Chic and Green!

Lately, I've been delving into all sorts of small enterprises (as well as all sorts of events and projects with my friends) to earn some extra money for next year's World Youth Day. I'm pretty excited for it, and while I'm still at 2 percent of my goal right now, I'm being optimistic that with hard work, teamwork, and not being afraid to do things I don't normally do, we will all make it to Rio.

One of those fundraising endeavors happens to be in tie-up with my mom's newspaper bag biz. She's really a darling to let us sell their bags for our fundraising! The bags are woven out of newspaper and are waterproof (they laminated them). Some bags are painted by my mom.

Right now, I have three of the CCLTJ bags with me for fundraising. I have only one piece of each design so, if you like something, better buy it before it goes! Please email me at nikkobautista at gmail dot com or text me at 0916-341-3366 for inquiries.

1. Z-pattern bag - PhP550.00

This bag is a bit like a bayong, except it has a shell-shape and a snap-on magnetic clasp. It has twine trimmings and black pleather handles. 

2. Red banig-weave bag - PhP 550.00

This bag closes with a red pleather string, and has red handles and trimmings to boot. Pretty roomy inside too--enough space for a lightweight bag organizer. ;-)

3. X-pattern banig-weave bag - PhP550.00

This bag has bronze pleather trimmings with buckles in the handles. It's more of a handbag than a shoulder bag, actually.

For those who are interested but can't meet up, you can still snap up these bags by taking care of the shipping fee. :D Thank you!

Think pasitib

"You're never fully dressed without a smile!"

The past weeks (and especially the last few days) have been teaching me a lot about optimism, particularly in keeping my spirits up even when so many things are uncertain. The key is to remember that everything that happens is all for the best, and really, God has good plans for us, even when it isn't quite obvious at this point in time.

Here, some tips on staying positive:
1. Have a motto. I keep repeating omnia in bonum to myself whenever something not very good comes along, and I think it helps! If you just remember that it's "all for the good," what could bring your spirits down?

2. Count your blessings. Yesterday, I got stuck in the rush hour crunch. I was in the MRT station without a ticket so I decided not to take the train. Walked to the other side of EDSA in hopes of catching a bus, but somehow there was a long line there too (first time I've seen a line for the bus actually). So instead, I walked all the way to Glorietta's Ayala exit to catch a bus there. When it arrived, it was standing-room only, so I held on for dear life clutching the metal bar behind the driver's seat. Bus rides are rougher than the MRT, so if I didn't have the strength to hold on, I would have splatted on the windshield at some point. In retrospect, I really I have to be thankful that I'm pretty macho for a person who can run only 200m.

Also, of course, I have to be thankful that there was a bus I could take, and that there were no snatchers in Guadalupe, and that in the end, I managed to reach my stop in one piece. Instead of dwelling on how annoying it is that a lot of men pretend to sleep on the bus so they don't need to offer their seat, I can be thankful for that one guy I saw offering his seat to a girl. Chivalry is not dead. :D

3. Have a supernatural outlook on everything, and remember that there's no way God didn't think this through. He knows you're strong enough to handle it, and besides, who says you can't offer it up in prayer? Sufferings make us closer to the Cross--that means, instead of complaining and being miserable, we can say, "I will do this hard thing for the love of so-and-so." It will really mean something in God's eyes (not to mention ring louder in His ears).

4. Decide to stay cheerful! It's really your decision to wallow in misery or not. Remember, you'll accomplish more things with a smile.

Cheer for 2012

Wow, is it 2012 already?

Whatever your plans for the year ahead, it's always good to start with cheerfulness. It's one surefire way of transforming the world around you. Imagine if all your colleagues were glum--wouldn't you be glum at the office too? And what kind work would you have done?

Of course, there are times when being cheerful is extra hard. When it's raining and you have to commute; if somebody is angry with you; when things don't turn out like you planned. Times like these, cheerfulness counts even more--because where is the challenge in being cheerful only during the good times?

When you make mistakes, laugh it off--and then learn from them. When friends leave you out, shrug it off--and invite them to do something else with you. When you feel you haven't accomplished enough last year, then make a concrete resolution to do something this year--and do it well.

You just can't be glum when you know that all you have to do to please God is say "Yes, I'll do it!"--look at what happened when Mary said, "Be it done unto me according to Your word."

That said...
Why should getting up early in the morning be difficult?
Why should smiling at somebody annoying be difficult?
Why should getting your work done (and done well) by 5pm be difficult?
Why should giving up Saturday mornings be difficult?
...why should anything be difficult?

The Christmas season ends today--but not the joy! Have a happy, energetic, and awesome new year everyone! ^_^

Getting revved up for 'the daily grind'

It's Monday! First day of the week--shouldn't we all be up and about first thing in the morning? With energy! gumption! pizzaz! POWER!

Not all Mondays are so powered up. Actually, most Mondays are sluggish--people call the condition "Monday blues," which I presume gives rise to concepts like "weekend hangover" and cartoon characters like the Sourpuss in Patrick McDonnell's Mutts Comics.

But just because Mondays get bad rap from other people doesn't mean you should treat your Mondays the same way! Start the week right; get up on time and put on a smile--and this small thing determines the success of the week ahead. Here are things I find helpful in getting good work done during those first hours of the work week:

1. Make a routine and stick to it. You know how some cars won't start and run well without a warm up? It's the same with people. So make a routine that acts as a warm up for you. Here's what I do: a) Do something to look fresh and awake--put on makeup! b) Clean the office desk by clearing away the things you don't need and wiping dust off computer. c) Make a to-do list and promise to accomplish everything in it that very day.
2. No to "Just 5 minutes"! Sometimes, we feel we need a break. Maybe just a few games of Angry Birds, or 5 minutes on Facebook. Just posting one little thing on Twitter. But those five minutes can easily turn to 20 or 30! Next time you get the urge for a 5-minute break, do something that ends naturally like getting a drink of water, eating a banana, or picking out some easy thing to do from your to-do list (like calling somebody to set a meeting?) and accomplishing it first just to break the monotony. If you do this, you can be sure the "just 5 minutes" will really be just 5 minutes--and you can finish more things.
3. Watch the clock. Counting the minutes may be a bad habit, especially if you're just waiting till the go-home bell rings and you're off the hook trying to look busy. But if you really make yourself busy, if you really set yourself to finish the tasks for the day, you'll need to watch the clock differently! Try to accomplish your list before 5pm or 5:30pm (or whatever time you're supposed to be finished) so that the few minutes you have left before the bell rings can be used to plan ahead.
4. Don't forget to pray! Without this, your work will just be that: work. But if you pray and offer all the work you do for the people you love, then the work becomes something special. Plus, if you keep this in mind, you then won't be able to bear leaving that work poorly accomplished--after all, you don't give gifts that are second-rate! :-)

Happy Monday!

It takes a flower

Okay, the inauguration is over and done with and I haven't posted anything. I want to share this photo from EDSA 1 because it's a nice reminder to our newly inaugurated president "P-Noy" that the legacy of peace and no-corruption that his mom represented must live on.

President Aquino didn't get my vote on May 10, but I wish him the best and I'll do what I can as citizen to help make this country better.

That said, congrats P-Noy and this is the end of my quick post!

Singin' (and almost dancin') in the rain

After some very hot and dry months, I find myself commuting again in the rain. My shoes are soaked. My pants are soaked. All my things are soaked. I come home with a cold--so my insides are soaked too.

My commuting route includes a lot of walking in the "wild" outdoors, so getting soaked can't be helped. And just last Friday, in an effort to stay dry, I took a tricycle going to the MRT, and guess what--the seat was wet. Rain-1, Me-0.

Dreary days and commuting always make me a little sad, especially when I'm hauling all my junk from one end of the city to another. It gets robotic; left foot, right foot, turn here, go in there.... So it's a good thing I recently got infected by the Gene-Kelly-Singing-in-the-Rain bug. (Ask Sunnyday.) Just the thought of Gene Kelly singing and dancing in the rain--having a wonderful time getting soaked--makes me smile at my own soaked situation. Humming the tune while taking the long walk seems to shorten the distance a whole lot... and before I know it, I'm where I ought to be.

Watch the video here.

Singing in the Rain
I'm singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin'
I'm happy again
I'm laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun's in my heart
And I'm ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I've a smile on my face
I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin',
Singin' in the rain

Dancin' in the rain
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
I'm happy again!
I'm singin' and dancin' in the rain!

I'm dancin' and singin' in the rain...

Repost: Meet the Scholars!

Congratulations to the Ex Libris Philippines scholars, batch 2010: Frederick G. Precillas, Claudine V. Enduma, Mark Bryan F. Manantan, and Dancille Villarey!

Congratulations, Scholars. Mabuhay kayo!

Thank you to all who helped us out in our cause! Thanks to you, four UP students will be able to continue their education in UP.

For photos of the turn-over ceremony, click here.

The last laugh

Remember the last time you felt you had the last laugh? It was satisfying, wasn't it? To get that final word in, to feel the wisest--the lone grain of wisdom in a sack of ignorant fools.

Remember, too, those times when you were not able to get that last laugh. You kept re-imagining the scene in your head to place the situation in your favor--the more you thought about it, the snappier and wittier your comebacks became... if only you had thought to say them at the time!

Who could blame anyone for wanting to have the last laugh? It's only natural that we don't want to be shamed; we don't want to lose face, and having the last laugh somehow redeems a person in the sight of others... or so we think.

Last holy week, I watched Mel Gibson's movie again and one of the things that I found really nice was that scene of Christ's sermon on the mount. He said, "If you love only your friends, what's hard in that?"

Think about it: Which is harder--getting the last laugh, or letting somebody else have it at your expense? Sometimes, not giving that snappy comeback, that witty comment, or that bitter retort is the best way to handle the situation. If you're in the wrong, it saves you from having to justify something you can never justify; if you're in the right... well, so was That Man on the mount, and HE never said a thing when everyone was laughing all around Him.

Forgoing the last laugh is one of those hard things we are asked to do--and to do without worrying so much about what other people will say or think. Aren't we all called to be more like Christ? Remembering how He was treated in the Passion makes our "shame" so little compared! What's wonderful is, no matter how little our offering is (and will always be), we are invited to share in the only last laugh won through humility and selflessness--

Happy Easter!

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused. -Anonymous

Umbrella for (more than) the sun

It hasn't been raining, but my mom gave me a new umbrella because she thought my old one made me look pitiful--the handle was gone and the cloth was sewn (and re-sewn) on the frame. The red color was fading at the folds too.

I found it a bit amusing to get a new umbrella at the height of summer--an El Nino summer, to boot--but I wasn't surprised because, here, the umbrella is used as much on sunny days as on rainy days. I'm not very fond of using my umbrella in the sun because sometimes it's such a hassle to open it up and then fold it back again, but there is wisdom in using that parasol (beyond preventing skin woes, I mean).

My last great commuting adventure was when our car wouldn't start and I had to pick up two things for work. I found myself thrown into a commuting route I hadn't yet thought about; I usually asked somebody (like my dad or a friend who commutes) for the best and easiest route to take, but that day left me no time for a pep talk. No matter; I had (I hoped) my wits, and my new umbrella.

What was so important about the umbrella, you ask? Well, I expected to walk a lot that day (and I did); I needed the umbrella to keep me as un-melted as possible as I tried to make it alive at each stop. Thirty-nine degrees out and three destinations (photographer's house for photos, boss's house for the page-guide, and the office for the day's work)...without an umbrella, you can't expect to still be on your feet after a walkathon!

In this way, an umbrella plays a part when it comes to looking presentable when on the move. Sure, you can always say you can't help looking like a train wreck when the wind blows your hair out of place; or when the sun is so hot it pastes every last strand of hair on your head flat on your scalp, face and neck. But it doesn't have to be that way. There's still the end of the road to think about, and the success of the trip is not merely getting there alive, but getting there looking alive, too. What a pity to make it to your destination only to be sent to a corner because you don't look up to the task!

Hence, not only on planned treks, but also in every crazy turn of events this wonderful world decides to rain on you, it's important to look ahead to be able to master the art of adjusting to bizarre situations accordingly. Prudence and resilience go hand in hand in times like these--and more than just being "a trooper," a person can come out of misadventures with genuine cheerfulness, and still alert enough to take on some more.

T-shirts!

My friend Sunnyday has this dream of making some really nice Pro-Life statement shirts, and while I like thinking of slogans for them, I really have no idea how wearing a shirt can make a change--especially if nobody gets the point. (Right now, there are so many shirts with "Vote" on it that I find it rather sickening. While I'm convinced that I have to do my civic duty, I don't want to make my right to vote a fashion statement.)

But yesterday, I saw a man in church wearing a Pro-Life shirt. It was blue and it had a list of "10 reasons to love life" at the back, with the tag-line "Choose Life" after the list. And, you know what? I felt so heartened when I saw it! Haha! I was too shy to say anything about the shirt to him (he was maybe like my Dad's age) so I just said a prayer for him to keep wearing the shirt around. Amazing what one shirt can do.

So that's how I figured that it isn't quite useless to have a Pro-Life shirt made, after all--because it is one way of promoting life, everywhere you go. It heartens people with the same strong convictions, and it makes people who don't ask some questions they would otherwise not have bothered to ask....

I found this shirt design from the Generations for Life blog, and I think it says a lot in so few words. Maybe we could have some t-shirts made for March 25 (The Day of the Unborn)! Is that too soon? What do you think?

:D

Happiness!

Need a laugh? In putting this issue together, I learned that describing what happens to the body when we laugh is very hard to put to words! Is it because laughing is so natural that no one bothers to think about the how-to-go-about-it?

Topics featured--such as laughter (and how it heals stress), endorphins and health, babies and giggle-inducing tickling, money's non-relation to happiness, positive thinking in pregnancy (plus perks!), and what really makes kids happy--show exactly how Baby Magazine covers happiness from ear to ear! It's important to start the year with a smile, don't you think? And, with optimism hinged in the right place, this smile should last all year long.

The cover taken by Karen Ilagan captures the laughter of Mommy Reena and Baby Caleb, winners of J&J Look Alike, Skin Alike contest. Baby magazine is published by Marathon Publishing Co. and is sold at all National Bookstores, SM baby department stores, Babyland (Robinsons Galleria, Shaw Blvd. near Cherry Foodarama), Baby & Co. (The Podium and Power Plant Mall), Bufini, Procreation Shangri-la mall, Big & Small Co. Shangri-la Mall.

Time for some resolutions that stick!

I'm not a big fan of New Year's Resolutions because they're like fireworks. They make a big loud show, then sputter, die, and leave you with ashes, which is bad for the environment. How many times have New Year's Resolutions been broken and then not taken up again until the year turned? Honestly, January 1 comes around too few times to be able to actually help anyone be a better person. So why do people bother with resolutions?

What is easily forgotten is that the word resolutions is not inseparable from the two words that usually precede it. Remove "New Year's" and you still get its full meaning--it still poses the same big challenge, that is, to make better people out of us.

If anything, resolutions should be quiet (just keep it to yourself or share it with someone whom you think can really help you make it and keep it), not so grand (maybe one or two solid things...three or more would be too ambitious for a person to achieve--besides, you can always add to it later when you think you've mastered some), and constant (you don't stop being on your guard...ever).

---
Work started yesterday and I'm under a heap of things to do. So this is just a quick post, but I hope it is helpful and makes sense. The end.

Happy New Year!

There are no menial tasks

It's the lull between Christmas and New Year again, and I'm playing superhero--that is, I'm doing superhero duties: cleaning out the closet, sweeping, washing dishes, fixing the bed... apart from my usual cleaning of the cat business. Done on a daily basis, tidying up could get really repetitive; it's not surprising that it's hard to pry oneself away from the computer or book or television just to get those plates out of the way.

But let's not end the year with a note of lethargy. House chores, though effectively tiresome and repetitive, are never a lowly occupation. It takes some know-how to get them done well, some patience to get them done at all, and a lot of love to get them done with ease.

And, whoever said that chores left the house looking duller than before? Completing all those little things brightens up the home considerably--and quietly. Nobody needs to be praised all the time for the good things he does... because people who really want to do good will continue doing what they do even without anybody taking notice. That's why they're superheroes.

From A Christmas Carol

"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, everyone!"

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

---

May we always know how to "keep Christmas well" (this season and all year round) like this new Scrooge! Merry Christmas everyone! This is posted a day early because I don't normally go online on Christmas day. :P

Checklist: little acts...

Quick post. Here are 9 little things to do to be more charitable.

1. Listen...and carefully. Look the person in the eye and don't keep looking at your watch or mobile phone. There's so much to learn; pay attention!
2. Be affectionate. This depends on how close you are to a person. Of course, don't be too touchy with everybody--that would be creepy, hehe!
   
3. Laugh. When something is really funny. But not at somebody else's expense.
   
4. Write sincere messages and notes to friends. A well-written note will never be forgotten!
   
5. Give sincere compliments. Sincere is the key word.
   
6. Go out of your way to do something kind...every day. Do favors, and people will find it easier to go out of their way for you too; more importantly, happiness comes from helping others, not helping yourself.
   
7. Get your "alone time." And give others theirs.
8. Keep a cheerful disposition. When you're exhausted, get that hair out of your face and make an effort to look fresh and happy. It's not lying to yourself--it's just that not everyone needs to know of your woes. Maybe just your closest friends--even then, you can tell them without looking all torn and broken!
9. Inspire. Don't think about this too much. Simply do what is just, admire awesome people, stay grounded, stick to the truth, and keep working hard. Hopefully by example, you'll get others to do the same (so you better be worth emulating!).

Happy start of Advent!

Rise and shine!

Every day is a struggle of keeping to one's resolutions. Be more patient, check. Be more cheerful, check. Be more generous, less lazy, more understanding...so goes the ordinary resolution list. The items on the list may seem insignificant, but who said the little things never helped a person much? In fact, it's the seemingly inconsequential challenges that slowly chip away at all those bad habits that people tend to keep coming back to.

Why am I talking about resolutions? It isn't 2010 yet! What most people forget about resolutions is that they can be made any time of the year, not just on New Year. (Anyone who has made many New Year's resolutions is probably aware of how they crack by March and dissolve by June--and that's being optimistic already.) Not choosing a special day for making resolutions (one definite resolution at a time is good) helps one continuously check whether or not the resolution is being kept; it gives a kind of outlook--one that takes every day as a battle, and every night as going through the spoils of war, thus strengthening the next day's battle plan.

What I notice about resolutions is they have to be examined and reexamined--in war, how does a warrior win by battle plan alone? The battle itself changes in many ways while it's happening; one has to keep up with these changes in order to end up winning the war.


For this post, I'd like to talk about the first battle of everyday: waking up on time. Think about this: how can you keep up the energy to pull through your resolutions if at the start of the day, FAIL is already stamped onto your forehead? That first skirmish of the day is crucial because it determines how well you will fight that day!

Victory at the first battle makes the following battles easier to face because of the undeniable boost in confidence ("Kaya ko pala ito!") it brings. And to taste this victory, you need a great awareness of what is important now. What's interesting about "the waking up battle" is that, pushing the "now" for "later" actually pushes everything you had planned the night before a step back. It's a whole day's schedule delayed and compromised, only because you didn't get up at the count of three.

So, on top of the day's resolution, try this:
I will wake up on time...and with a smile.

Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity

Been reading some stories of the youth who participated in the Silent Day. I found it so inspiring that many of those kids started out being the only ones with tape in their mouth, and then as the day progressed, more and more people joined in and gave up their voices also. A lot of them got made fun of, too; and I think it takes a lot of mettle to shake off bad comments and ridicule.

On silent day, I dug up a red shoe lace from my mom's trunk (I was really looking for a ribbon from her scrapbooking materials, but there was none) and decided to wear it in my wrist all day as a reminder to myself that there were a lot of intentions and people to pray for that day. And if anybody asked what I was wearing a shoelace in my wrist for, then wouldn't it be a good take off point to say something about silent day?

What I learned that day was that there's something really striking about losing one's voice forever, and losing it without one's consent at that. It was my telling of Silent Day to friends that made me realize it. I guess I've been thinking too much about how to explain the hard stuff (especially the gray area known as contraception) that I've forgotten the simple fact that abortion destroys a whole life full of possibilities, and that that life could have been YOU.

I remember when I was a kid (probably an old kid haha), I read a news story on China's one-child policy. The first thing I thought of when I finished it was, 'If they did that in the Philippines, I wouldn't be around, and neither would my younger sister.' Actually, I said, "E di wala pala ako." Ouch.

How I could have forgotten to think simply like that, I don't know. But yesterday was a good reminder of what one is truly fighting for when he wears the word "LIFE."

'Autopilot'

I sometimes amuse myself by adopting new terms for things; I have renamed my cat countless of times (he answers to most of them), used different words to signify "cramming" to make deadline days sound more, er, colorful, and borrowed other people's new terms when I find them amusing enough (hello, superhero duties).

The latest addition to the word bank is what I call 'autopilot,' that is, the state in which one is so tired that all the movements and tasks are done robotically. Now before you think anyone can actually write on autopilot (quite impossible, actually), let me say that I thought up this term while I was walking to the Ayala MRT station from the bus stop at Paseo-Ayala through the pedestrian-friendly walkway-cum-maze in Makati. I was walking methodically, only half-aware of where I was. I was so tired I just let my feet lead the way. I knew I was so out of it when I actually thought I had already passed Glorietta while I was still in Landmark; I got all the malls jumbled up in my head, but I was still walking the right way.

Autopilot can be a dangerous state, especially when crossing the road (best not to let it happen in Cubao, too). And now that I think about it, it's a state you can't ever be in while at work--what slipshod results you'll have to your name!

That day, I was already in SM Makati when my brain sent a signal to the autopilot that maybe I could drop by the Homeworld to check out the list for a wedding I am attending. I took the detour and looked for the desk; but, I had to ask so many sales people where the desk was. I finally ended up on the other side of the mall where a pair of salesladies at a cashier answered me with a harsh "Ano bang registry yan?" and, after I said "Bridal," told me to go to a small empty desk at the corner of Homeworld and get my list there.

Now, I understand it if there are many different desks for other kinds of registries, but shouldn't there be somebody manning them all? What was I to do, talk to the empty chair? They could clearly see from where they were that the desk was empty. I snapped out of autopilot right then. I thought: maybe there's something about my tiredness that showed; no one was taking me seriously! So, I decided to get the list another day, when I'm more bibo.

When you're on autopilot, people can respond to you rudely because they see (or feel?) you're running low and are obviously not in any mood to get indignant or to complain. It's a kind of indifference that makes you vulnerable to getting shortchanged; sometimes, I think it isn't only an individual state because, collectively, people can be functioning on autopilot too (hello, fellow youth).

One can't afford to be on autopilot--as I said, it's a dangerous state. Sure, people get tired, but won't it do you so much good to stop dwelling on how tired you are and forget yourself for a while? There are so many things to be done that there is no time to be apathetic, indifferent and lukewarm...

How will you change the world if you're a zombie?

------

Photo above is a poster of The Mechanical Man, an Italian silent (epic, horror) film, which showed here a few months ago. Interesting how the robot enters a party a la Phantom of the Opera, and nobody notices that he's the killer mechanical man...and then he attacks, as expected. That's an example of collective autopilot. Poor people, they didn't know any better.

Sunny-ness is contagious

Last Saturday, I had to make my own way to my alma mater because my dad took the car out of town and I had to attend a forum. I decided the fastest way to go was by cab, though I would always have misgivings about taking a taxi alone. Partly it was because I used to have a hard time hearing what the cabbies tell me, and it really creeps me out if they're chatty (the former isn't a problem anymore, but the latter still happens). What really makes me think twice is that taxi drivers often refuse passengers going to UP (or Makati) for reasons such as "traffic," as if traffic isn't already part of the job.

That Saturday morning, I was hoping not many cabbies would reject my proposal to go to UP. The first taxi rejected me after I said, "Sa UP lang." I let it go with mounting panic (yes, it was getting late).

Waiting for another cab, I had a funny idea--I could try to be sunny and see how the driver would react. The next cab stopped for me and I put on a big smile and said, "Good morning! Sa UP lang po ako!" The driver smiled back and said, "Opo, ma'am!" And off to UP I went.

True, not all taxi drivers have the same disposition, and perhaps I just got lucky my sunny-ness turned out to be contagious for this one. But isn't that a lesson! Even when it's someone's job to drive you around (or sweep the floors, clean the toilets, do the laundry, cook the food for you and/or the public), it's no reason to treat them like they don't feel. They're not robots--they need a dose of sunshine too.

In other words, you just aren't pleasant to clients or interviewees or bosses (besides people you're really close to, because, obviously you're pleasant to them already--and if you aren't they'll understand), but to everyone. I may find this a bit hard to do--because I'm not the blatantly cheery type of person--but with random people one meets daily, usually a "Good morning" suffices... you never know how much your two little words can change how someone's day is going!

The minx, the moron and the parasite

All is summed up in the prayer which a young female human is said to have uttered recently: "O God, make me a normal twentieth century girl!" Thanks to our labours, this will mean increasingly, "Make me a minx, a moron, and a parasite."

This quote is from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. The persona is Screwtape, a devil who has "expertise" in the art of temptation. Throughout the book, Screwtape writes to his nephew Wormwood, who seems to have just graduated and is now assigned to his first "patient". Sometimes Screwtape praises Wormwood for something he did, but most of the time the uncle lectures him on things he could've done better, and gives advice on damage control or how to make a good thing work for the dark side (e.g. see advice given above).


How true is Screwtape's definition of the modern girl? (Let's ignore "twentieth century" for now.) I know a lot of awesome women and certainly they don't fall under that category, you may well think, and to this I must agree. Because today's women as we meet them in real life are sensible!

But look at the media--what kind of girl are they glorifying? Fashion magazines have a certain kind of girl in mind. Hollywood, another. MTV, yet another. And these brands of women get so familiar to us that sometimes we think that they're the norm--they're what women of today are.


And because this brand of woman is what we're all supposedly trying to be, it's no surprise advertisements are going into that direction as well. You can't even commute home without hearing that advertisement on the radio about a guy trying to sell a cold drink to a girl by calling her sexy. A beauty product company keeps coming out with outrageous ads that work along the lines of "your husband will love you again, only if you look young" or "guys will only notice you (or marry you?) if you have pinkish white skin."

How dumb do they think we are?


If you haven't noticed yet, I didn't use pictures of the "typical" woman that the media insists on. You might even say the women here look a bit outdated, even that one on the cover of Esquire. But I just wanted to show that women are so multi-faceted that you can't box them like that--why should she be a minx when she respects herself? why should she be a moron when she can be bright? and why should she be a parasite when she has skills enough to be useful--even during the pre-feminist movement era?

What the media shows us is not always real (and you probably know that). I just hope that more sensibility goes into what goes on out there. Perhaps the solution to that is to not be swayed by what's popular (or what they say is popular), and to stay true to oneself. And then maybe Screwtape or the likes of him won't be able to redefine us so easily.