The Night Before Christmas

As I write this, it is a few hours before Christmas and the kids at the house (both old and young) are running around high on sugar and God knows what else. It is like this every year in our family and it is a great wonder there is no body count before midnight. Whoever said Christmas is about families must really have a gift of wisdom because only in the context of "what can we do - we are family" can one take comfort in this season of madness and frayed nerves.

But I still would not have it any other way. I can not imagine spending Christmas alone in some foreign country or in some isolated place the way some of my friends do. True, being stuffed to the gills with food that is bound to clog arteries and having one's liver pickled in liquor are technically not proactive ways of celebrating this supposed season of joy, love and peace, but then again, who wants a philosophizing scrooge on Christmas?

This afternoon, my daughter and I had to rush to Harrison Plaza to do some last minute shopping to cover some unexpected but oh-so-delightful "arrivals." One of my favorite brothers showed up unexpected all the way from the province. He made my Christmas this year. Or at least, he helped make it.

I am still a little "high" from the last pre-Christmas party held all the way in Noveleta Cavite yesterday. That was one truly fun party - and it was great to bask in the genuine warmth provided by peers and students. I must be getting old because I have started to view students as my own "children" - well, at least those that touch my life in many profound ways. Two of my "grown children" - Jon and JT - were there as always and it truly makes my heart swell with pride to see how they have matured and wisened in the few years since graduation.

Anyway, it is a few hours to go before the frenzy in my household erupts to full potential and I am cocooned here in my room trying to catch some moments of quiet and reflection. Tough order of course considering that my cellphone has been buzzing continually with all kinds of messages and wishes since this morning. As of last count, I have received 84 Christmas greetings ranging from the truly profound and insightful to the ribald and irreverent.

I hope your Christmas is meaningful as well.

Merry Christmas!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Open Letter To Our Leaders

Dear Tita Cory, Senators, Congressmen, Businessmen, Media people, Leftists, and all Bleeding Hearts Out There: I am angry. And I know that there are many out there who are angrier than I am for the same reason. And that reason is simple. I am sick and tired of all you guys claiming to speak for me and many Filipinos. I feel like screaming every time you mouth words about fighting for my freedom and my rights, when you obviously are just thinking about yours. You tell me that the essence of democracy is providing every citizen the right to speak his or her mind and make his or her own informed judgments, but you yourselves do not respect my silence and the choices I and many others have made. In other words, your concept of democracy is limited to having your rights and your freedoms respected, at the expense of ours. I am utterly flabbergasted that you still do not get it: we already responded to your calls, and our response has been very clear - we chose not to heed your calls to go t...
Read more

Farewell, Victor

Image
This is my column today. Renato Victor Ebarle Jr. was at the prime of his life; barely 27 years old and just starting to build his career in human resource management. At the time of his death, he was recruitment manager of the Hotel Peninsula Manila. To say that he still had the whole world ahead of him sounds like a cliché but those among us who actually knew him, those among us who were aware of the kind of passion he had for life and for his work, people like me who had the privilege of having been consulted by him on many professional matters, know this with a certain degree of certainty. I was Victor’s professor in three major subjects when he was in college. In each one of them, he sat at the first row, which said a lot about the kind of person he was. Professors know this for a fact: Bullies don’t sit in front of the class where they cannot annoy anyone. I was his thesis adviser and he and his team spent a whole academic school year trying to break new grounds on the question o...
Read more

How That Letter Came To Be...

I had some time in my hands last night. I bloghopped. For the very first time I got to read in detail what people are saying about that letter and about me in other blogs. I have already responded to most of the comments in this blog. However, I cannot possibly answer all comments given that I have only ten fingers and there are only 24 hours in a day. It is very tempting, but this blog is not my life and contrary to the overactive imagination of some people, I do not have the resources to do that. I cannot possibly monitor the thousands of blogs out there. Besides, the comments in this and other blogs (and even in the newspapers) do tend to answer each other, and I do not fancy myself as an ultimate arbiter or judge with the final and definitive opinion (I do not think anyone is qualified to do that unless that person died on a cross and resurrected in three days), so there is really not much to say after reading the various pros and cons. Some people do a better job at it anyway. I d...
Read more