It’s always greener on the other side

“The truth is that where you stand does affect what you see.”  William Kaplan, Why Dissent Matters (2017) Rosario and I were inseparable when we were in high school. We did things together during our classes. We were seated side by side in the classroom, studied together and had lunch together to update ourselves with the latest gossips.… Read More »

Waiting for Grace

“Ubos, ubos biyaya, mayat maya’y nakatunganga.” From my wife’s collection of Tagalog proverbs. “The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep somewhere else another stops.” Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot.  By Rey Moreno Grace loved her family so much. So at age 17, she decided to look for a job… Read More »

The greatest story ever told (A three-act play)

(When reading or listening about the life of Jesus, the greatest story ever told, I keep wondering what the conversations would be like. This three-act play is meant to do just that. For its historical context, I refer to the Four Gospels of the New Testament. The characters, therefore, are real, but the conversations are merely fictional. They… Read More »

The first moral struggle of Samuel

“For to travel is always, in some sense, to learn. What we don’t know yet, is to be found Elsewhere.” – Hugh Kenner, The Elsewhere Community (1998). By Rey Moreno My name is Samuel “Rocky” Magtaka. My first name was not an accident. My parents were deeply religious Catholics, so were my grandparents and also my ancestors who… Read More »

The greatest story ever told

(A three-act play) When reading or listening about the life of Jesus, the greatest story ever told, I keep wondering what the conversations would be like. This three-act play is meant to do just that. For its historical context, I refer to the Four Gospels of the New Testament. The characters, therefore, are real, but the conversations are… Read More »

Pure love

“When we are kind, it makes us happy. It makes us think less about ourselves.” Jonathan Reckford, Our Better Angels, (2019) In the waiting room of a small clinic, where I await patiently for my wife to come out from her yearly medical check-up, I hear a commotion going on in a room designated for blood testing. A… Read More »

The watering of memories

“There are so many things one would like to preserve with words but which are forever lost.” Simone de Beauvoir, The Mandarins (1954) Just like a coin has two sides, so is the word “watering” in this context. One is the washing away; the other is all about nurturing. In the process of aging, the watering of memories… Read More »

Echoes and Footsteps

“I think that inside all of us…is a devil just dying to break out. Most of us, we know how to keep him penned up. We lock him away in a personal jail with bars of morality. But sometimes, he’s able to pry those bars apart, just enough to slip out. And if he’s been in there for… Read More »

The Notorious RBG

The Notorious RBG “I would like to be remembered as someone who used whatever talent she had to do her work to the very best of her ability.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Being a male, it’s very natural to idolise someone in the same sex but not the opposite. But because it is now the 21 st century, considering… Read More »

I’m ready!

I’m ready! “But what now if all the peace, the comfort, the contentment were to come to a horrible end?” – Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis. I have a good life. How can I complain when I had drawn the lucky stick, being born in a rich, middle-class family? My parents had professional careers: dad was a surgical doctor… Read More »