The Cream from the Crap

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Saturday, October 1

We went to Tito Rackling's house for the baby-shower party of his niece Belen. After the early dinner, I got nothing substantial to do. Boredom was creeping into my senses yet again. My mind was restless. The TV was tuned in on TFC (The Filipino Channel); but, no matter how I miss the Philippines (primarily because of my longing to be with my loved ones and best friends), I couldn't and wouldn't appreciate most of the shows featured on the channel—saved for the likes of Game Ka Na Ba?, because I love quiz shows and also because I prefer programs whose primary intentions are to educate the viewers, to illuminate, and to stimulate the intellectual aspect of their beings rather than titillate the carnal or provoke the emotional.

Here are some of the trivia questions asked in that particular episode of Game Ka Na Ba? which I was able to answer (The contestants, by the way, were Philippine-showbiz personalities):
& What is the capital of Switzerland? The contestant answered, "Geneva." No, it's Berne, I interjected.
& What part of the human body is grouped according to the three types smooth, cardiac, and skeletal? The contestant answered, "Skull." Ngek! The muscle, I said.
&What Filipino fruit is called "velvet apple" in English: makopa or mabolo? Mabolo! I exclaimed. Makopa is water apple or bell fruit or Curacao apple, I added.
& And for the jackpot question: "What is the nickname of the million-year-old female human skeleton found in 1974 in Ethiopia?" Way before the contestant, actress Pinky Amador, ran and began looking for the answer amongst the jumble of clues, I was shouting "Lucy! Lucy!" which prompted my Tita Lucy, who was in the kitchen, to rush into the living room. Hahaha!

I love my country but...
I am proud of my heritage and nationality, but not to the extent that I will blindly embrace everything about it. I love conditionally. In all honesty, who does not?

Love is never unconditional. Love is not blind. Life, too. No person can live without reason. Nobody can live without seeing. Even the blind need a flicker of light to guide them in their darkness. You may close your eyes but, deep in your heart, you know what you really want and you know where you're going.

Love someone or something with a compassionate heart but not without a discerning mind. Can you love sincerely an enemy or a wicked relation nor bad politics or environmental pollution? Can love dwell in the same heart where there is enmity?

I'm glad to realize—and to be able to validate—that my homesickness and constant yearning to return home is not darkly strong enough to shade my ability to sift the cream from the crap.

Better yet...
To make the occasion fruitful and worthwhile after all—aside, of course, from the sumptuous dinner—I looked for some reading materials. My stomach was full, but my brain can never be. The magazine rack was dominated by entertainment publications...mmm, I was not in the mood for some showbiz gossips coupled with paparazzi ware. Surveying the living room, I chanced upon a thick red dictionary sitting lonely in a corner. That's better! I said with a smile. Loneliness loves company.

Like a real fairy, I slowly disappeared amidst the rest of the celebrators as I began to enter a literary portal...

from Webster's New World Dictionary (Third College Edition) (1995):

& Computer science and technology are two of the most fruitful sources of linguistic invention today.

& Language cannot be separated from its environment and a large part of our most common vocabulary cannot be properly used without knowledge of the way in which individual words are perceived within a given social context.

& Etymology [the study of the origin and historical development of words] is important for an understanding of the language of the present day.

from the supplementary article "The New World Dictionary: A Historical Overview," by David B. Guralnik:

& All events have their antecedents. Nothing comes from nothing; all present-day lexicographers of our language share an indebtedness, of one degree or another, to all those who preceded them.

& The art of lexicography is the writing of definitions and the evaluation of the elements in the lexis of the language.

Back at the house...
I let myself get lost again; this time, not with a book but with music. I put on the headphones—click!—and let The Wild Swans' Space Flower CD lullaby me to dreams.

I'm a lighthouse
You're the ocean...