Unhappiness is Another Story
Happiness can put such a damper on the imagination. When one is happy, one believes himself also content. Nothing kills the imagination as much as contentment. “Who could ask for anything more” as the song goes. The mind is a placid plateau, finding no need for further elevation. A serene mind is a docile mind, with tendencies towards being boring.
Now, unhappiness, that’s another story. Discontent is winter impatient for spring. The mind, far from hibernating, is in the thick of plans for the thaw. The body may be inactive, but schemes incubate in the mind. Whether the end product is balut, or live ducklings intended for propagation is secondary. The Prime Directive is: Face spring with a vengeance.
Case in point. A couple, both rendered jobless by a cruel twist of fate or by plain rotten luck, wonders about this month’s rent and electricity bills. The woman, to literally compound matters, is pregnant with their first baby. Now the thing about first babies is that the pre-natal experience sets a precedent. If enough resources are available to the couple to make expecting junior a walk in the proverbial park, chances are junior’s kid bro or sis may not be too far behind in the making. However, if conditions prove otherwise, junior may become an only child for quite some time, if not permanently.
This couple’s case definitely is as far from a picture of happiness and contentment as real life can get. They plan and scheme with both short- and long-term goals. Fate, or bad planning, may cut them down. That doesn’t stop them from making other plans. If they’re lucky, or if they plan better this time, they are rewarded with favorable results. The rent is met, Meralco doesn’t send its wire cutters and perhaps even a toss into baby’s piggy bank is made.
Is this spring? Not yet. Is this happiness? Far from it. Spring for this couple is when the baby comes, kicking and screaming, into this debt-ridden world. Happiness is when all the baby bills are met with a minimum of effort, when the acquisition of necessities is a task, not a problem. It is when baby nurses contentedly on mama’s breast, while the proud father, secure in the completed task of propagating his genes, looks on.
But while happiness remains a state yet to be achieved, the couple in our story continues to host a vivid imagination. This may or may not include occassional trips to the lotto station, a foray or two into get-rich quick pyramid schemes. This is the time when our couple’s minds are at their peak. As long as they don’t get lulled into the Top 40 love song mindset of “just as long as we have love” genre of happiness, they will be OK, spirited, and definitely NOT boring. ###
Mickey Mouse is Older than My Dad
My father turns 69 next week. Much as I would like to rib him with the innuendoes associated with the number, I can’t—he is, after all, my father.
Nine years ago, shortly after he retired from the company that he joined immediately after he graduated from college, my dad bought a PC and got himself an ISP. He soon got the hang of a host of other acronyms, he could mind his mb’s and his kbps. He signed up two email addresses (one was his backup). He learned that a gig did not always mean a singing engagement, and that a virus can give his box not just a cold, but the blue screen of death.
I began receiving text messages from him (he learned to text only after retirement, heretofore using his mobile phone exclusively for fielding calls) more often than not in the middle of the day. This was when I was five hundred and sixty nine kilometers away from Cebu. He made me his tech support specialist, only patronizing his local dealer when I told him his box needed opening and if he wanted me to do it he’d have to send me airfare. My dad is, if nothing else, frugal.
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Me and my Babies
The little baby is Maia when she was five months old. The big baby is Maui, who is twelve. 
A-Mazed
In mid-September we went on our first family outing here in Iligan. We went to Maze Park and Resort, and stayed there overnight. This photo was taken at their huge garden. They have three swimming pools, a mini zoo, lots of places for walks, and cages upon cages of lovebirds.
About Me
