for the 

                                                                         new year 2014  to usher in.

                            

August 2016, Went to Paris, France just recently but did not get the chance to climb up to the top of the Eiffel tower, but I roamed around the mysterious Stonehenge in Salisbury, England.

                            

Wandered in the narrow cobblestone streets in Florence, Italy but I had never sampled their street foods.

Life's journey has been good. Been to many places not found on the bucket list. I still have get into the camel's hump and meet the gods and goddesses in Greece. But as I strike out items after items from the list, new items show up. This list may never get shorter, as the years keep coming to my life and only if I am still able.

For now, am just thankful as I start anew with another year in my life. Happy birthday, to me!

My Share of Politics

Politics was never a part of me while growing up. Largely because my parents were apolitical. It does not really  mean discussions about something politics in the households were nonexistent, then. There were, however, very limited - to  information that were disseminated through the radio, if not by word of mouth. My first awareness of an election was the  Macapagal-Marcos presidential election in 1965. No, I wasn't a voter that time! I waited for 16 years before I could, when voting age was still at 21.

I developed interests in political activism in college, as I moved from a far-flung village, where life is so naive and is plainly simple, to a metropolitan where the daily conundrum seems to involve politics. Even in the campus, some 'left-leaning' student organizations had their way, despite of the school's strict and highly restrictive regulations, engaging fellow students with extra-academic issues including socio-political activism. Got a few classmates and friends who were active, and had been out in the streets in rallies and demonstrations.

Not until I did my graduate work in UP-Diliman that politics slowly started rooting in my being. In the early afternoon of August 21, 1983, while we, the dormitory residents, were doing our sportsfest, news broke that Ninoy Aquino was assassinated in the Manila International Airport, on his arrival back to the Philippines. Waves and waves of demonstrations and protests were held daily following the well-staged event. And then, I found myself among so many, shouting and chanting, as we braved the heat and exhaustion, while walking from the Diliman campus down to Plaza Miranda.

I learned that as a citizen, I can't just be pathetic, indifferent or numb. I was endowed with senses of sight and hearing to see and hear how things are going around us, and the mental faculty to evaluate how the unfolding of events impact us and the generations who'll come after us. I was moved by the this question which relentlessly reverberated in the halls of UP - 'sinong kikilos kung walang kikilos, sinong kibo kung walang kikibo, kung hindi ngayon, kailan pa?'. There was my eureka moment. That I have the freedom to express what's on my mind, to be part of the voice that speaks for those who never had the chance to vent their minds.

I realized that politics is a way of life, not just only during elections. People choose individuals to lead the reins of governance who are in turn expected to protect the interests and to better the lives of the governed. But the politics we have known today has transcended way beyond the welfare of the governed, with interests permeating and funneled to personal gains and enrichment. To allow this unscrupulous practice to keep going is for the governed to do nothing!

Makibaka! Get involved!