KIDS
By: Iris P. Concepcion
Once upon a time, there were adults who talked about balance of power, environmental protection, fiscal budgets and corporate returns.
In a flicker of hand, imprinting everything on the wall with dotted familiarity, rugrats (they are cute homo sapiens who could not reach the cupboard unless they use 15" high chairs) invaded these discussion forums and shook the logical fundamentals of grown-up men.
They juggled the Earth and uttered the latently difficult "KISS ME PUBLIC" and you wonder how an adult had shaped it via mouth direction, but coming from the babe's mouth, I could not decode even the easiest line to crack. I certainly asked, "What park?" and the curly-haired cheeky lady mentioned a name that is totally lost on me.
These are real snippets and experiences I had with these perfunctory, ambulatory and agile people.
1. Someone took out scissors and Johnson-talked me for a hair cut.
2. Same little kid took out a blanket while I was sleeping and covered me with it with the word: "Sleep."
3. Gave blow by blow account on how to kiss. It could be very embarrassing but when he goes shouting: "Get out if you can't do that!", you see him as an 80 year-old circus freak.
4. Another wanted me to enter a huge mouth, travel inside a body's anatomy in a museum (she had cold hands when she saw it: it was like Rocky Horror Show).
5. Insists on looking at a foreign map as a Philippine province.
6. I allow them to talk to inanimate objects, say, the electric fan or television set. Following my lead, one beautiful soul (long hair, blinking eyes) placed eyelashes on a bench and made it male.
You just need to be functionally volatile creatively when you are around these little craniums. I asked one what she wanted to have inside a classroom and she said: "blackboard". I wanted her to think out of box, thus, I offered an outlandish but exciting alternative:
"How about putting a boat, a truck, an airplane inside the classroom where you can read your books from?"
Her eyes widened; her curly hair seemed to braid by itself.
I asked her, which is better, yours or mine.
She said "Yours". I developed goosebumps of course; I think I have done my job already.
The pictures here are solidly vivid. The uppermost picture was taken during the inaugural street party celebration at QC. Look at the way how a heart was formed out of haze in that pinkish tower (alternates between green and pink from afar). The monument looks fabulous at night; just across its massive structure is a beautiful fountain.
The second one is a huge X signage. Look at the traffic enforcer in the middle. Great man.
Another church front that I just need to photograph whenever I have spiritual dates with God.
The third one is a Clinique print ad. It spoke to me because of the short story I did about turtles. Brilliant minds took it from there and glamorized this crawling creature as facial accessory. I love the connection. This has an Eisenhower note. Who would have thought it could touch something about decelerating aging?