Oh look what I found in my portfolio! An article I wrote quite some time ago when I headed an intelligent online magazine for young adults.
Hmm... this feels familiar again...
Because the Moon is Smiling
(published in March 2000)
Aaahhhhh...it's good to be back in my old writer's shoes. I never thought I could actually do it: stop writing for a while to concentrate in editing and in supervising the development plans for this website. I wanted to start writing for Oows again, but hey, what could I write about? I've thrown almost all of the opportunities to the staffers. Darn, `wouldn't admit it before, but since I'm here now, I'll be honest: Naiinggit akoooooo!!! ARGH!Torture.
But the Good Lord works things out in the most incredible way most of the times. Now I have something to write about...and of all topics, this has to be it.
The idea came when my guy best friend called me to ask for advice about putting up an exhibit. He had just woken up from his afternoon nap without the intention of calling me. He said it just popped into his head, and the best part was, it turned out he called the right person since I really could help him. But the catch to this story was the reason behind his sudden need to put up an exhibit: he has to raise around 60,000 pinoy bucks so that he could go to Japan and see the love of his life. That just shut me up.
I was so taken aback that all I could say, after a few seconds of silence, was "That is so romantic." And don't tell me this is cheesy and crazy--you don't know my best friend. This smoker likes drag racing while pretending he's on a spy mission. He never sticks to an interest, no matter if he excels in it, for very long: stunt roller blading, serious skateboarding, stunt biking, war games (with those illegal gas guns), photography and even taking up Biology in the first few semesters of his college life (Architecture won out). He's a very confident artist who's got a lot to say about humanity in all its beauty and gore. And he takes his love life very seriously. The girl in Japan has been the object of his deepest affection for 2 years, and I can say she's the reason why he knows love is indefinable.
When he told me he just had to go to Japan, I told him he reminded me of the story of Griffin and Sabine (trilogy by Nick Bantock). They live in parallel worlds, but for some strange reason, they are connected. You could say, "love will find a way" even with all those risks, and so they did. And guess what? My best friend and his lady also did: he just told me that she's coming home, for good, next month.
On the night that I'm writing this, the Moon is in the form that I most like: thin upside down crescent, as if she was smiling. For some odd reason, I remember the person who -without him saying so-taught me why love is indefinable. And for an even odder reason, I remembered this other tall quiet guy, with the sexy sideburns, with whom I had a very short-lived fling in college. I knew that I only indulged myself in that fling because he embodied the sort of guy I could never, and wouldn't want to, have. Thank God for the guy I love now, and for whom I would do almost anything-I sure learned a lot. I know why my best friend will scrape the bottom of the jar for 60,000 bucks, and it isn't crazy at all.
I believe that when it all boils down to the most honest things, love is anything but cheesy. Maybe that's why the Moon is smiling.
