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Monday, August 23, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
TRUST
A little girl and her father were crossing a bridge.
The father was kind of scared so he asked his little daughter,
“Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you won’t fall into the river.”
The little girl said, “No dad. You hold my hand.”
“What’s the difference?” Asked the puzzled father.
“There’s a big difference.” Replied the little girl.
“If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let go of your hand. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go.”
In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in it’s bind, but in it’s bond.
So hold the hand of the person who will never leave your hand rather than the person you love...
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Portents
SUMMARY
Miggy receives a call confirming her pregnancy. She is shocked and confused as to what she should do. Ramon and Lawrence are possible candidates as the baby’s father but she is not sure nor is she married to either of them.
She is in such a daze when she goes to work that she is already halfway to her office when she realizes that she should have caught a ride. She passes by a church where a filthy man was talking to her in gibberish. She wonders if he chose to speak her because he can see her “dark and grimy soul”. She reaches her office and sees Wilma and Pocholo. The latter talks to her about his worries that the world will come to its end as Nostradamus had predicted. He pointed out that they had had a big earthquake, and now Iraq is at war with Kuwait. Moreover, his aunt and some other kids saw a horseman in the sky which was also a vision that was seen before World War II began. All morning she wonders if she should ask for Wilma’s (she had had four abortions) abortionist.
She has lunch with Lawrence but walks out of the restaurant without informing him of her predicament. She wanders around the mall and thinks about the pros and cons of having the baby. After which, she went back to the office. There, she sees people “scurrying about like newly-beheaded chickens” panicking to go home since the radio announced that there will be a big earthquake at 2:30. The building is closing so she decides to go and use the afternoon off.
She goes home and ordered pizza. The phone rings right after she puts it down. Ramon was on the line asking if he could come over to her house. She said yes and hangs up. At six, Ramon arrives. They go to the terrace where Ramon eats. While he is eating she tells him about her weird day and Pocholo’s fear of the world ending. This leads them to talk about morbid things. Ramon tells her that maybe the world is ending but that does not concern him much. What concerns him more is if he will be the last person on earth. Then it starts to rain so they get up and go inside. As she closes the door to the terrace she thinks she saw “a man on a black horse, riding through the rain” in the sky. She downplays this to be just something that pregnant women experience due to hormone or something.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
LIT001 Second Blog Project
Your second blog entry is to write a reflective essay about the theme of a story.
The second blog entry requires you to share your own opinion and significant experiences from the theme of the story of “The Small Key” by Paz Latorena..
The type of essay required for this blog is reflective.
This type of essay is aimed to reflect a personal event or experience of the author. The main condition is that it has to be a certain personal experience on which the author has his very own perception. This experience is revealed in the essay in order to demonstrate its importance for understanding social relations and the essence of people.
In order to produce an excellent reflective essay it is vital to remember that the reflective is to have a personal character and to relate to certain philosophic categories. This implies a wide range of possible understanding of the topic of the essay.
Here is a probable structure of a reflective essay:
- The aim of the opening paragraph is to get the reader involved in the author’s story including interesting details, personal experiences. The style must be very vivid and therefore to appeal to the reader as if it was a conversation on the theme.
- The middle part reveals a good variety of the author’s ideas on the topic.
- The concluding sentences summarize the main ideas and experiences of the essay. The author makes a reflective of his general perception of the given topic.
Your essay should consist of 300-500 words. Make sure that your essays will be posted on or before August 15, 2010 . Good luck.
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Fence
SUMMARY
The setting is reflective of the kind of characters and the situation they would be in.
The nipa huts look desolate and empty, reflective of how their occupants behave and feel for each other.
They have no neighbors and yet the need for each other seems remote and distant. Hatred overrules. They are most afraid one of them would give way. The building of the fence seems necessary to protect themselves from each other.
Hatred comes from a betrayal-- when Aling Biang caught her husband with Aling Sebia, the childless widow.
Aling Biang could not forgive. Aling Sebia seems not remorseful as she matches the anger and hatred of Aling Biang. The husband left without a word and never came back. He is part of the mess, but left it unsettled.
The vegetable rows that used to separate the nipa huts are slowly dying. The owners are afraid that if they watered the vegetables, they would also at the same time nurture the plants of the other. This seems reflective of their unwillingness to forgive and live again.
Aling Sebia is going to deliver a child. Aling Biang is the only person who could help her. This could have been an opportunity for reconciliation, but after Aling Biang helps her there is complete silence.
The hatred goes on like a curse. The children of the two women grow unhealthy and ugly. Aling Biang implants hatred in Iking's heart, although Iking feels otherwise.
It is the very first music in his life. Although the notes are not complete, Iking likes to hear it.
When he reaches fifteen, he stops sleeping beside his mother. He wants to sleep by the door where he could hear the guitar being played. He is beginning to show signs of protest, but he is physically weak.
This time he knows it is the girl who plays the guitar. He wants to destroy the fence that is starting to decay. But his mother reinforces the decaying stakes which had been weathered by time.
The guitar stops playing.
It is Christmas. They pray and yet Iking doubts if his mother could really pray.
Again, Iking wants the girl to play the guitar -- and he tells her this as he whispers
through the bamboo fence.
He is happy when the girl appears to have heard and understood him.
Iking waits, but he is afraid the fence has reached her heart. Nevertheless, he waits because there is no fence in his heart.
Then he died. The guitar plays a few minutes after Iking died. Now, the musical notes are completed. Alling Biang, on the other hand, finds the playing of the guitar a mockery.
His death does not soften her heart. The fence remains strengthened.
How can two women hate each other for so long? Why cant they love and be compassionate with each other? Where is the man? Don't the two women deserve pity instead of accusation?
The nipa huts look desolate and empty, reflective of how their occupants behave and feel for each other.
They have no neighbors and yet the need for each other seems remote and distant. Hatred overrules. They are most afraid one of them would give way. The building of the fence seems necessary to protect themselves from each other.
Hatred comes from a betrayal-- when Aling Biang caught her husband with Aling Sebia, the childless widow.
Aling Biang could not forgive. Aling Sebia seems not remorseful as she matches the anger and hatred of Aling Biang. The husband left without a word and never came back. He is part of the mess, but left it unsettled.
The vegetable rows that used to separate the nipa huts are slowly dying. The owners are afraid that if they watered the vegetables, they would also at the same time nurture the plants of the other. This seems reflective of their unwillingness to forgive and live again.
Aling Sebia is going to deliver a child. Aling Biang is the only person who could help her. This could have been an opportunity for reconciliation, but after Aling Biang helps her there is complete silence.
The hatred goes on like a curse. The children of the two women grow unhealthy and ugly. Aling Biang implants hatred in Iking's heart, although Iking feels otherwise.
It is the very first music in his life. Although the notes are not complete, Iking likes to hear it.
When he reaches fifteen, he stops sleeping beside his mother. He wants to sleep by the door where he could hear the guitar being played. He is beginning to show signs of protest, but he is physically weak.
This time he knows it is the girl who plays the guitar. He wants to destroy the fence that is starting to decay. But his mother reinforces the decaying stakes which had been weathered by time.
The guitar stops playing.
It is Christmas. They pray and yet Iking doubts if his mother could really pray.
Again, Iking wants the girl to play the guitar -- and he tells her this as he whispers
through the bamboo fence.
He is happy when the girl appears to have heard and understood him.
Iking waits, but he is afraid the fence has reached her heart. Nevertheless, he waits because there is no fence in his heart.
Then he died. The guitar plays a few minutes after Iking died. Now, the musical notes are completed. Alling Biang, on the other hand, finds the playing of the guitar a mockery.
His death does not soften her heart. The fence remains strengthened.
How can two women hate each other for so long? Why cant they love and be compassionate with each other? Where is the man? Don't the two women deserve pity instead of accusation?
THE SMALL KEY
Summary of THE SMALL KEY by Paz Latorena
It is about a woman named Soledad who is married to a man named Pedro . They live on a farm. One morning Soledad finds herself knowing that the farm will produce plenty but that she still had some inner feeling of discontent. She planned to mend some of her husband's shirts, which were in a locked trunk. Pedro took out from his pocket a string which held two keys, one large and shiny and one small and rusty. He gave Soledad the large key to his trunk and put the small key back in his jacket pocket. Since it was hot that morning, he removed his coat before leaving to work in the field. When he was gone, Soledad began to fold the jacket and the small key fell to the floor. It is obvious that Pedro values the small key while Soledad fears it.
Soledad knows that the small key is a key to a different trunk. She tries to busy herself so that she will not think about what the smaller trunk contains, but she cannot stop thinking about it and reveals that the small trunk contains clothing that belonged to Pedro's first wife. She wonders why it is that he keeps her old clothing and why he seems to have a special feeling about them. She obviously fears that Pedro still loves his first wife even though she has been dead for many years by now. She reveals that she hates the things in the small trunk and worries that they will destroy the relationship between her and her husband. Despite her attempts to not think about the contents of the small trunk, Soledad opens it. At this point, Pedro returns home to find Soledad in bed supposedly with a fever. It turns out she does not. The next morning Pedro discovers a pile of ashes and half burnt clothing in the backyard. He realizes what Soledad has done and rushes to look in the trunk to confirm it. Soledad has indeed, burned his first wife's clothing.
Pedro is angry and bitter that this has happened and he expects that Soledad will explain things later. He thinks to himself that he will forgive her because he loves her but that even if she did it out of love for him, it will always remain a matter of some resentment toward her for doing it.
It is about a woman named Soledad who is married to a man named Pedro . They live on a farm. One morning Soledad finds herself knowing that the farm will produce plenty but that she still had some inner feeling of discontent. She planned to mend some of her husband's shirts, which were in a locked trunk. Pedro took out from his pocket a string which held two keys, one large and shiny and one small and rusty. He gave Soledad the large key to his trunk and put the small key back in his jacket pocket. Since it was hot that morning, he removed his coat before leaving to work in the field. When he was gone, Soledad began to fold the jacket and the small key fell to the floor. It is obvious that Pedro values the small key while Soledad fears it.
Soledad knows that the small key is a key to a different trunk. She tries to busy herself so that she will not think about what the smaller trunk contains, but she cannot stop thinking about it and reveals that the small trunk contains clothing that belonged to Pedro's first wife. She wonders why it is that he keeps her old clothing and why he seems to have a special feeling about them. She obviously fears that Pedro still loves his first wife even though she has been dead for many years by now. She reveals that she hates the things in the small trunk and worries that they will destroy the relationship between her and her husband. Despite her attempts to not think about the contents of the small trunk, Soledad opens it. At this point, Pedro returns home to find Soledad in bed supposedly with a fever. It turns out she does not. The next morning Pedro discovers a pile of ashes and half burnt clothing in the backyard. He realizes what Soledad has done and rushes to look in the trunk to confirm it. Soledad has indeed, burned his first wife's clothing.
Pedro is angry and bitter that this has happened and he expects that Soledad will explain things later. He thinks to himself that he will forgive her because he loves her but that even if she did it out of love for him, it will always remain a matter of some resentment toward her for doing it.
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