Safe Journey
My bosom friend is leaving the country for good.
My friend is not a lawyer. A management engineering graduate who has the singular privilege to practice what was learned from Melchor Hall of the University of the Philippines, my friend views things and situations differently - more objective, less passionate, more grounded, less pedantic.
My friend solves problems based on the time-tested scientific method, not on scholastic argumentation and debate. There is no leap of logic or faith, only a step-by-step approach to an objective conclusion. The arrival to solutions comes only after exhausting all possible variances. In short, my friend believes God exists not because the Bible tells it so but because there is an ordered universe. To which I reminded that we lawyers had to create God to get us out of the chaos we devised.
We lost touch after graduating from secondary school. But quite recently, we renewed our friendship after a chance encounter. I believe in chance encounters, my friend does not, she believes in fate. And as is wont with anybody who have not seen someone for the past quarter century, there was so much catching up to do, reliving tales of adventures and misadventures, yarns of past crushes, the who-is-with-whom and the why-did-they-end-up-together, the what-happened-to-this-guy-or-girl, the romantic escapades, trysts and heart-breaking episodes of the past, etc. In short, what every Filipino excels in: tsismis.
Till now, we never run out of stories to tell. The past is an endless meandering of misdeeds, misdemeanors, and misbehaviors which we still live to tell.
Sadly, I learned their petition to migrate years ago has been approved and my friend is leaving today for good. The whole family will be uprooted not to seek greener pastures, after all, they are well-off. They are leaving to secure a better future for their children.
I will miss the friendship, the conversations, and the arguments. I will miss the hearty laugh, the sarcastic wit, the animated contorted face while my friend yarns off a funny tale. I will miss the coffee while engaged in polemical argument about life, religion and politics. But most of all, I will miss a pearl of great price, a friend who once I lost but now have found. Thank you for the brief encounter.
Safe journey, my friend, and as you go forth, may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
My friend is not a lawyer. A management engineering graduate who has the singular privilege to practice what was learned from Melchor Hall of the University of the Philippines, my friend views things and situations differently - more objective, less passionate, more grounded, less pedantic.
My friend solves problems based on the time-tested scientific method, not on scholastic argumentation and debate. There is no leap of logic or faith, only a step-by-step approach to an objective conclusion. The arrival to solutions comes only after exhausting all possible variances. In short, my friend believes God exists not because the Bible tells it so but because there is an ordered universe. To which I reminded that we lawyers had to create God to get us out of the chaos we devised.
We lost touch after graduating from secondary school. But quite recently, we renewed our friendship after a chance encounter. I believe in chance encounters, my friend does not, she believes in fate. And as is wont with anybody who have not seen someone for the past quarter century, there was so much catching up to do, reliving tales of adventures and misadventures, yarns of past crushes, the who-is-with-whom and the why-did-they-end-up-together, the what-happened-to-this-guy-or-girl, the romantic escapades, trysts and heart-breaking episodes of the past, etc. In short, what every Filipino excels in: tsismis.
Till now, we never run out of stories to tell. The past is an endless meandering of misdeeds, misdemeanors, and misbehaviors which we still live to tell.
Sadly, I learned their petition to migrate years ago has been approved and my friend is leaving today for good. The whole family will be uprooted not to seek greener pastures, after all, they are well-off. They are leaving to secure a better future for their children.
I will miss the friendship, the conversations, and the arguments. I will miss the hearty laugh, the sarcastic wit, the animated contorted face while my friend yarns off a funny tale. I will miss the coffee while engaged in polemical argument about life, religion and politics. But most of all, I will miss a pearl of great price, a friend who once I lost but now have found. Thank you for the brief encounter.
Safe journey, my friend, and as you go forth, may the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.
posted by Edwin Lacierda | 2:42 AM
5 Comments:
kami rin aalis na rin. btw, galing rin kami sa parehong unibersidad. di kami mahilig sa politika. alam namin wala ng pag-asa dito. kagaya lang ni jim paredes na umalis na rin.
Ed,
There is absolutely no need to be sad, though parting is such sweet sorrow as the Bard says. And it is further true that we Filipinos tend to treat EMIGRANTS much as we do the recently and dearly departed...with much chagrin mixed in at the fact that if the United States is their destinations, they are on their way to the First World, which is somehow closer to heaven than the Third Level from which they are going. And chagrin is often at the more benign end of the reaction and description of their move from others.
But as one resurrected from emigration I can tell u that the world is not so large that those who go are lost to the Archipelago forever.
Though I've been bothered lately by a relatively new thought...perhaps the country failed because we were not forced to make it work ... too many could always take the ticket out...yet can you begrudge them?
the best thing about goodbyes are the prospects of reunions.
Actually...the world has gotten too small. We had a friend leave for the US recently too...now I talk to him more often than before he left. Check out Google Talk...it's awesome!
OFFTOPIC but impt...just reading the House Committee Report on Garci...just struck me: WHY HAVN'T GLOBE/SMART phone records been subpoenaed to determine if the Garci calls were really made at the times indicated?? I think the upper ups of Globe and Smart HAVE ALREADY CHECKED their records and know the truth! What would it take to pry it from their cold gray hands? Nothing would nail the reality of the conversations faster than millisecond coincidence.
Post a Comment
<< Home