All Chapters of Encounters with the Pen: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

 29 September 2009 “To see the world in a drop of water and experience eternity before it subsides.”Herein narrator went on to live since to recount a fairly insignificant, almost common and entirely negligible story of being swept by the current, having wept due to guilt and being upset out of complacency for the inability to do something that would risk both life and limb. My brother-in-law was confined in the hospital for days suspecting and eventually ruling out Influenza A-H1N1 as the culprit. As a result, I have to stay in their home for two (2) nights until that fateful morning. Overnight rains resulted to sudden increase in the water level of the nearby river. The typhoon is about to begin. Even before finishing corn for breakfast around nine in the morning last Saturday (26 September 2009), water was increasing in an exponential rate. And since time is of the essence, I started transferring smaller objects to the second floor of their home

 06 March 2010 When I was a kid, people were so fascinated with the kind of memory I have. Since having tests for certain acumen or gift is a rarity in the provinces, (Binanuahan, Pilar, Sorsogon to be more specific) being considered special was already enough. I will try not to be too narrative of what I have been through for that would be totally unnecessary. What contributed much to this state is an actual rush of blood. It was one clear, Sunday morning that forever corrupted some of the files in my memory and no amount of re-formatting will ever restore everything in place. I was not fully aware of the impending danger on that fateful day otherwise I could have averted the ensuing predicament altogether. A portion of a 2” x 2” x 12” lumber is hanging near the roof of that house where a usual Sunday amazement is in town. Perhaps curiosity took it from there as I squeezed myself past the grown-ups looking intently at how an elderly man adroitly handled a cons

 13 July 2010 One of the basic realities in life tells us that no two objects, not even thought, can occupy the same space at the same time. Impenetrability applies to all forms of existence to create order, sequence or precedence. Not even our human capacity to love is spared from such a predicament. And whenever we find ourselves trapped in this labyrinth, conflicts arise.Truly, one can never be both definite and ambivalent about his feelings, at any given time and space about persons or situations. With the present, urgent and pressing circumstances, however, one is prompted to react in such a rational way, if not instinctive. And in this transitory world, decisiveness is a factor for survival.And perhaps the opposite of love is not hate but rather indifference and somewhere in between, in the spherical or planar intersection of chance, is where we find ambivalence. Ambivalence then is this betweenness that typically defines our inability to be definite. Once cau

 22 November 2013 Telling the untruth is fundamentally a chronic human phenomenon. No other life-form comes close to simulating such erratic behaviour. Lies, of all colors and sorts, are merely mechanisms to avert otherwise precarious situations. It could be traced on our ceaseless resolve to save ourselves from disgraceful circumstances or to shield us from further nuisances. But just like a snow ball, a handful of lies that has gained enough momentum might just be enough to cause an avalanche and a succession of unfortunate events. It could instigate conflicts and hostilities then wars, sinkholes and landslides from earthquakes and even blizzards and storm surges from typhoons among others. We cannot be telling lies without exposing part of our truth. Somehow, in the space between falsity and truth, is the vast expanse of ocean of options waiting to be enabled, initiated or activated. There is, however, only one choice for every occasion. A prior false statem

 05 December 2013 An old adage says “A wise person learns from his mistakes but an even wiser person learns from the mistakes of others”. Human beings are intended and obliged to learn from their mistakes otherwise the entire human race would have perished before it could even flourish. Our existence depends essentially on the kinds of mistakes we have made. Needless of any compelling argument, our subsistence in this world is either of primary or secondary importance. Even our past sages, thinkers and inventors were not spared from the painstaking ordeals of making several hundreds, if not thousands, of miscalculations or blunders in judgment that brought about the discovery of today’s ideologies, idiosyncrasies and spectacles. They have been through a lot of odd difficulties and uneven possibilities how not to make things work thereby resulting to a remarkable reduction of options how to make things finally work and cause a pragmatic value in our lives.&nbs