IN THE GRAPEVINE

UMUULAN ULAN NA NAMAN ANG ULAN
(Being philosophical about the rain---a favorite past time)

It suddenly rained yesterday that my dog Nike, who’s scared of every natural sound on the planet and pissed at every natural man (?) and animal on the street, was scratching at the main door so hard that I couldn’t help but notice it. So I ran from my room and opened the door and there she was—a little bit soaked but obviously happy to see a familiar sight (Is this the part where I’m suppose to rave about my own beauty? Or the lack of it maybe? Nah!). Anyway, to cut a long story short, I stayed with her for a few minutes on the doorway and so we both saw Mother Nature at its best. Considering na mainit ang Pilipinas, I love it when it rains. I can just be lost in my own thoughts (or is it a form of meditation na rin? Just letting you’re mind be free. No thinking involved/meditation?) I remember (I’m sure every regular Filipino kid can relate to this) playing, walking and just plain getting soaked on the streets of what-have-you when I was young that you could almost call it bath-time when it rains---until you realized that you might have a weak pair of lungs that could kill you.

Anyway, back to Nike and me, we were both just sitting on our behinds there on the doorway---so I took off my eyeglasses and with my nearsighted/astigmatism pair of slightly-useless naked eyes I realized that as I may be trying to absorb the essence of rain-watching with my dog (bonding time) that a lot of people might be just be pissed right now. Sure rain-watching is fun—as long as you have a strong bubong and cemented walls---but I wonder if I would feel the same way if my house was a little bit less in structure? Hmmmm…I wonder? Now that’s a thought that needs no thinking-time/think-tanks involved. Just get lost in your own little town/probinsya and you’d find the answer. By the rivers of Babylon---voila! The future of Rizal in the make-shift houses that could almost be Pinoy architecture and design in its form/originality/art in its barest minimum/essentials….The day statistics tell us that things are getting better and no more need for Imeldific cover-ups everytime a swanky foreign-diplomat/world leader comes…then that’s the day I go back to my rain-watching…just soaked up with memories of the time when Nike and I were just sitting on out behinds…taking off my eyeglasses and being grateful that I can still see the rain. BWAHAHAHA!