ilustrado

Macmillan held the international launch of Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco in Manila and Cebu this past week. The novel won the Grand Prize for the Novel in English at the 2008 Palanca Awards (with Mr. H as chair of the panel of judges). In November of 2008, it won the Man Asian Literary Prize.

I got to meet the author "Chuck" when he was still preparing his manuscript for publication. I found him articulate, friendly and down-to-earth. Here's a picture I took of him with two other lovely people: London-based poet/ actress Mida Azada and National Book Development Board (NBDB) executive director/ fictionist Andrea Pasion-Flores.

Some interesting articles on the global launch are here and here. A great interview on the writer's life and work habits is here.

Ilustrado's US book tour schedule is here.

Join what Miguel Syjuco calls the "great discussion" by getting your copy from Amazon (European/ Canadian cover or Philippine/ American cover) or from National Book Store (at a special introductory price of Php 308, 20% off the SRP of Php 385, until the end of April).

Get inspired to write and create!

summer fling

animation for a cause

Our creative boutique recently completed animation to promote the Housing Microfinance program of microfinance institution Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI) and partners. I'm grateful to Dr. Joji Reyes and Gloria Guevarra of GHK International and Development for Poor Urban Communities Sector Project (DPUCSP), which commissioned the film (together with a longer telemagazine AVP), for their support and enthusiasm in the use of this medium to promote housing microfinance.

The animation concept, in fact, came from a brainstorming session with Dr. Reyes, a development consultant who graduated from UP who said she's always dreamt of an animation film showing the problem of lack of housing. As for me, it has been my dream to use animation for a cause (in previous projects, animation had been used as accents; this time, it was a separate chapter in the DVD). It was a great match!

The animator and graphics producer of this short animation is Reggie Vinluan, who was Business Manager during my term in the Collegian. (The score is by another former colleague in the paper, Pearlsha Abubakar, now known as "Isha.") Reggie and Anna took up film in the College of Mass Communications in UP Diliman, and they were part of the same batch of Fulbright scholars who went to the US for grad studies (Reggie studied animation in the University of Southern California (USC), whereas Anna took up developmental economics in Johns Hopkins). Reggie wrote such amazing articles for the Culture Section- he seemed to reinvent the English language- that I assumed writing was his main passion: I didn't find out he was also gifted in the visual and cinematic arts until much, much later (his uncle is former UP College of Fine Arts Dean Nestor Vinluan).

Animation is an ubiquitous part of popular culture- on cellphone screens, electronic billboards, TV, and the movies. Filipino animators are part of the production of many Disney films and, with developments in technology and communications, animation has emerged as one of our sunrise industries.

As for me, I've always found moving and talking images magical- among the arts, it's probably the closest we could get to the divine act of breathing life into inanimate things. To watch a concept be translated into drawings and then transformed into moving images always makes me feel the joy of discovery: it brings back the feeling of playing with Lego blocks. For this project, it simplifies a complex message and brings a ray of sunshine- optimism and hope- to a serious issue.

One B

A friend of mine from the Supreme Court was regaling me with tales of a "legendary Falcon Crest" block in UP Law, when in the midst of her storytelling I slowly realized the block she was talking about was my own! As I didn't watch this American soap, I checked the plot online and found little in common between the Machiavellian scheming of its characters and the tempestuous relationships in our class. Nonetheless, we did create our own share of drama- just enough to make life in law school more interesting.

We were freshmen when the above picture with our adviser, Prof. Muyot, was taken. I was class president then, but too busy trying to balance reading cases and writing for the campus paper: I was oftentimes the last to find out about the latest class dispute or entanglement, except when I myself was involved in it!

Prof. Muyot helped provide balance and stability to our class of anarchy, One B. He encouraged us to show up for our parties... and stay beyond 9 PM even if we had a backlog of readings. He reminded us that, for better or worse, we would be stuck with each other for many years, so that we might as well make the best of it. And he gave us a vision of ourselves as future leaders of the country.

Our class has had two reunions the past month- it's a jubilee year for us, and people are making a special effort to reconnect. What's wonderful is how we know each other- both our flaws and strengths- because of the pressure-cooker experience that was law school. While my most intense relationships probably happened outside our block- or even our College- the friendships I made in our block are definitely among the most resilient and longest-lasting.

illusions

You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self. Don't turn away from possible futures before you're certain you don't have anything to learn from them. You're always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past. -Richard Bach (Illusions, 1977)

I just returned to my Vasco Da Gama room after a candle-lit dinner by the Mindanao Sea with some Facebook friends, people with whom I spend a few days in exotic locales every couple of years. We're all here for a wedding, and while talking to Cathy, the bride, we realized that it has been around ten years since we last talked to each other.

Yet I feel like I know her very well, perhaps because we went through an intense experience together- perhaps because, as Richard Bach said, we know our friends in the first minute we meet. You see, Cathy accompanied me in my first trip abroad- to Beijing- and for me was a calming presence. At one point, she even helped carry my luggage in the Manila airport! Beneath a graceful exterior was a strong spirit. And it was in Beijing where she met Laurent, who she'll marry tomorrow.

The day has been magical for me. Each of my friends is surrounded by an emotional zone- when we talk, I see a flesh-and-blood person, and I also see the wonderful places and people we've seen together. It's almost like watching a film, or living episodes of my life all over again. I even bumped into someone who's not a Facebook friend, but who once made my days better- and helped me achieve more than I could have by myself. So it's an unforgettable day in a special place.

I also see how I'm changing: a part of me can now view emotions with disinterest, or at least amusement, instead of being overwhelmed by them. It's time to change the "Romeo and Juliet," roller-coaster script of my most important relationships- perhaps for me tomorrow's wedding of Cathy and Laurent would also mark a turning-point, a graduation into the next stage of my journey.

once a catholic

That's the title of a book that an agnostic friend once made me read. I think out of curiosity- and also the desire to find answers to her own questions- she asked me why I would stick with Roman Catholicism, notwithstanding my disagreement with certain positions of the Church (on birth control, for example).

I answered that, for me, my spirituality- my personal relationship with God (or the Force or the cosmos)- precedes the institutional religion to which I belong. Roman Catholicism provides the forms and structures that allow me to express my gratitude to the universe and connect with the pulse of life, and I am comfortable with this.

Moreover, isn't religion inherited, in a way? I am Catholic because my parents and grandparents are Catholic; you are agnostic, because one of your parents is agnostic (and an intelligent and articulate one at that).

Well, now, I can think of a third reason: the Church has given me a community, a web of relationships that has given me security and a sense of belonging. In Nueva Ecija, for example, where I've been spending a lot of time these past few years, Tito Doc and Tita Violy treat the clergy- fellow priests of my cousin Msgr. Mike- as members of the family.

Because of these ties, I met Fr. Elmer (in the picture above), to whom I can easily relate because we're around the same age. He once said that a priest has three traits: he is priestly, kingly, and prophetic. And interested as I am in others, I sought to better understand Fr. Elmer and all priests by adopting these aspects- in a way, by realizing the priest within me.

I believe that what's most important in a religion are its standards for ethical conduct that allow people to live with dignity and in peace with each other, as well as realize their best selves.

Thankfully, our Church friends have not put me in a box and, instead, have given me space to be myself- to contribute to Christianity in my own unique way.

foresight/ insight

The ancient Chinese mind contemplates the cosmos in a way comparable to that of the modern physicist, who cannot deny that his model of the world is a decidedly psychophysical structure. The microphysical event includes the observer just as much as the reality underlying the I Ching comprises subjective, i.e., psychic conditions in the totality of the momentary situation. -Carl Jung

When I went into seclusion at the beginning of the New Year, one of the three books I brought with me was the I Ching or Book of Changes. It is 3,000 years old- the symbols even older, up to 5,000 years old- and, according to the translator of my book, has been used throughout this time "by seers, rulers and laymen alike to find solutions to problems of love and marriage, military strategy, career and matters of state."

I discovered the I Ching through Anna, who was amused by her mom's use of the book until she herself secretly took it from Mrs. H.'s shelf in their old manse in San Miguel, Bulacan, studied it, and used it to get answers to some questions. She was surprised by the uncanny relevance of the answers and decided to even ask it, "How will Voltaire do in life?"

We were in Baguio or Sagada sometime in the mid-90s when she shared the answer to that question with me. She may already have been AIESEC LCP, though I was not yet Kule EIC.

I felt a bit upset by this, but her reading of the solid and broken lines- the hexagrams- felt so right, so consistent with my truest, most private beliefs at the time that irritation quickly turned to wonder and amazement. The answer made such an impact on me that I still keep the piece of paper on which Anna wrote it. For more than a decade I've seen the reading come true or, more probably, I've chosen paths to make it come true.

There were several other instances when I've used the I Ching. I would borrow one of Boojie Basilio's English translations and toss peso coins to create the lines. When he saw that I was one of the few colleagues who didn't laugh at him for this practice, he gave me the simple translation that I keep with me today.

Like Jung, I use the ancient text mainly as a psychological tool to tap into the unconscious whenever I have mental blind spots or emotional knots: not so much to gain foresight, as for insight. The way the hexagrams work for me is similar to the effect of an interesting painting or a good line from a book or a song: they provide a structure around which random observations, thoughts, and feelings can wrap themselves and be seen more clearly by the conscious mind.

One of the most important principles of the I Ching is that one's circumstances are always changing- it's similar to the Filipino belief in the "gulong ng palad" (wheel of one's palm), whereby what goes down in time goes up, and vice-versa. One must therefore learn to adapt and be flexible, like our bamboo that bends and rises with the changing strength and direction of the winds.