Monday, January 30, 2006

Common Misconception

2:06 AM 1/29/2006

lately, i've noticed that most love songs deal with unhappiness and tragedy. is life really that tragic? that instead of looking at the whiteness of a piece of paper, we focus on a single blot of darkness in the middle?

although, somehow, it is really tragic for a clean piece of paper to be blotched by a single dot of darkness in the middle. but that would be akin to discarding a whole basket of apples just because one found a rotting apple on top.

digressions aside, how tragic it is for our songwriters to only celebrate the tragedy of love. what about the singular happiness that love brings?

and moreso, especially in the light of my new "civil status," why do we put a premium on songs that border on adultery and bigamy, pseudo-love songs that directly assault relationships?

will it be weird to hear a lovesong that celebrates the beauty of marriage, the unequivocal completion that marriage brings between two lovers?

i believe so. in this day and age, anything that has something to do with the traditional, with basic values, seem absurd.

how tragic it is to live in an undefined age.

Oh, yes, we do live in the Information Age, when all we get is info and more info. And in the midst of all that info, we forget how to sift and to interpret.

we can even qualify this age to be the Misinformation Age -- an age when illicit love is deemed more exciting and more romantic than the good thing, an age when illegal substances are deemed more capable of giving us the "high" than the usual dose of good vibes, an age when the wrong act seems to be better, or even the best, than the right act.

just do it -- whatever that is. what a mantra.

marriage is a blessing to those who have found the real reason behind marrying someone. if one sees marriage as a deadline, a dead-end, the last train, a bus stop, or just a social requirement, then one better think about single-blessedness.

marriage, just like teaching and the priesthood, is a vocation. you do it not just because you love it. love is just another reason in the myriad of reasons one has in choosing a vocation.

i consider it an understatement that one marries someone because one loves. marriage is more than love, oft we hear. but it doesn't make marriage as an act a boring act.

when one considers married life as a dead-end, then it is indeed a dead-end to one's life. consider the benefits -- you get a bestfriend for life, you always have someone to laugh with at anything silly, you always have a shoulder to cry on while watching a tearjerker, you always have someone to watch fireworks with during new year and the chinese new year (oh, the chinese are really grand when it comes to fireworks).

when one puts a limit to one's self, it is one's loss.

i have married the most beautiful woman in the world, the one that makes me laugh, the one that makes me smile, the one that makes the tedious wait worthwhile.

i have married my Truth, and now my Truth bears my surname.

in my excitement during the civil rites,* i told the judge "Yes, Your Honor," before he had finished asking me whether i'd take alisa for my wife, for richer or for poorer, et cetera, et cetera. he he he.

oh, i am just so happy. sooooooooooooo happy.

I AM COMPLETE.

thank you, Lord, for Alisa.

*a civil wedding is actually more "bonding" than a church wedding, since there is no divorce in the country. an annulment, which can only apply to church weddings, really dissolves the marriage contract. on the other hand, civil weddings cannot be dissolved, although contracting parties, i.e. the husband and the wife, can apply for legal separation, which does nothing to dissolve their marriage except to remove conjugal ownership from their relationship. simply put, when one weds before Philippine laws, one weds till death.

And I say, Amen to that.

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