It has been more than three years now since I started thinking about having a blog. Time to invest in one is crucial, and propitiously at this point in my life I have the blessing of time on my side to start one. I only hope I can maintain it even for a certain period of time.
Anything first is generally considered a milestone in itself, for examples: firstborn child, first love, first honor, first human in space. This being my first flight into the immense expanse of the blogosphere is quite frightening for me. I have no formal training in professional journalistic writing. My writing manner and style are solely based on how I feel, letting ideas and emotions flow out as they please.
English is my second language, but I will use it as the primary communication tool for this blog. It is a powerful communication medium widely used in a variety of fields such as business, education, and international relations. More important, English is the language of enlightenment. It has been the proverbial weapon against myriad forms of oppression: social inequity, racial prejudice, religious bigotry, political persecution, gender insensitivity, cultural intolerance. It is interesting to note that people who are not native English speakers find reliable use of it to defend themselves against different faces of injustice.
My mother tongue, the Filipino language, I will use from time to time. It is as dynamic as any progressive language can be. It has evolved from the ethnocentric Tagalog to what is now a beginning amalgamation of the plethora of dialects of the Philippine archipelago, with various homages to Chinese, Spanish and English words. It is still largely based on the Tagalog dialect with the hope of developing into a unifying language for the whole 7,107 Philippine islands.
It is of crucial significance that people have an appreciation of their heritage, language being one of its many manifestations. Use it or lose it, as they say. Staying close to the ancestral light is a pertinent lesson I learned thus far in life. It is the light that will guide us in our personal journey. Sir Winston Churchill aptly put it: "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see." We have equivalent words-of-wisdom in Filipino which we refer to as salawikain: "Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan." (Those who cannot look back to where they came from cannot get to where they're going). Staying close to the ancestral light also keeps us warm in cold and cruel moments of self-doubt, for it is in embracing our origin are we essentially ourselves.
Writing is said to be cathartic. It's like warm chicken soup in a cold, rainy afternoon. Some people encounter it as hobby, others discover it as livelihood. Writing, for me, though, is neither hobby (or at least, not yet) nor livelihood. I have not written often. My writings had been few and years between. I just write whenever and whatever I feel like. From that vantage point, this blog will probably contain random, run-of-the-mill postings and fleeting moments of literary brilliance.
But I have been blessed with those magical moments of verbal creativity, and when those moments come writing becomes my serving of joy and helping of refuge. As many shades of ink splatter on the pages of my life, it is in writing that I find the passion to make good use of the splatters, creating out of them compositions that render to me my existence more comprehensible, ultimately capturing the world in a more intelligible light.
Wherever this digital journey might take me, I hope it will be in the best interest and toward the enrichment of things that matter to me most. What are they? At this point, I have no freaking idea! Hahaha! I suppose the discoveries will come into light when my thoughts finally come into fruition.
Anything first is generally considered a milestone in itself, for examples: firstborn child, first love, first honor, first human in space. This being my first flight into the immense expanse of the blogosphere is quite frightening for me. I have no formal training in professional journalistic writing. My writing manner and style are solely based on how I feel, letting ideas and emotions flow out as they please.
English is my second language, but I will use it as the primary communication tool for this blog. It is a powerful communication medium widely used in a variety of fields such as business, education, and international relations. More important, English is the language of enlightenment. It has been the proverbial weapon against myriad forms of oppression: social inequity, racial prejudice, religious bigotry, political persecution, gender insensitivity, cultural intolerance. It is interesting to note that people who are not native English speakers find reliable use of it to defend themselves against different faces of injustice.
My mother tongue, the Filipino language, I will use from time to time. It is as dynamic as any progressive language can be. It has evolved from the ethnocentric Tagalog to what is now a beginning amalgamation of the plethora of dialects of the Philippine archipelago, with various homages to Chinese, Spanish and English words. It is still largely based on the Tagalog dialect with the hope of developing into a unifying language for the whole 7,107 Philippine islands.
It is of crucial significance that people have an appreciation of their heritage, language being one of its many manifestations. Use it or lose it, as they say. Staying close to the ancestral light is a pertinent lesson I learned thus far in life. It is the light that will guide us in our personal journey. Sir Winston Churchill aptly put it: "The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see." We have equivalent words-of-wisdom in Filipino which we refer to as salawikain: "Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan." (Those who cannot look back to where they came from cannot get to where they're going). Staying close to the ancestral light also keeps us warm in cold and cruel moments of self-doubt, for it is in embracing our origin are we essentially ourselves.
Writing is said to be cathartic. It's like warm chicken soup in a cold, rainy afternoon. Some people encounter it as hobby, others discover it as livelihood. Writing, for me, though, is neither hobby (or at least, not yet) nor livelihood. I have not written often. My writings had been few and years between. I just write whenever and whatever I feel like. From that vantage point, this blog will probably contain random, run-of-the-mill postings and fleeting moments of literary brilliance.
But I have been blessed with those magical moments of verbal creativity, and when those moments come writing becomes my serving of joy and helping of refuge. As many shades of ink splatter on the pages of my life, it is in writing that I find the passion to make good use of the splatters, creating out of them compositions that render to me my existence more comprehensible, ultimately capturing the world in a more intelligible light.
Wherever this digital journey might take me, I hope it will be in the best interest and toward the enrichment of things that matter to me most. What are they? At this point, I have no freaking idea! Hahaha! I suppose the discoveries will come into light when my thoughts finally come into fruition.
Astig ka Pietro! Parang kelan lang kausap kita about leaving Pinas tapos all of a sudden, Americano ka na! You rock daw sabi ni Bea! Hehehe! We're one step closer to meeting again Piet! Once more, ASTIG KAAA!
ReplyDeleteNakanaman! First comment ever! At sa wakas, pumailanlang na nga ang iyong pinakahihintay, pinaka-aabangan at pinakasasabikan na blog ko. Ikaw kaya ang aking maging no.1 fan? (,")
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