I do believe that the one true religion is the one that embraces everyone with no judgement. It is the one that treats all humans equally and respects all humans. It does not discriminate and declare that any one person, group, or nation is any better than the rest. It seeks only unity and community, peace and love. It teaches only respect and compassion for everything and everyone around us. It encourages us to share what we have and give what we can freely, with no obligations. In this religion, there is no room for selfishness or greed, power or politics. In this religion, individuality is celebrated, not shunned. In this religion, an attack on anyone, in whatever form, for whatever reason, is a breach of trust, a war against peace, a violation of the individual. I have my faults and failings, but I try to live my life this way, as much as I can, in whatever way I can.
Category Archives: Random thoughts
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It’s been so long since I’d been on a live-in writing retreat, I’d forgotten how refreshing, uplifting, encouraging, and productive it can be. I’m just so used to retreating into my little world to write, but having so many new writer-friends who share the same passion and are so welcoming and accepting has assured me that PEI is, indeed, the place for me! I have returned home with a renewed energy for writing and a stronger determination to move towards becoming a completely independent artist and writer! Just need to keep away from relishing the good food too often or I’ll just be eating instead of writing! Thanks to everyone for the amazing weekend! –Thanks Patti Larsen, Kirstin Lund, Kelly Sampson, Charity Becker, Catherine Ann, Stacy Dunn, and Ashley McCormack!
Our first supper was at Eden’s Gate and I got to sample this awesome burger that was more than enough for a single meal! It’s called the ‘Gatekeeper’ Burger — so if you all want to try it out, go to Georgetown! It was definitely a burger to remember!
Our first supper was at Eden’s Gate and I got to sample this awesome burger that was more than enough for a single meal! It’s called the ‘Gatekeeper’ Burger — so if you all want to try it out, go to Georgetown! It was definitely a burger to remember!
The Gatekeeper Burger at Eden’s Gate, Georgetown, PEI
Daring to Write
0I have always been good at expressing my thoughts in writing and never had a problem with composition and reading classes. Writing and reading were water to my fish.
Unfortunately, I was also my worst enemy.
Normally a very introverted and insecure person, I could not expose my innermost thoughts to the world, so I kept my poetry and stories to myself. Until some teachers noticed. I began confiding in some very sympathetic teachers when I was in fifth grade and the poetry was literally gushing out of me. Since then, I found greater encouragement from my English teachers. Then I found THE English teacher who really believed in me and nurtured my writing. I also found another teacher who would let me spill out the contents of my mind and heart to her and I found even more to write about. Still, the only public writing I produced were more impersonal essays. Need I say I even became an excellent public speaker because of my writing? Of course, there had always been that passion for theatre and the secret longing to become a stage actress, director, and playwright, that helped that along. But that’s a different story.
Because of my English teacher and other English teachers, plus an aunt who is a writer that I had secretly admired and wanted to be like, I dared to join a Creative Writing Fellowship at the top University in the Philippines. For two summers, I attended, first as an observer, then as a participant, where my creative writing was up for criticism. I survived and not without a lot of encouragement and some praise from my aunt for a story she didn’t know was written by me.
After several years of putting writing in the background, simply because I needed a job that gave me a steady income, I decided to write again. This time, I shared it with great trepidation to two of my dearest friends, both artists and literarily inclined. If not for them, I would never have submitted my play to the most prestigious National literary competition, the Carlos Palanca Foundation Annual Literary Awards. Finding out that I had received the third place for full-length plays in English was a totally shocking but also totally satisfying experience.
Migrating to Canada put writing as a career on hold, especially since I eventually had to find work that was a far cry from what I went to school for, even if the plan was for me to become a full-time artist and writer.
After 4 tumultuous and emotionally draining years, I finally decided to put myself out there in the open, beginning with a solo art exhibit that feature my art and my poetry. Then I decided to plunge into National Novel Writing Month, since I had become unemployed anyway and had the time to do it. (Because of employment, I did not dare try for the Labour Day weekend novel writing competitions, and I really doubted I could finish a novel in three days.) I was determined to finally write that novel–and I did.
I still doubt myself, even after sharing parts of my novel with several other writers in the Next Best Author contest, which I was also scared to join, but which I decided I would do anyway, because I really wanted to launch my career as an author. Because of NaNoWriMo, there was no way I could hide the fact that I had completed a novel–besides, I had publicized it all over Facebook among all my friends, and they were cheering me on. Another dear friend even offered to edit my book, just so she could read it, and her words and support have been very encouraging. I have found still more friends who are also writers and am now active with not one, but two writing groups, plus a third support group made up of the other contestants! That was probably the most pleasant and rewarding surprise: that competitors were becoming friends in writing through sharing in an exclusive group just for the contestants! Now, I have writer friends around the world who are willing to talk, to listen, to share, to read, to mentor, to encourage and to support each other.
If this is the writing life, I want to stay in it! It is already much more than I had dreamed it would be.
Who knows what other dreams will come true?
WTF is a boring colour
0It seems that nowadays, the only spectrum reflected by colourful language is shades of unpalatable brown that does nothing for the imagination. More particularly so when it is dependent on diet, which, in the average person, has also been limited to what is most speedily served, hence a range of colour narrowed down to the F* spectrum. It’s really absolutely distasteful.
I suspect that colourful language began losing its colour when the vast majority of humans were processed and distilled through the system called public schooling and spit out into the waiting maws of the system called industrialization where assembly line production and conveyor belts proliferated.
I quite wish more people would adopt the more colourful vocabulary of Captain Haddock whose expletives ranged from the scurrilous pearly greys, browns, greens, and pinks of ‘Blistering barnacles’ to the bright yellow and light greens of ‘Suffering Succotash!” I always enjoyed it when my friend exclaimed “Well, slap my hand and call me Suzy,” which I would, of course, and I responded with “Heavens to Bitsy if it isn’t Suzy!”
Why must every exclamation, whether of surprise, annoyance, anger, pleasure, or even joy, be reduced to a singular physical act that sometimes involves unpleasant excrement? Whatever happened to being tickled pink, green with envy, red with anger, blue with sorrow, yellow with jealousy? All the brown language really puts me in a black mood.
Let me challenge you to garnish your language with more splashy colours than shades of sepia. I would completely enjoy an experience that painted me purple with pleasure. It’s good for your vocabulary and stimulates the imagination. Even if you have to eat crow while you’re at it, at least a bird on a spit is tastier than FTS!
NaNoWriMo: I Did It!
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I took the longest time to decide to join National Novel Writing Month…five years! It was auspicious when I was laid off my full time job and I was looking for something else to do besides painting and crafting and writing poetry, or sorting out odds and ends I’d collected over the years and cleaning out pockets of junk from my apartment. I didn’t even sign up on the 1st of November, because I still wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it, but on the 2nd of November, I decided that if I really wanted to be a novelist, I’d have to sit down and do it.
I have several ideas for books and novels that I’ve been toying around with in my head for years, so I took the one that was most promising and that I’d been wanting to do something about since I became interested in Mythology, which was when I was a kid. I had always wanted to do something in the line of comparative mythology and my first opportunity actually came in a dance show that I produced with Benildanze in 2006: Mythos, which made use of creation stories from Philippine and Japanese mythology.
About a year ago, I was playing with writing dialogue and wrote a few pages of dialogue that I adapted for the beginning of my first NaNoWriMo novel.
I had no outline, no plan, just a vague idea of how the story would begin, and on the 2nd of November, when I began writing, I put down over 8,000 words. The story just started flowing out then, and everyday, I’d sit and write for maybe two or three hours and come up with anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 odd words a day. I did a lot of time wasting. I started the day with reading email then Facebook messages; then I’d get breakfast or lunch or brunch, depending on what time it was or how late it was in the morning and watch old episodes of NCIS, Seventh Heaven and now, Monk, on Project Free TV while having my meal. Only then would I begin to write, maybe an hour or two. Then I’d work out for an hour while watching more old TV episodes, shower, then write again for another hour or two. By the then, it would be time for supper and prime time TV, which I’d watch while writing or not writing. Sometimes, I’d continue writing for an hour after all the TV shows and the late news then turn in anywhere between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., depending on my mood.
At least once a week, I’d start the day with doing laundry. A couple of times, I started with baking. Once, I stopped writing in the afternoon just to bake something because I was thinking of what sort of puzzle I could work into the adventure that was folding out in my novel. But every single day, I would sit down and write, even if it was just for half an hour, just so I wouldn’t lose my momentum. My aim was to finish at least one chapter a day. On a good day, I finished two chapters, which was really a good pace because I never reached a point of burnout.
After my first day of writing, the NaNoWriMo counter projected that I could finish by the 12th of November. By my second day of writing, it was up to the 16th, then the 19th, then finally it stayed on the 28th, which occasionally pushed back to the 29th or forward to the 27th. I completed my 50K words by the 28th, so I’m really happy about that. Now, I’m going to finish my novel, which could take anywhere from 5 to 15 more chapters. I know what I want to happen and it’s just a matter of writing it out. I still don’t know the how for the last third of the novel, but I didn’t know that for the second third of it and, while it took me one whole writing period just to come up with the how, once that had been figured out, the writing just flowed on.
I am fulfilling a dream I have had since I was a very young girl and I am loving it!
have you ever wondered….?
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who eats the popsicles from popsicle sticks?
how shelled sunflower seeds are shelled?
how shelled watermelon seeds are shelled?
someone once told me they fed the watermelons to carabaos, which is why the seeds are black…
how shelled pumpkin seeds are shelled?
how they get so many watermelon seeds?
how they shell shelled nuts?
where they shell seeds and nuts?
how close the cake decorator breathes on your cake?
if the baker licks his fingers? or the spatulas, the way you did when you were kids?
Did someone say bananas?
0Have you had a Coldstone Creamery ice cream with bananas? Because if you have, you will most likely have heard someone behind the counter yell “Did someone say bananas?” followed by the whole Coldstone Squad at the counter belting out a banana song.
Actually, many of the songs are more cheers than songs–verses written out to the tune or beat of old college cheers or popular ditties (like the Flintstones theme song).
Actually, there aren’t that many songs. In total, I’ve probably heard 4 or 5 that are repeated over and over again, day in and day out. If you’re a customer and you hear the songs only when you’re there, it might not be so bad. But if you work there as well, it can be completely nerve-wracking. That’s also because, while the songs were sung with a certain amount of energy when Coldstone was a novelty, they are now sung weakly and half-heartedly most of the time that I hear them. No energy. No delight. No excitement. No enthusiasm.
It seems that the honeymoon is over. Don’t get me wrong. The ice cream itself is exotic. It’s delicious, creamy beyond words, and the mixes are superb. It’s also very very sweet. And too much of sweet is cloying. After a while, you don’t really want it anymore—unless you’re a kid or you have a really sweet tooth. And it’s pricey. I can’t imagine myself indulging in a cup or cone of Coldstone every day, or even every week. Not even every month. Too rich–in sweetness, creaminess, and pricing. It’s not something your average islander will look for. Again, unless you’re a kid or have a really sweet tooth. Or are an ice cream gourmet. Or a connoisseur of ice cream.
When the Creamery had just opened in the first week of April 2011, the lines, the lines were endless! People couldn’t wait to get a taste of the newest ice cream in town. I’m sure people came in just to see what it was like. Then, people came in to try a different flavor each time, or a different cone, or different toppings. Then, people came in to use free coupons or promotional coupons.
Many times, people also come in to bring home a pack of ice cream cupcakes or ice cream cookie sandwiches. People also come in to get specialty cakes and birthday cakes. Specialty products for special occasions. I guess they thought it would be worth it to splurge a little.
But how many people can afford to splurge on a Coldstone cake? Last I saw, the tiniest, 6-inch cake cost quite a pretty penny. I would never be able to easily afford that. Besides, that would have to be a tiny party–4 to 6 people at the most sharing that one cake. So unless the party is just for a small family, or just for the celebrant, it wouldn’t be the cake to get. And for the same price of less, I can get a much much bigger ice cream cake at DQ and share that with a whole lot more people! After all, at a party, who cares what the brand of ice cream is? Or how creamy? Or how fancy? And don’t bother asking about the 8-inch cakes or the signature cakes. For that price, I could get a cold steak dinner at Papa Joe’s, complete with bottomless drinks, and still get change on my bill!
Come to think of it, unless you have special dietary needs because you’re lactose intolerant or diabetic or gluten-sensitive or allergic to nuts, people generally eat ice cream for one reason: it’s cold and yummy. Okay. Two reasons.
After the novelty has worn off, people tend to forget the product, or patronize it as an occasional treat. I can also imagine, when the school year begins, students will be grabbing ice creams for lunch, instead of their usual (healthier?) bagels toasted with butter or muffins or cookies and milk. (I never claimed students ate healthy lunches, okay?) They might also grab a milkshake or a fruit shake, but the cost, the cost, will make you spend the most!
If someone says bananas again, I will go bananas.
The Coldstone banana has split.
The Arrogance of Nations
0When a nation thinks itself above other nations, I consider that arrogance borne of ignorance. History has proven this time and again.
Western civilization thought itself the center of the world, ignorant of the existence of life anywhere else on earth. As a result, when nations of the west “discovered” the existence of Eastern cultures, they dubbed the new cultures as inferior to theirs–simply because they could not understand those cultures. Yet, they forget that the very seeds of Western civilization began in the East, often referred to as the birthplace of Western civilization. Long before Western civilization had any claim to being “civilized” Eastern cultures had developed sophisticated societies with social structures and technology that was alien to the Western world. It was from the East that Westerners acquired the wheel, gunpowder, silk, spices and perfumes, numbers, and the alphabet.
Despite the wealth of culture, technology and knowledge the Eastern world had, the West had no end to the derogatory terms they created to describe Easterners. Little did they know that Eastern cultures had their own derogatory terms for Westerners, as well.
The wars between nations were the weapons of arrogance–one nation believing itself superior to its neighbour and attacking it, or overpowering its neighbour to become superior over another neighbour.
In the dark ages, Medieval Europe, in its arrogance, marched upon the Muslim countries in the East to purge the land of infidels. Little did they know that they were seen as infidels as well, by the Muslims.
In the Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance, the powers of England, France and Spain constantly battled through bloody war, treachery and treason to gain supremacy over Europe.
In the 16th through the 18th centuries, the powers of the Western world expanded their horizons in a race to conquer the rest of the unknown world–but only from their narrow perspective. It was a race to conquer and acquire more lands to prove and maintain their supremacy until there were no more new lands to be found and conquered.
In the 20th century, the Germans attempted to gain world supremacy through the ruthless and unconscionable leadership of a man who thought he was a God and his race superior to all.
Throughout the 20th century, the fight for supremacy continued–among Middle Eastern nations, among Eastern European nations, among Asian nations, Among African nations.
This arrogance of nations is imprinted upon its people–or is it the arrogance of people that shapes the arrogance of nations? Nations are, after all, run by people, made up of people. A nation’s policy and practice is determined by its leaders, supposedly following the will of the people–or acting in the best interest of its people. Does this mean then, that all men are arrogant? Or are nations run only according to the wishes of the powerful and wealthy who control the nations? Surely, the man on the street does not wish to go to war or acquire another country when his main concern is to feed, clothe and educate his children?
Probably the last time every member of any nation had a vote on whether or not to go to war was when nations nations were small tribes concerned about protecting their own or wanting land where they could find better food. Once nations grew in size, the common man lost his voice and only the powerful and outspoken were heard–who may well have been the greedy and arrogant, as well.
Greed breeds a strong desire for wealth and power, and if this is the basic nature of any nation’s leaders, then we are indeed in poor hands. The greedy tend to be blind to those who have little or nothing to offer. They step on others to get their way and ignore what they don’t understand. Anything that seems like a threat or tries to get in their way, they destroy. The more wealth and power they acquire, the more arrogant they become. And the more arrogant and righteous they are, the more the world is doomed to repeat the cycle of history–of discovery, of conquest, of dominance, of destruction. The more we are doomed to suffer from the arrogance to nations.
Why I Am NOT Optimistic
0In the article “Why I’m Optimistic” by Barack Obama (Smithsonian Magazine, July/August 2010, vol. 41 no. 4, p. 59) Obama writes about his faith in America and American people’s restless inventiveness as what will help the American nation rise to the challenge of the future.
He wrote of the need for a commitment to “prepare [American] kids to outcompete workers around the world [and] to prepare America to outcompete nations around the world.”
While we generally see competition as helathy, we have learned time and again, throughout history, that in competition, there will be a winner and, consequently, a loser.
Obama suggests that America emerge as the winner in the “Race to the Top” in all aspects of society–from education to energy research to the global economy. He is implying a win-lose situation where America will reign as the “winner” and the rest of the world will trail behind as “losers”.
This seems to me a very one-sided and archaic way of looking at things.
Whatever happened to the concept of WIN-WIN? Can’t everyone win in this situation? Must there be winners and losers?
In a generation of globalism and multiculturalism, I think it is time that America realizes that this is not a race with only one winner, because if the majority turn out to be losers, then the whole world loses–the earth loses–humankind loses.
It is time for America to realize that the knowledge, skills and talent needed to save the world do not like exclusively in America. It is time for America to realize that cooperation and collaboration on a global scale is the only way we can face the future and survive as humans. Imagine, if every nation in the world shared their resources–whether in the form of money, natural resources, skills, intellectual resources, technology and labour–all for a common goal, how much easier and quicker that goal would be achieved.
I think it is time we all rise above national egos and consider that saving the earth and working toward a future that is not the picture painted by post-apocalyptic cinema requires us to forget territorial barriers and feudalistic attitudes. We need to make use of our unique traits and our differences to complement rather than compete with each other. We must realize that we cannot save the world by saving only one continent our country, but by saving every continent, every nation, every island. We need to accept that the world is not made up of only humans, but of an intricate global ecosystem in which we are interdependent on each other and on our environments. We must accept that, in this race to the future, we can leave no one behind. We must admit that, for any one country to win, we must all win, or all lose in the end.
Blogging and Visiting the Past
0Putting together a blog is not easy.
In the first place, what do you say that you don’t mind the rest of the world knowing?
It’s also a challenging exercise. You need to figure out what to put in your blog and what to keep out.
There’s one thing I have to say for blogs: it’s a great way to organize your past.
I’ve been wanting to sort out all the bits and pieces of the past that I’ve been keeping in all kinds of little boxes forever. Doesn’t everyone have a little box or two or three somewhere with things you just can’t throw out? Little things that remind you of incidents in your life that you might otherwise have forgotten?
I could never get all sorted out and organized the way I imagined I should because there never really was any pressure to do it. But now that I’ve got a blog that I’ve got to fill up with things, all of a sudden, I’m pressured. Besides, all my friends are digging up their old pictures from elementary school and posting them on Facebook and other places. I know I’ve got a bundle of pictures somewhere…everywhere.
I’ll be opening up those boxes now, one by one. I’ll be reading old notes and letters that are yellowed and torn at the edges or crumbling. Well, not really–that’s just waxing poetic, but you get my meaning. But honestly, some of them are crumbling. I’ll be scanning each and every little souvenir and letter and photograph and note and card so I’ll have an on-line scrapbook that’ll be an autobiography of sorts, as well.
And I will be baring myself to the world.
Cindy Lapeña: Creativity Unlimited 