Bob Shroder: A magnificent maestro
Long before a symphonic conductor appears before an audience to impress his qualities on his listeners (who maybe critical or otherwise), he has already made the impression that eventually determines…
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Growing old disgracefully
Women of a certain age have brushed away tears with their hands — hands that were once held and warmed by their husbands, who couldn’t cry and died of heart…
Oh, If I were a man
It is difficult to be a woman. You could get raped in a dark street. You have to make use of a pretty face to be accepted at first glance,…
Lonely is the hero
What does it truly take to be a hero? It is said that the legend of a hero does not conclude with the great exploit he had done. Both in…
How to deflect intellectual swan dive
The pursuit of intelligence is tough. I am humbled by Sir Francis Bacon, who made the ultimate sacrifice — he died while in a quest for knowledge, he is a…
Four years of bruised souls
Yards and yards of written papers spilled into violent paragraphs. There were pitiless accusations and vehement invectives that tried to open the eyes of those who do not want to…
One fine day called Thanksgiving
This great holiday of thanks and giving is not a date on a calendar, but a state of mind. It is about our capacity to realize things that we can,…
The last time I saw Tacloban
Oftentimes, I get a feverish desire to go back to Tacloban — not the Tacloban in the face of total destruction, whose roads are strewn with corpses laying on the…
‘Til we meet again, Deputy Consul General Daniel Espiritu
Out for a night from our ink-stained asylum, a college of crankers and museum of misfits with huge egos and even larger insecurities, herds of highly-educated dinosaurs planned a deliciously…
Why the roast turned into fried chicken
Blame October’s lunar monsoons orbit last Wednesday. The much ballyhooed “Roast of the Decade” by no less than the meanest, cruelest, heartless and outrageous troika of Bobby Reyes, Bernardo Bernardo…
The literary life of good reading
It’s been said that those to whom reading is important, gets started on books early. This specific human act of word-making and word-reading, the scanning of small black markers on…
Jewels from Smokey Mountain
It is a wild spot, a world apart, a two million-ton landfill — the world renowned Smokey Mountain. It is where generations of Filipino families were born and raised amid…
Once upon a second time
LIFE is a desert of time — hours, days, weeks, years perishing, with little time to face everything. For what is yesterday, when we have stretched too far on a…
One night in autumn
Autumn provokes memories of loss. After all, it is the end of summer and we witness the last batch of uncomplaining plants, which contributed to the zest and color of…
An evening at the opera
I CAN never quell a stir of fascination, dread and longing when the house lights dim and the curtains part. But the enjoyment of an opera can begin, not with…
An event to remember: The venerable Abbot Shi Yong Xin visits Los Angeles
Who said downtown Los Angeles gets crowded only when the Lakers are playing? Last week, the only game in the town was the Shaolin Temple Cultural Festival in this City. There…
Alone at last
THIS mild, sunny morning charmed me into happiness and I realized my cheer was partly because I was alone. I thought for an awful moment that perhaps I was essentially…
Angels of mercy in the medical arena
Nursing is most certainly a world into itself. Even as the debate in American healthcare rages, these remarkable men and women quietly continue to provide the day to day grit from…
The apostolic mission of grandmothering
“IF you want to civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.” – Victor Hugo So, one moment you’re just a mother—and before you can blink and think that you have escaped…
In war, death is impersonal
If one could only look in every soldier’s heart, and know everyone’s story. When you become a soldier, you never think that your job will entail killing, You only know…
Newswomen: A breed of their own
In this highly competitive profession that requires courage upon entering what is still essentially a man’s world – newshens happily exploit every avenue that may lead to news, including those…
Interviewing Romy P. Borje
It’s been said that no people on earth are more fearful and anxious than the members of the press, when they are written about. Think about why doctors are known…
Inside the Palace by the Pasig River
No matter how many times a reporter walks into Malacañang Palace, she/he will always feel a sense of awe and wonder. How could so much power be concentrated in one…
Saving a man’s best friend
Everyone I know has a dog. And each one of them believes that his/her dog is the most beautiful, intelligent pet in the world. In many ways, these people would…
What men live by
Whenever I am permitted to bask in the light for imagination, I turn to Leo Tolstoy for some fragments of drama and splinters of euphoria. There is something about his…
Coming attractions
To keep up with everything going on with the Fil-Am community, I read the Asian Journal and my Bible everyday so that I know what each side is doing. People, not only…
Laughter is but a joyous surrender
LAS VEGAS—There is no cheerier sound. I am proud, nowadays, of laughing, and grateful to anyone who makes me laugh. I’ve been told that it is a bad sign. When…
In praise of the Filipino-American
They are the sons and daughters of dramatic journeys and fantastic tales, their stories carried like treasures as they lay down a shadow of stunning proportions, shaped both by the…
The day a man retires
Work is a mysterious thing. Many of us claim to dislike it at times, but it grips on us so fiercely, that it captures emotions and loyalties we never knew…
People’s revulsion for swinish binge
It started with a silent roar of grief and outrage in social media and booming: relentless, obsessive, sweeping away any other sound, beating out the great rage. It rose like…