HOW IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED YESTERDAY

By: Iris P. Concepcion

I did not use the goggles above to digest what actually happened yesterday.

Here I go again. Words spill out from the scribbling bin and the most chased man is taking a nap after one day of overtly disciplined interaction.

I just figured it out: I got my Valentine present this Christmas.

And this actually happened yesterday. There is a faster, speedier, more efficient manner of accomplishing tasks without ruining a rebonded hair, cracking shoes nor overtly dramatizing the relentless pouring of guilt tears.

This is what the children had taught me to explain what actually happened yesterday (redundancy for better recall):

1.) The new radical twist to fist fighting is hosing down on whatever belittles the capacity of the mind, hindering the opening of creative valves. Staging a protest these days is not a manufactured march into the fray. It is a protest for, and exclusively for, societal excellence. This is not wasted on littering the roads with leaflets (who shall pick up the garbage after?). This is done in rooms of brainstorming: drawing the maps for improvements without the diversionary sights of alluring basketball hoops (they shall come in due time, and only upon a merited nod) nor skimpy skirts with extended legs dumbing the mind for possible work relapses.

2.) You always lead by example. What if government had actually instituted transformative things but does not fret, lose sleep nor bother about feedback i.e., we need to trumpet this via a massive p.r. machinery work. What if, there is indeed a side of this country that can achieve efficiency without much blah and fanfare?

3.) I have often heard silly stuff like M is young, he does not know anything. Yesterday, I actually saw what is the reverse: mayhem on the streets with numerous vendors defying zoning orders. There are areas where they are actually countenanced and encouraged to be undisciplined. Some people go the extra mile to pay thousands for this contrived chaos (how boring). In X-Marked areas where gongs stay soft but ring loudly in efficacy, public-urban planning is working well without the deafening howls. I told a taxi driver: this feels not like the Philippines. Given the free hand to design and change the unappetizing main thoroughfares, they not only deliver but they deliver with pleasing aesthetics.

4.) The more you have access to people who frame the world, the more you must be circumspect and careful how to utilize this link to positive use. It is not a gateway for eternal free loads, leisure and pleasure and obsessive binging. Some of the the most successful people I know only eat bread while their creations are utilized by millions of beneficiaries.

5.) It feels extremely good to be a part of an allegedly naive and inexperienced bunch of molders (they are really excellent implementors: they walk their talk). Whenever I see the various structures used by even an ordinary person (could be part of the mob or plain mass), I am thankful for arriving at this realization. Similar to coming into full circle. Designing the minds who design the world is no easy task but it warms the breeches of contentment in the long run. When they reroute their previously fixated priorities like caving in to hormonal passions, they now switch if for projects replete with national interest.

A guy serving me my usual fare of breakfast (seldom--if I got the extra dough) asked me in his uniquely smirky, odd-faced way what I am writing using the borrowed table. He queried if I am writing a love letter.

I howled back:

"NAH. I AM WRITING SO YOU CAN WALK SAFELY ON THE STREETS WITHOUT GETTING ELBOWED."

See? He provided me a reason for writing without me knowing it.

The picture above? That is how two of the corn's children genuflect over the calm of pretense. They do this in, like, seconds while sleeping.

Terrible work habit, but it works.