The fast food of literature
Unlike the novelist, the poet nor a playwright, columnists are not performing center ring. They must be contented with their self-imposed role of being second-class citizens in the world of…
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The worship of style
At first, you might think it is the elegant figure, a matchless style, and mysterious allure. With or without makeup, she is always put together and utterly self confident, imbued…
Father knows best
My father is the kind of man I’ve always dreamed of: kind to the weak, fierce to the arrogant, generous to those who loved him, ruthless to those who will…
‘To be or not to be’
Hamlet, the prince of problems, stimulates us to think about the challenges of living in the real world. In his soliloquy “To be or not to be” — the single…
There was a woman, as beautiful as day
“If you want anything said, as a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.” – Margaret Thatcher At the level of daily life, we learn by experience how…
The unhappy king
ONCE there was a mighty, oh so, mighty king with a short fuse. One night in autumn, the king fell into a deep melancholy. He could neither eat nor sleep,…
Grandmas are to love
“SO, if you have a grandma, thank the Good Lord up above and give grandmamas hugs and kisses for grandmothers are to love. Funny, you don’t look like a grandmother.” – Lois Wyse…
‘Let us join hands’
The Filipino Community of Los Angeles (FACLA) is a world unto itself. Last Friday, as the energy levels started going up, members gathered talking, laughing and thinking. The brain power…
The girls he left behind
Thirty three years ago, my husband left me. He died. Leaving a house filled of daughters, young and adorable, innocent, with the world on their side. In the face of…
Our fascination with the Bible
“IT ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” — Mark Twain It is the time I…
Angels of mercy in the medical arena
Nursing is most certainly a world in itself. Even as the American health care debate rages, these remarkable men and women quietly continue to provide the day to day grit…
Kindly men called doctors
Everyone pretty much agrees that if you exercise and eat right and don’t smoke or drink or annoy a cop, you’ll never die. I have been told that by my…
The language of laughter
“Neither of us would ever die of love, we will grieve, part and separate. For we were not meant to be tragedians. We were meant to be comedians.” – Graham Green,…
A table for one
THE operating room could be likened to a theater — cupboards held tanks of oxygen, refrigerators filled with bags of blood, and a table for one. Beside it lay steel…
The arms of war
They consist in running bits of metal through the flesh of men — large, small, pointed, square, round splintered — that tear and kill. It is not metal in its…
The soldier
If I could, I would look into the hearts of soldiers and try to know their stories. Why are they fighting? Who will tell them (if the reasons exist) who…
One is a lonely number
LAS VEGAS – On this heated and dry day in April, the whole city is breathing and heaving like a tired beast. On the strip that controls all the luxurious…
Nothing is for always
There is a memory of loss that fall provokes, like feeding the earth’s exhaustion, satisfaction and weariness, making us wonder. How we deal with all the other endings in our…
The voices of spring
Spring has sprung. It is upon us in a scent that grows deeper, dizzying, improbable. It is too heady, too provocative to be diminished. Seeping through open windows, under doors,…
The papery essence of writing
Do we seriously think writing is all joy? One should realize it is also half pain, and sometimes it is pain that makes us write. Think about the atrocious solitude…
When I grow too old to dream
I DON’T know of any woman who really wants to grow old. After a certain birthday, she enters into a battle with time, sometimes with a plastic surgeon by her…
What if you could speak directly with Christ?
LENT is the season when words and teachings of Christ are presented in a thousand pulpits across the nation — self-righteously, mournfully, nasally, coldly, feebly, flamboyantly, blandly, and violently. Ministers…
The making of a president
The president wears a prestigious crown. The protocol, the linguistics, circumlocution are intimidating at first, but then becomes a second language. There is something about the aura of president that…
Dance exercise – the latest senior craze
They were evenings that mixes serious adult past time. Not exactly the kind of topic one wants to pursue after what seems to be a lifetime being under the weather….
The dilemma of giving life or denying it
This is about the one who cannot speak, whose drop of life is only a cluster of cells that has scarcely begun. The one who is silent and without opinion…
The favorite daughter
The apple that fell far from the tree is one I could only dream of. A perfect newshen. God’s little pencil. I would have taught her to begin each work…
Gentle angels called caregivers
In private homes, we learn yet of another world—of quiet angels with gentle hearts. Back home, they used to be teachers, bank tellers, office workers, engineers, or registered nurses who…
Songs my mother taught me
My first knowledge of the world and about life came to me through my senses. They were directed by my mother. She was the first one I saw, felt and…
Inside Dante’s ‘Inferno’
The memory of what is irrevocably lost is the true meaning of Hell in The Divine Comedy. Dante Alighieri is considered as the Father of Italian Poetry. The poetry of…