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Sunday, July 18, 2010

foundation tale

In the days leading to and after VJ's wedding, some of our relatives from the US arrived and we had the chance to hang out and nourish family ties. Ate Pinky and her husband Joel Harden were first to fly in (they had a taping for TFC's game show Wowowee); they were followed by Tito Bong, Ate Nenette, and Kuya Mario and, a couple of weeks later, by Ate Gigi, the wife of Kuya Bebot.

Ate Pinky shoots great pictures: she took my photo above with the New York skyline as the backdrop. One of love's happiest days was played out in this metropolis, and it truly is an exciting place- a city of soaring skyscrapers and vertical ambitions, a grid for anonymity, self-reinvention and, yes, sex- spectral desire that flickers and shifts like the electric stars lighting and magically transforming this drab skyline into romance each night.

New York as 20th c. financial capital is part of global mythology and, consequently, global Pinoy mythology: one possesses her (or in some cases is possessed by her) even before stepping on her shores. My first memory of this city- serving perhaps as its foundation tale for me- happened in fourth grade when my social studies teacher Mrs. Libunao made tsismis about an encounter here between then first lady Imelda Marcos and former American first lady Jackie Kennedy, after JFK's assassination and before she married Onassis.

According to one "blue lady" (a kind of lady-in-waiting of Mrs. Marcos)- the mother of one of our classmates- Mrs. Marcos and the blue ladies were in New York for one of her shopping sprees when she chanced upon Mrs. Kennedy looking at some pieces of jewelry in a shop (Van Cleef & Arpels?). They had never been introduced and knew each other only by reputation.

After Mrs. Kennedy left, Mrs. Marcos asked the salesman if Mrs. Kennedy had especially liked any piece.

Indeed she had, the salesman replied, sensing a kill. A stunning emerald necklace.

Oh I have enough money on me for that, Mrs. Marcos said, and proceeded to purchase the necklace which she immediately sent to Mrs. Kennedy's Fifth Avenue apartment as a getting-to-know-you gift.

Now comes the moral of this fourth-grade tale (hearsay in any case).

Before the Philippine shopping delegation left New York, Mrs. Marcos received a parcel in her hotel suite (she liked to hold court at the Waldorf-Astoria)- it was from Mrs. Kennedy and contained the emerald necklace and a note.

On powder blue stationery, Mrs. Kennedy wrote: Thank you for your lovely gift Mrs. Marcos, but I cannot accept this- it would be better to use the money to help the hungry people in the Philippines.

Our entire class of fourth-graders gave a collective gasp- we couldn't understand why Mrs. Kennedy didn't just take the expensive necklace- one that she apparently liked! It took many social studies classes later- many rallies, perhaps even EDSA- before we understood the complexities of public service ethics, gift-giving etiquette, debt-service and all that.

Had Mrs. Kennedy not returned the gift, my classmates and I would probably still be paying for that emerald necklace today! Because of her faux pas, Mrs. Marcos certainly added a priceless pearl of wisdom to her tiara (during the country's experiment with monarchy, she possessed at least three tiaras plus a crown- check out other Philippine Republic jewels, formerly Marcos jewels, here). Jackie's lesson on how to do the right thing, coupled with other life lessons since then, surely contributed to the political longevity of Imelda (Mrs. Marcos has since turned less regal- more democratic- and was recently elected her Ilocos district's representative in Congress).