|
Life is so precious. It could be snatched away any
day when we least expect it. My late father believed that
disagreements and quarrels should be settled before bedtime because
who knows what tomorrow brings? It would be forever regrettable to
have a quarrel as the last remembrance of a dear friend or loved
one.
My husband and I were reminded of
the fragility of life when we late Sunday (April 8) learned that
First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo had been hospitalized in Baguio
City. We had been together with the First Family (only presidential
daughter Luli was absent) at a long (and late) breakfast at the
Baguio Country Club. While the First Gentleman looked a bit tired,
he didn’t look like somebody who needed an open heart surgery less
than 40 hours after we broke up from the breakfast table. The most
memorable event at the table was probably presidential son Dato’s
ordering (and consuming) a big steak—the kind of food that he
didn’t have the opportunity to eat during his hectic election
campaign in Camarines. The presidential grandchildren were Easter
egg hunting, and it was an ordinary Easter Sunday family breakfast.
Well, as ordinary as it can get
when one is the First Family and one’s mother, grandmother,
mother-in-law or wife is the President of the Republic. During the
Holy Thursday retreat, Mr. Arroyo disappeared after a few minutes.
“I was ordered to leave” the First Gentleman told me when we met
again at lunchtime. His wife didn’t want him to dose off in the
middle of the retreat so the First Gentleman retreated, literally.
Some members of the Cabinet used the retreat—which was more of a
lecture on biblical history—to find peace in a good nap.
Going up to Baguio from Manila is
a long trip, but for a Cebu-based person who seldom has the
opportunity to visit Central and Northern Luzon, the land trip is an
opportunity to see other places. Places like Gerona, Paniqui and
Moncada in Tarlac, and Urdaneta City in Pangasinan are not known
to many Cebuanos. Gerona has the famous Isdaan restaurant where one
can smash plates at a wall and imagine that the wall isn’t a wall
but politicians, radio commentators, or tax collectors, where Elvis
Presley lives forever, where one can wear a life vest and feed
fishes while eating first-class native food. Other locations become
more than a name because friends hail from there. A watermelon stall
in Paniqui, located a few meters from the intersection of the road
that leads to Nampicuan in Nueva Ecija, suddenly becomes more than
just a watermelon stall when you realize that a friend passed this
way so many times when he was a kid.
In Baguio I had the opportunity
to visit the Tam-awan Village. According to www.ibaguio.net,
“Tam-awan Village is a cultural preserve and living museum
showcasing authentic traditional Ifugao huts in a replication of
their original setting in the Cordilleras. Tam-awan is also a
residential community for quite a few Baguio-based artists, and it
is a popular gathering place for the arts circle of Baguio.” The
Tam-awan Village is also an alternative conference venue and hotel
if one wants something different from the usual.
The showcasing of traditional
dwelling units of the indigenous peoples of the north is very
commendable. The Tam-awan Village is located in the outskirts of the
city and one has to climb up and down steep stairs to get from hut
to hut, but nevertheless, the place was full of visitors. I was
reminded of the Open Air Museum in Denmark: “Spread across 86
acres of land today the museum houses more than 50 farms, mills and
houses from the period 1650 to 1950,” the museum’s webpage
reveals. One walks—or rides a horse carriage—from house to
house, the houses representing different centuries, different
regions, different occupations and social status.
We celebrate the resurrection of
Jesus Christ on Easter, and truly, our departed loved ones and
friends live on forever in our hearts. However, immortality in sight
or not, we should not waste the precious gift of life, but make the
most of our and others’ time in this world.
|
