Thursday, August 6

MS Lives on

The "trip" from the church to the cemetery took more than nine hours. I can't bear that. My back would surely ache. I would have reached Ilocos already.

As for the ceremony, it's when I learned to appreciate Kris' sincerity in her speech. I ALMOST cried (darn, I'm very much insensitive nowadays). I was touched with Lea's patriotic rendition of "Bayan Ko" which really blew me away. Regine had "The Prayer's" Italian lyrics changed to English so that she won't mess up, which I appreciated more than doing the wrong thing. And I totally got lost with Piolo Pascual's number. Fine, it's the eagerness to sing for the late president that matters most.

-o0o-

I'm currently on my advanced communications track and I'm on my fourth speech in the interpretive reading manual. It's like I'm going back to my literature years where I read Khuswant Singh's "Karma" in the short story project, Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" for poetry and "Valjean's Soliloquy" from the play "Les Miserables" for monodrama.

Last night, I got to present a play. And in coherence to our theme "Country Service" it's time to pay homage to the Filipino artists who have made our country proud for dominating in this play - "Miss Saigon." God! The time alloted for the project is 13-15 minutes which really made me combine "Who's in Town" and "You Will Not Touch Him" portions of the musical. And since it is indeed a musical, I got to sing the entire piece since it would be so weird to have them spoken.

Though I knew in myself that I really messed up, knowing that Toastmasters evaluations gives positive feedback with some points of improvement, they found it great. Besides, having the nerve to act out those three characters while singing in different pitch, in front of some people is already an achievement. I just needed proper pacing since they've also observed that I was rushing to finish the performance. Nevertheless, it was okay - not great as according to them. And I'm happy that it's over and that I could move on to the next project - the oratorical speech. Which should I choose, Obama's or Cory's inaugural speech?

Wednesday, August 5

Tita Cory

I grew up not looking at her with high regard. She's not a hotshot president. Her presidency had a lot of coups, the economy was down, and brown outs. To begin with, I live in a family where an authoritarian leader rules - my mom - who's a loyalist to Marcos.

Honestly I was just apathetic about her death. I mean it's sad that she passed away, but okay, at least it ended her suffering. I wasn't really affected... until this evening when I heard a portion of the necrological service.

A few days ago, people along Ayala Avenue had fallen yellow confetti along the street. TV specials were named "Salamat Tita Cory." If GMA will die, same thing might happen - there will be confetti and there are also TV specials entitled "Salamat Papa Jesus."

Seriously, people address her as Tita Cory not because she's related to them by blood. Being a president with the big heart, she had been the mother of the country for six years. And Tita, because she has been a symbol of a perfect mother for us - showering that unconditional love inspite and despite of all our imperfections.

To you Tita Cory, thank you and God bless. May you continue to pray for our country... and may you poke the head of that old dwarf woman.