*Itinatampok sa bahaging ito ang dalawang magkaibang pananaw hinggil sa paksain ng pag-ibig mula sa iba’t ibang punto-de-bista at karanasan ng mga may-akda - Patnugot

Panaginip ni Adan

Ni RUBEN JEFFREY A. ASUNCION

LUMITAW ang mga pangitain

Sa karimlan ng kanyang pagkakahimbing.

Nawari niya rito ang ilang eksenang

Daranasin ng kanyang mga apo,

Ilang libong taon mula ngayon:

Humahagulhol ang isang binata

habang hawak-hawak pa

Ang kababasa pa lamang na liham ng

pamamaalam mula sa nobya

Mga maton na nagsusuntukan sa gitna ng kalye

habang pinapanood ng kanilang

nakursunadahang prinsesa ang tila

muling pagganap ng Digmaang Troyano

Gayumpaman, may kung anong bulong

HINAHAMAK ng sinumang umiibig ang lahat upang ang kagustuhan ng puso ay masunod lamang, wika nga ni Francisco Baltazar.

Naging patunay sa mga salitang ito ang mga salaysay ng pagharap sa iba’t-bang hamon ng pag-ibig sa Tuhug-Tuhog: 25 Maiikling Kuwento ng Pag-ibig at Pakikipagsapalaran ng mga OFWs (Navotas Press, 2005) ng premyadong mandudula na si Frank G. Rivera.

Halaw ang mga kuwento sa mga karanasan ng mga Pilipinang nakasalamuha ni Rivera bilang testing officer ng Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. Ang mga salaysay na ito ay magkakaugnay na mga bahagi na kapag naunawaan ang mga detalye ay makakabuo ng isang nobela.

IN LITERATURE, there are no double standards.

As part of its series paying tribute to women of letters, the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (Aliww) honored literary icon Ophelia Dimalanta in the 13th Paz Marquez-Benitez Memorial Lecture and Exhibit last Dec. 4 at the Science Education Complex of the Ateneo de Manila University. Kicked off in 1995, the event, named after literary matriarch Paz Marquez-Benitez, is an annual tribute to Filipino women-writers who have greatly influenced and shaped Philippine literature.

“Even if the poet’s language is in a way gendered, and even if the woman poet speaks most of the time of women, she speaks to all, regardless of gender,” Dimalanta said in her remarks thanking Ateneo for the tribute.

DISCLAIMER

Although these words cannot lay claim to such philosophical excellence of the kind that can begin or end an intellectual era, all that one implores of a reader is a listening mind to another mind’s wonderment at the world we live in. But why worry? In the end, as good friends would often say of our ceaseless doubting: who can tell you what to believe?

Prolegomena

Man thrives on representations. And it will be the death of him.

When something absent needs to be present, man creates something to stand for it. Or when a thing is too great or too minuscule to be there just as it is, a symbol must exist for it. But while these proxies have become the pillars of human life, it cannot be denied that they have placed us farther from the truth.

COMMANDING attention from the crowd with its modern architecture and transparent navy walls illuminated with green and blue lights that resemble a futuristic city, one cannot help but wonder what mysteries and journeys lie beyond the gateway of SM Science Discovery Center (SDC) in SM Mall of Asia.

According to Hans Sy, president of SM Prime Holdings, Inc., SDC aims to add a new dimension to malling experience as it guarantees to educate, entertain, and amuse visitors of all ages with its technology-based and interactive galleries.

ALWAYS shining beacons of the arts and letters, Thomasians have again proven they’re the country’s foremost humanists as many of them have again been nominated for the National Artist Awards.

At least 13 alumni have been nominated for the award as of press time, the Varsitarian has learned from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Leading the race for the National Artist Award for Literature is Cirilo F. Bautista, who was finalist in the 2006 edition of the awards (which are given out every two years). At that time, Bautista lost out to another Thomasian, the more senior Bienvenido Lumbera.

Both Bautista and Lumbera were former literary editors of the Varsitarian.

EVER since Jesus’ crucifixion 2,000 years ago, the cross has always been associated with salvation. And for the poverty-stricken residents of Dagat-dagatan in Navotas, only one gigantic cross has lifted their spirits living as they are in times juxtaposed with utter misery.

“I observed that the cross has inspired a lot of people; it’s as if their faith were invigorated,” said Fr. Allan Lopez, O.P., the parish priest of the San Lorenzo Ruiz and Companion Martyrs Church, whose roof the cross is now perched atop.

The cross was patterned closely after St. Dominic’s staff, but with mammoth proportions. The 12-feet-wide and 18-feet-tall cross is already believed to be the biggest Dominican cross not only in the country, but in the entire Eastern hemisphere.

TO IMBIBE truth, honesty, and humility within one’s self is the ultimate step towards achieving wholeness and integrity.

These good-natured thoughts and attempt to present a stand on the ongoing political turmoil affecting the country became the highlights of the Holy Mass dedicated to the pursuit of the truth behind the Arroyo administration’s anomalous multi-million-dollar broadband network deal with Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment, Corp. With UST Rector Rolando de la Rosa, O.P. as main celebrant, the Eucharistic celebration magnified as well the Thomasian community’s apparent position of backing its alumnus, primary whistle-blower Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada, Jr.

MY LAST column, titled “Faculty of Lemons,” has been the subject of discussion in the blog world.

For the record, the “Faculty” in the title and the article referred to Arts and Letters in general, not solely its faculty or teaching staff. Although I wrote that the quality of the faculty in the school is “thinning,” I didn’t mean that the teachers alone were the “Lemons” I was writing about. However their thinning number, the quality teachers of the Faculty, such as Dean Armando de Jesus, Assistant Dean Nancy Tabirara, Prof. Alfredo Co, and many others like them, are worthy of admiration and emulation. They put to shame their colleagues who, by their incompetence and paltry intellect, diminish the tradition of excellence in the Faculty.

PHILIPPINE democracy has become so “rotten to the core” — with the country ruled by politicians who are only surrogates of power brokers — that a cosmetic change of leaders won’t solve its ills.

“If we want to restore integrity and honesty in government, the best way is not through a rigodon of leaders who are forcibly removed through People Power, but through an enlightened, educated, and conscientious electoral process,” UST Rector Fr. Rolando V. de la Rosa said in his homily during the Mass for Truth last March 2.

The Mass was held in support of UST alumnus Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, who blew the whistle on the corruption-ridden national broadband network deal involving more than $300 million.