What is a TV buff? I guess it is someone who watches a lot of television and is well-informed about shows and where these can be found.
I watch some television. But don’t ask me what’s showing in the other channels. So, you could say that as a television watcher, I don’t know what I am missing.
I will confess that over time, I have become obsessed with soaps. In the US, it was “Days of our Lives,” the never-ending saga of a family in small-town America which has been on forever. Locally, I am avidly following “Walang Hanggan.” By the way, Dawn Zulueta is even more beautiful than in “Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit.” Coco Martin is an awesome actor. And what can I say about Susan Roces? Her every scene touches my heart. Before the soaps, I watch “TV Patrol!”
Top-rating
I venture to guess that the highest-rating show at 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday, must be the Impeachment Trial of Chief Justice Renato C. Corona. I watch it until my BP reacts. Thank God for my maintenance meds!
Too many potshots have been thrown at the prosecution team, some well deserved. But I refuse to fall in line. The defense is fighting with everything it’s got (or hasn’t got).
I have a question that will probably reveal my ignorance about such things.
Is the over-decorous language used by the participants absolutely necessary? Can’t “the gentleman from Iloilo” just be called Sen. Franklin Drilon, and so on? When referring to himself, why does a lawyer call himself “this representation?” The attempt to seem lowly and humble by not using the first-person singular is totally lost in such an ego-filled atmosphere. The last thing it shows is humility.
I cringe as they pay their “due respect,” and listen to their protestations of “your honors, please.” It is grating to hear them “begging the indulgence” of the court and mouthing highfalutin’ and pompous expressions of awe and admiration for the crimson robes.
In return, on a lucky day, they may get a grudging pat on the back. Usually however, they listen to words of disdain, long-winded tirades and demeaning lectures.
Should there perhaps be some kind of discipline observed during these sessions, aside from the “command” for silence from the sergeant at arms? Or is a senator/judge allowed to bellow at anyone (the prosecution most of the time) pointing out their ineptness, making them look like boy scouts who have lost their merit badges? Shouldn’t there be a limit to what they must endure? Just asking.
One thing I think I have learned from listening to the in-depth analyses of commentators is this: Even if you see someone with his hand in the cookie jar with crumbs all over his face, accusing him of holding the open jar does not make him the cookie monster.
Bowing
Have you noticed how members of both the defense and prosecution teams scrape and bow just to get permission to speak? I am glad I am not a lawyer. I am not very good at bowing.
In fact, I once got slapped for not doing so. Let me ramble a bit.
It was during the Occupation. I was a child. I thought that if I hung my head before I got to the sentry it would pass for a bow. It didn’t work. He gave me a pretty firm slap on the left cheek. No, I didn’t turn the other one. I ran.
I had to come back the same way a couple of hours later. It was the same guard. Yes, I bowed. He approached me holding three gardenias. My first flowers from a man! And he kept saying, “Gomen nasai.” I took the flowers and ran home.
Truth seems so elusive. Will we ever really find it? I keep thinking, imagining, hoping, that someone will surface and tell it all. No more guessing. No more pointing of fingers. No more lying.
But this is the real world, and very often the real world makes me feel stupid, and very sad. Life has eroded our views of truth and integrity. How do we bring it all back? One man alone cannot do it.
How do we deal with truth and character in our own homes?
Case in point: I know very little about coding. All I know is that my car can’t go beyond a certain area from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays. Therefore, I stay within the prescribed limits.
A few weeks ago, I needed to venture out a bit. I asked my driver if he knew if the East Service Road was covered by the coding regulation and if we could travel there on a Friday.
His reply: No one is there to catch us. Annoyed, I asked again. Can my car travel that road on a Friday?
Same answer. No one will catch us. There are no policemen on that street.
I delivered a long lecture about obedience to the law. He was quiet.
A few minutes later, I asked my son’s driver the same question. He gave me the exact same answer. “Walang pulis doon.” So they believe that unless they get caught, there is no violation.
Our drivers have young families. What do you think they are teaching their children?
Are our kids reading that same message in our actions or reactions? Does our lifestyle give us the right to preach to them about character? How do we explain the tenet that “character is doing the right thing even when no one is looking?”
The journey in search of the truth seems to get more circuitous the longer we stay on it. The road is rough, with twists and turns and full of obstacles designed by men and women who refuse to let us arrive at our destination.
But we continue to pray that some day, Truth will see the light. It is a steep uphill climb and it may be long in coming.
But, by God’s grace, it will!
As Baltasar Gracian, a 17th-century Spanish prose writer, said: “Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of Time.”
