Your mantra for the week: “I am always the answer to someone’s prayer.”
Karma, whether good or bad, explains why you are where you are. But it does not determine your future, which is determined by the choices you make every moment of your life.
Yes, you have a choice whether to judge or not to judge, to criticize or not, to abuse your body or take care of it and listen to what it needs.
You can always choose to love and be kind, or otherwise. You can decide to be successful, or accept the idea that you are not worthy to succeed. Always, every moment, you have a choice.
A lot of unhappiness in the world is created by judgment. It is easy to judge. It is so easy to compare and see the negative in the world or in our neighbor. It is easy to claim you are right and others are wrong. However, we can decide to make judgments that create happiness instead.
Let us learn to accept individual differences, lifestyles, preferences, likes and dislikes. Let us not be quick to judge by appearances, but look beyond to discover that, oftentimes, we have misjudged and sowed conflict and disharmony.
When you realize that your future includes your choices determined by your thoughts and feelings, you will understand that you reign supreme in the realm of your mind. When you exercise this sovereignty, you will discover your Godliness—which will enable you to determine your destiny that is filled with the wonders of the universe.
Visual artists and their books
Betsy Westendorp-Brias launched two coffee-table books of her art last Thursday at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, with prominent guests from all sectors of society.
When you get to know Westendorp-Brias, you will discover that her life is depicted in her canvases as floral symphonies—from the adagio to the andante to allegro to the affettuoso to appassionata, not to mention the dolce and the dolcissimo.
“I am old only in the outer, but I am a techie,” she proudly declared. Her two books, put together by Rita Ledesma and edited by Cid Reyes, are a must-own.
Yesterday, Ivi Avellana-Cosio closed her yearlong exhibit, “Journey: 50,” which recounts her half-a-century life as an artist, at Pasilio 18, La Fuerza compound in Makati.
Included in the show was a photo of Avellana-Cosio with the first lady of American theater, Helen Hayes. Avellana-Cosio’s own mother, Daisy Hontiveros-Avellana, is referred to as the first lady of Philippine theater.
Partygoer of 2017
Agile Zamora, who celebrated her 50th birthday at Sage in Shangri-La Makati last Friday, can probably be voted as partygoer of the last year. She attended, dressed up to the nines, a total of 156 parties—an average of three per week for 52 weeks. It is safe to assume that she has several closets full of dresses worn only once. You can check this out on her Facebook and/or those of her amigas, whose posts outnumber those of Meralco’s.
Agile’s runners-up are Connie Guanzon-Garcia and Connie Haw, as well as Merci Padolina who celebrated her birthday recently at The Grove by Rockwell, with music that kept everybody awake and dancing all night. However, that evening, the ladies were worried that the fluorescent lights might highlight their well-kept secret wrinkles.
Now, these ladies make up what I would call the “newest society,” as differentiated from the Marcosian “new society,” whose membership has dwindled. Those who still party include the likes of Minerva Tanseco and Cristina Caedo.
Remembering Edsa ’86
Today, Feb. 25, marks the 32nd anniversary of the Edsa Revolution that ended what filmmaker Lav Diaz calls “Ang Panahon ng Halimaw.”
Many people describe the Marcos years as a “quiet” period only because speaking up would have had dire consequences. In the silence, the kleptomania went on unfettered and with impunity.
The “halimaw” and his cronies were shamelessly enriching themselves while claiming that martial law was the greatest thing that happened to this country.
Debunking the revisionists
How the revisionists think that they can change this dark chapter in Philippine history is really appalling. But through social media, it has become easy to mess up facts with fake news.
The best way to debunk it is to read up on the Philippine economy in 1983, find out the peso exchange rate to the dollar, and the bankruptcy that led us to be labeled “the sick man of Asia.” Imagine how the country’s economy slid from being second only to Japan in 1962. The Marcoses and their cronies want to tell a different story—using their own twisted imagination.
Imelda forgives
I remember having sat with Imelda Marcos in one of her rather intimate birthday parties with only 14 guests, half of whom were from her new society. It gave me the opportunity to ask how she felt about the other Blue Boys and Blue Ladies who double-crossed her. In a calm tone, she said, “I have forgiven them, at alam nila na ako ang nagpayaman sa kanilang lahat.”
Revolution foretold
My memory of Edsa goes as far back as Jan. 21, 1986—a month before the actual revolution. I was a guest on “Two for the Road,” the TV show hosted by Elvira Manahan and Nestor Torre.
Other guests were JV Cruz and Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil representing the Marcos camp, Joe Concepcion and I for the opposition. On the show, I said there would be a different kind of revolution that would unfold.
“Are you saying that there will be chaos like the usual revolutions,” I was asked. I repeated that it would be different.
In 2014, Jerry Barican and I went to the Human Rights Victims’ Claims Board to request for what was due us as martial law victims. Barican recalled, “I remember how your ET friend described what would ultimately happen to Marcos, but did not know when it would happen because its dimension, time and space were not calculable. If I did not hear it myself, I would never have believed it.”
Imagine what was told to us in November 1972 happened in February 1986.
If only we did not add 50 million Filipinos to the population, I believe we would not be having to fight poverty today.
Another revolution is called for, no matter what Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes says. Why does he not just pay attention to the sexual abuses of his compatriots!
E-mail the columnist: [email protected]
