On Any Day Even on 14th February

This is the usual "bed scene" in my room for the past few weeks. I have no date especially last 14th February like it has been. On the other side, I had great time falling in love with the enduring wisdom of Franklin Bobbitt, Ralph Tyler, Elliot Eisner, Murray Print and many other key curriculum people. Besides, of all falls from grace, not acing one of the "biggest" tests of my life lurking just around the corner is something I cannot afford.

I Love Nicole the Mistress, Don't I?

Monica (wife), Adrian (husband) and Nicole (mistress). Photo credits: www.bubblenews.com.

 

 

Nicole Esquivel, the anatagonist played by Maja Salvador in the teleserye entitled The Legal Wife aired on ABSCBN, is gaining more and more haters as the story unfolds her hole and corner relationship with a man named Adrian Devilla played by Jericho Rosales, who is married to the protagonist Monica Santiago played by Angel Locsin.

Many of the bashful comments I read and heard, especially for Nicole Esquivel played by Maja Salvador, are mostly based on personal life of the artist playing the role. Unless you are living under the rock, we know in real life how the friendship of Maja Salvador and another actress Kim Chui was broken because of a man in the person of actor Gerald Anderson.

Gerald is the former lover of Kim, who seemed to have been most heart broken in their decision to separate ways. Now, Kim and Maja are two good friends, the latter known to be a confidante of the former during her very painful days. Until one day Gerald and Maja came out as lovers, leaving Kim more hurt than ever and Maja being painted with the "traitor" image.

Now, back to the drama on screen. Why this so much hatred? Some avid viewers hate Nicole not simply because of her wickedness in the story but because of the untangled story of Maja behind the camera. My friends on social networking sites, with smoking ears, write that Maja is the most ideal actress for role of a mistress because she is an experienced one; not an experienced actress but an experienced "mistress".

But I partially digress to that. It is hard to set aside personal feelings and I admit I am no big fan of Maja. But viewing the literature angle, I cannot deny that I love Nicole after all. She is giving justice to the mistress role as evidenced by my rising blood pressure.

What is a masterpiece without villains like Nicole? Civilizations have traitors. Plays have villains. Tales have witches. In a nutshell, if Nicole and other minor villains are not part of the casting, then end of the story! Turn off the idiot box because there is no complication to give denoument at all and there ought to be no story to spin in the first place. 

And are mistresses in real life not like Nicole? She flirts and dates with a man she knows she can never have. She loves to settle for second. She fell in her own trap of love and lies. In short, we know that Nicole is a stock type of character based on reality. And if she hurts, it only shows she effectively connects to real life. Truth just hurts, does not it?

If we get all these purely to our emotions, we will all taste like a bitter gourd. Admit that we just too taken away, which is the true measurement of the effectiveness of the character. Try to take a glimpse at the other side of things - the literature. Separate the the water from oil, so that maybe then we will find something worth appreciating after all.

Things are clearer to me now. I love Nicole because that is how I should expect of her to fit the bill. However, I am still no big fan of Maja in real life by my own personal feelings, which I am sure is understandable.

Sipat and Other Glimpses

SIPAT, from which the seminar was key worded, is a Filipino word that means "a glimpse into something".

Between the days of my shameful hiatus from this blog, I was tasked to attend a seminar glimpsing into our local culture and literature in relation to our teaching craft. At first, I was a little negative about going to the event because of the weekend hassle it would entail. But in the end, I realized that the experiences I gained from the said seminar exceeded my expectations. 

It went like a group of old friends getting so engrossed in an interesting conversation, not minding the time. It was the first time in ages that I attended a seminar that didn't feel like a seminar at all because the speakers were really entertaining and their presentations were just awesome. I felt fortunate to be a part of the group that is genuinely passionate about the development of our own literature.

The first topic was about the situation of children's literature in our country. One thing I've learned is the "pandesal" mentality when it comes to the production of literary pieces. If we are going to evaluate the story books for children in the shelves, we would notice the gross imitation of plots and styles currently trending in the literary market. Hence, we have the same old stories told and our literature is becoming so commercialized.

On the other side of things, it is still a surprise though to rediscover a few brilliant pieces of literary works that we just don't take pride or simply take for granted. Of these were the local films that has proved their worth in the international scene. We were treated to some previews but the funny thing though is I've never seen any of them in full. Talk about guilt and my movie civilian life.

Another topic was about the folk stories of the City of Koronadal. As reiterated by the speaker in the lecture, one would wonder how we can find a bulk of Greek literature, American literature, Egyptian literature, Indian literature, Japanese literature, but never the literature of our own country. We have the same old stories told and the foreign ones are headway compared to our own.

We realized that nobody dares and initiates to write about the rich heritage of our own city. The songs, poems, legends and myths of our countrysides remain as murky as the water of the river. The fairies, witches, vampires and spirits of our imaginations are still undocumented testaments of our unique culture. The large difference is the fact that nobody puts them into writing and permanently etch them in our material culture.

After each lecture, we had workshops on writing the folk stories of our respective stations and applying it as a spring board of our lesson planning. The hours of brainstorming was worth the squeeze because we were able to produce a legendary tale that we can call original and authentic. I believe that nobody could write the first hand story of our community better than we the people of our community.

We are a country of gregarious people who love to listen and tell stories, but these stories have remained traditionally in our mouths. The challenge now is how to preserve these stories in written form to be passed on the next generation. This kind of passion should be instilled in our hearts.