Glaring Lights

From What the eyes cannot see

by Al John Chiong

Dark gray skies that blankets all under heaven
Stings from the cold breeze that are around me
Buzzing sounds of people moving there and then
It sure seems like it’s the same bad movie

I frantically dash looking for a sanctuary
With my washed up esteem as I carry through
Thinking I could never cope with this voyage-
A trek not worth of its mission’s crew

Stifled from infinite daunting tasks
A long list of things unravel its ugly face
That even forever cannot dare to outlast
As taunts from misery continue to dance with grace

Worry ruptures immense screams out of me
While keeping serenity that emanates the outside
But craving for hours that be
Where I get to finally dictate the route of my life’s tide

Exhaustion creeps as the hour strikes twelve
I am back to reality as I pack up to leave my plight
And my spirit starts to rejuvenate
As I make my way through the glaring lights of the night

Calamity Struck – Hard!

On September 26, 2009 – the worst rain fall (a whole month’s worth of it) in decades was experienced by Metro Manila in just less than 24 hours. This led to hundreds of people dead and hundreds of millions worth of damage to real and personal property. The result was a city in chaos at its finest. Cars were tumbled over each other, strong currents pushed aside everything in its path, thick mud was everywhere, people trapped by gushing waters – stranded on the rooftops of their homes. And more importantly the biggest whiplash is the pain, the suffering, the unspeakable horror that most people in Manila had to go through.

How can such a disaster even happen to the most developed cities of the Philippines? How come the PAG-ASA was not able to foresee the amount of rain this typhoon “Ondoy” was about to bring? How come a day before this tragedy the international stage saw that there would be massive floods that will unfold, yet we did not heed?

There are so many “How” questions more than the “Why’s” to this tale. Because aside from the fact that we already know the answer to most of the “Why’s”, it just looks like no one seems to care at all. This was an obvious brew of poor city planning and lack of social/environmental awareness. People would always debate that it’s only natural that we become reactive to the things that are improbable – but wake up! Typhoons are not shrouded by uncertainty, it is not something we cannot prepare for, and lastly, this was never new to us!

The Philippines has come to a point that majority of the population just do not care anymore. We are in this false state of being infallible, sheer apathy against the country we were taught to love and swear to fight for. But where are we now? Apparently, 90% of people I know would want to work abroad in a heartbeat and close to 75% would want to migrate somewhere else with their family and relatives – isn’t this an indication enough that our country sucks big time? I even heard the daughter of the former President Cory Aquino, Kris Aquino say, “Bilib talaga ako sa mga Pilipino, kapag merong kalamidad tulad nitong si Ondoy, ay talagang nag tutulungan tayo.” But is this how we truly measure our values and strength of character now as a nation? That we have to wait for natural and man made catastrophes for us to stand up to the plate? Then when all is said and done, we go back to our lazy-ass selves?

If there is one message that all of these misfortunes would want to tell us, it is that we are not seeking for ways to improve but we just keep moving forward. Kaizen, as the Japanese would coin it, is advocating for the continuous hunger for the need of improvement. Sadly, Filipinos as we are, we dubbed this as “Kasi eh…” or “because uhmmm…” which connotes a cheap excuse and a refusal to accept responsibility. As a nation, we continue to find the easy way out and end up learning nothing because our fate as a Filipino is only as good as the efforts we put into it – which in this case, sad to say, isn’t much.

Pea Brain!

How important a role is it to represent a business entity?
Much more on the task of running it?
Have you stumbled upon dumb and dumber somewhere?

Apparently they are out there – a million and one of them just waiting to ruin someone’s happy day. These people are the ones we know that are on Santa’s naughty list year on year. They never seem to run out of ways to start or fuel a stressful situation that, if they were a tiny bit smarter, would have never occurred in the first place!

Maybe its lack of training, mentoring or performance tracking but whatever it is, if you are in your right mind – you should execute the job you’re paid for in a manner that meets the norm. Or is the new norm waaaaay below standard now?

These airheads come with different faces, names (and sizes, mind you!) – Anywhere from assholes to zipless!

But from the book I read about body language, it warns us of grumpy people that have been exuding dissatisfaction/negative energy most of their lives. This can be seen by their down-mouthed expression, an expression similar to a bulldog’s face. If you just take the time to notice, there are a couple of them especially the ones sitting all day long behind a government office counter. (The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease: 2004)

Smarts, they say – is nurtured thru time and experience.

Intelligence on the other hand is mostly hereditary as the brain faculties play a big part in thinking and processing thought as seen by tests made by scientists thru an FMRI.

But more than any of these two, the experts conclude that the brain works just like any other muscle in your body. If you want to get the most of out if, you need to keep using it or you’ll lose it! Brain power is built through continuous firing of neurons in the cerebrum; this is its way of strengthening itself. But hey, this blog is not about “How to improve your Brain Power – for Idiots.” This blog is for all the idiots in the world to know that they are idiots (first and foremost). And they will continue to be idiots until someone, or hopefully themselves, do something rational about it.

Anyhow, unintelligible people are permanently weaved in the DNA of our society, its part of the entire system of functionality in which we revolve around day to day. I personally cannot think of a world that doesn’t have them, it would seem so odd and utopia-like.

The Heist of Life

From What the eyes cannot see

Why is it that…

When you wake up, your eyes feel a lot heavier than before you slept?
Just when we got the things we want, we still want something more?
Most people that are in a hurry are the ones getting late?
You brought home the bacon but still felt empty inside?
Some go to church and hear mass every Sunday but found no God?
We cannot tell what is too hot and too cold from a distance?

Are these the faculties of the world we gait with? Or are these merely some erratic freak of nature that is non-falsifiable? Given the social fabric of today, we are more empirically inclined to immerse ourselves in societal culture and understanding. We cannot afford to remain ignorant with the all the things that we are exposed to in our daily activities.

But have you ever felt that everything has its price? One day when you are laughing with your friends, enjoying the zest of the moment... have you felt that there might be some swing to balance that? And sooner or later you will be on you bed, alone, hurt and sobbing your heart out?

There are instances when men of history that are found to be the catalyst of change themselves.. Successful, rich, intellectual, educationally upright and highly influential.. Still have a dark side hidden beneath their story. The great Vincent Van Gogh, Constantinople, Bill Clinton and even Michael Jackson, to name a few, were really successful in art, warfare, politics and music. But there is always that unforeseen twist that covers their lives.

When you thought you are on a high, things begin to erode without warning. They collapse and hit you hard like boulder falling damn straight towards you. One question remains, are you ready for that? Some say its only incidental that, fallible that we are, to have these coasters happening. Others say it’s “Karma” of which the cycle of life and living evolves.

Whatever it is, just know that life can bring gifts of joy as easily as it shares its grief. As I have read somewhere, “it’s all in the way you see things. When perception changes, everything changes.”

Confusion

Con•fu•sion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (kn-fyzhn)n.

• The act of confusing or the state of being confused
• An instance of being confused
• Psychology. Impaired orientation with respect to time, place, or person in a disturbed mental state.
• Disturbance of consciousness characterized by inability to engage in orderly thought or by lack of power to distinguish, choose, or act decisively
• Disorder resulting from a failure to behave predictably
• A mental state characterized by a lack of clear and orderly thought and behavior
• A feeling of embarrassment that leaves you confused
• An act causing a disorderly combination of elements with identities lost and distinctions blended

Confusion.. What a word! I have been treading onto this life for more than 25 years now and everyday when I'd look myself in the mirror I still cannot find myself standing comfortably with the person that I am. For whatever reason, i just feel like there is something more than what I have been accomplishing in the past years. People think that if living is so simple then some genius would have already formulated an equation on how to live life and be successful at it! NOT!

No one has ever lived life the way they expected or even strove it to be. I hardly know a few who have been successful in this quest for happiness and contentment.. And most of them have white hair or no hair at all left on them before they found themselves to be in such well envied state. Living is so complex in itself that I tend to overlook the things that are supposed to be the "obvious" priorities that one has to undertake to be in a state of "nirvana" (in its most respectful sense).

So why is it so hard to behave predictably and act in socially acceptable ways hoping to find happiness in there? Pretty simple actually, its because these there are too many erratic variables involved in our daily activities and interactions. One of which is the one that separates us from anything else, and that is the heart. The emotions that we feel, the actions we take, the consequences we ignore, attachments we commit to.. And more.. All of these burn inside like clashing waves and you are right in the middle, just there like deadwood.

So why are we confused? You tell me.

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