Now, vegetable, meat-eating and vegetarian readers, our title bespeaks for all of us. Dreamers, we are all.
January 2019 is happily skips in into our lives and hope is the continuing sunshine of the heart while our breathing ghost holds fellowship with Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and Region 1 nature, hardship, misfortune or any adversity, hopefully, will never eclipse its brightness.
Let you say, mayhaps, 2018 had been but unhappiness and weariness, still the finger of hope points to the future, however dim, whose darkness may someday be lifted like clouds parted by the rays of the sun.
Oft said, memory’s power has often been deemed the driver of happiness. But when the spirit, overwhelmed with adversity, turns to the past, and sees only in memory’s mirror a reflection of dreariness, the reminiscence couldn’t enliven its progress, were it not for the future lighting up hope’s unfading gleam.
You, the daily laborer – like, in the person of an Overseas Filipino worker, farmer, office worker, lawyer, engineer, teacher, nurse, teller, salesperson, doctor, garbage collector, carpenter, the soldier, the police officer, call center agent, businessman/woman, entrepreneur or the lowly peon, among others – are the variety that appears on our landscapes, enlarging our conceptions of wisdom, and also the foundations of our discriminations and judgments as rational beings while hoping for the best.
You, the daily laborer, as you dream of the good to come your way this 2019, are the most essential utility in the affairs of the Cordilleran and Region 1 society.
John Lennon, American singer, says in his song, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one; I hope someday you will join us. And the world will live as one. . .”
The world will live as one? Uhuh!
Reason why it’s probable that while we may dream and hope of the same to live as one, still no two individuals of all the millions that exist in Cordillera and Region 1 would be found precisely to resemble each other while dreaming of the same in life.
For all this 2019, probably what is coming is better than what was gone.
Take for example the start of 2019 which will kickstart the campaign of political candidates. And we, the people, the voters dream of the best candidates.
Yet, woefully, we the people seem to fall prey to a flaw in the dream of choosing our political candidates, in the personal opinion of Baguio resident Julie Mayos Tarnate, a keen observer of national and current events.
She likens the way we fall prey to choosing political candidates to what occurred thousands of years ago when, between Jesus Christ and a criminal, Pontius Pilate, then head of the Roman province of Judea asked the crowd, “Who should I let go?”
The people shouted, “Barabas, the thief!” Wow! It was the dream of the people to free a thief!
And yaiks, for sadly, thousands of years later, we, the people still dream of choosing the thieves?
Hopefully, we shall hear of a candidate who can give a speech this way:
Feller-citizens and citizen fellers! I rise to address on the subject of the coming election. Be sure and vote at least once, each one of you and your wives too. See to it that your neighbor is there too, or drag him/her there anyhow. Go to the poles and stay all day. Beware of the infamous promises of the other candidates which will be starting to heat up for political effect on the eve of election.
To the voting polls! And when you get there, vote just as you darn please.
Closer to home, we dream of the atmosphere peaceful and soft, the gates are filled with balm and conversations pleasant to the ears that express the soul.
Like what happened to Manang Semang Sabado, 63, from La Union when she recently asked her house help, Inday over something:
Manang Semang: Inday, Ilang karga ang isang liter?
Inday: 4 liters po.
Manang Semang: Sigurado ka?
Inday: Opo ate. Liter L, Liter I, Liter T, Liter E, Liter R. O, di ba 4 liters yan.
As modest as the wild sun flowers growing over the Cordillera landscape, Inday, who hails from the Visayas, believes nothing, perhaps, is more beautiful or rare than a character of the dream to light a glow of laughter in the household of where she works.
For those who employ people in their enterprises, you dream of your workers happily in their work place this 2019.
Aha! Happiness, eh? What is happiness, that phantom which we hear so much and see little, whose promises are constantly given, and constantly broken.
Happiness, that cheats us of the sound instead of the substance, and with the blossom instead of the fruit.
To the young , more particularly, happiness is their herald, but disappointment can be their companion; that they would believe, but to their experience, wouldn’t happen.
Happiness, that grand lady of ceremonies in the whirl of life, propelling us through all her journeys but leading none of us by the same route.
Thus, such dream of happened to Tenorio Sable, 59, a daily laborer, somewhere in Cagayan Valley, when he angrily complained to his boss thus:
Tenorio: “Animal ka, ginawa mo akong tau-tauhan sa inyong sakahan. Per sahod ho, hindi tumaas. Kung mamatay ako, sinong magpapakain sa pamilya ko ikaw?
Haciendero boss: Inglisin mo. Tataasan ko ang sahod mo!
Boy: animal you. You made me man-man me in the farm. My salary did not climb. If I die, who will eat my family, you?
Tenorio’s pay was raised.
As Tenorio, and all daily laborer dream of: equal work for equal pay for a dream 2019!
In the course of marriage, hey all of you there, the husbands. Listen to what Ah Kong has to say!
You dream of peace at home, where your happiness is sheltered?
You dream of an affectionate wife, gentle, sensible and virtuous to fill your whole heart and leave no room for sadness? But op kors, you do! What do you care for the loss of your property when you have all these characters of a wife?
With such of your wife’s characters, your house is sufficiently magnificent as long as your wife commands respect to it, splendid enough as long as her presence ever adorns it, your house where virtue dwells is far superior to a palace.
Kaya, mga kaibigan kong mga lalaking mayroong asawa, if you dream of an affectionate wife, palaging bigyan mo siya ng TAE.
What? You will say. Ang bastos mo naman Ah, na magsabing bigyan ko asawa ko ng tae. E, kung ikaw, Ah, ang bigyan namin ng tae.
Kayo talaga, iba isip utak n’yo. Again, sabi Ah, bigyan n’yo asawa ninyo ng TAE, as in T- Time, as in A- Attention and as in E- Effort. O, di ba?
As for the women, married or not, if you dream of a good husband or man, then listen to this:
Yo! Dakayo a babae, ita a baro a tawen, ti lallaki ayaten, saan a pagsangiten! Anya kayo met. Apay maay-ayatan kayo a mangpaspasangit kadami a lallaki, aya!
Last but not least, Brensen, third son of Ah, working as a teacher in China, dreamt of coming home early December, finally had the chance to come home to Cordillera December 22 to see his brother Bridger who underwent kidney operation. Ah failed to mention that Brensen, his wife Shirley, also pooled in a large part of their effort and resource for operation of Bridger, the kidney given to him by his elder brother, Bismarck. To my son, Brensen, my profound apology.
