POST SCRIPT TO THE LIMITS OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH. AN INSPIRATION FROM POPE  FRANCIS WHO IS VISITING THE PHILIPPINES THAT HAS 80 MILLION CATHOLICS, THE BIGGEST IN ASIA:

"Your freedom to swing your arm ends where my nose begins."--President Manuel Luis Quezon

PRIORITES AND FIRST LONG WALK-JOG in 2015

FB will be tolerated but will not be a priority in 2015 and beyond. Social media has eaten too much time.

1. More readings, more time for "Bhagavad-Gita As It Is" and as translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhuda. The best-selling edition of this classic in world literature was a Christmas gift of daughter-in-law Tintin, based in Toronto Canada.

2. More writings in Ilokano and English poetry, essays, columns and one or two Ilokano fiction.

3. More walking and jogging. The BP this morning was 130/80. As a result of drinking at least more than three big cups of water before breakfast  and then walked, jogged to and from Walgreens?  (That's more than a total of two miles and more than an hour and a half. ( I purchased Cetaphil, a bar soap costing $4.99; LA Times, $1.50 and Colgate toothpaste, 99 cents. Also two lottery tickets, $2, for Friday and Saturday draws. I could win millions of dollars for the family, for charity, another floor to the house in Oscariz.

4. Greet all persons on the jogging/walking route, whether they respond or not. I will always stay positive, and not worry. Like the Chinese NBA basketball star, Jeremy Lin, who said in a recent interview he would always be positive and love every minute of his playing time on the court.
5. Less negative comments, more satiric statements. To say things bluntly against acts and thoughts MAY BE a kind of violence and intolerance.

It is ironic to say, God is Great, after killing your fellow human being. Those who killed the 12 French journalists speak of the barbarism of their faith, the intolerance of their Koran and the cold bloody truth of their prophet.

ON ROAD TO RECOVERY

From "Kafka on the Shore" by the Japanese surrealist writer Haruki Murakami:

"Things change every day with its new dawn. It's not the same world as the day before. And you were not the same person as you were."

" It was ancient Mesopotamia. They pulled out animal intestines, sometimes human intestines, I expect, and used the shape to predict the future. They admired the complex shape of the future. So the prototype of the labyrinth, in a word, guts. Which means the principle of the labyrinth is inside you. And co-relates to the labyrinth outside."

Naragsak ken nalinak a 2015 to Lorenzo and Sinamar Tabin of Utah; Terry Tugade of San Francisco; Lito and Rosemarie de Francia of Santa Maria; Benedict Tadena of San Jose; Twinnie Herasio of Washington;  Tino Inay of New Jersey; Dr. Pete Alupay of Riverside; Vhen Bautista of Rancho Cucamonga;  Apo Ariel Agcaoili of Hawaii; and Manang Pacita Saludez of Wanaka St., Hawaii; and dear sister Linda of Hawaii;  Sonja Chan, Cles Rambaud, Ariel Tabag, Freddie Padua Masuli, Arthur Urata, Ruperto Manuel, Amadeo Dulay, Mar and Ellen Llarenas, Roy Aragon, Eli Raquel, Delfin Dumayas, Fely Abril, Juan Asuncion, JSP Hidalgo, Jr., kdpy.

Peace is an equation in the labyrinth of the mind. But consider: peace warriors are also war combatants residing in mortals and immortals. What then defines the mind and the body?

On the road to complete recovery in Menifee. It was more than three weeks that the body was sick and floundering. First time that the malady hit me in America since we came here intermittently from 2003. We survived the snows of Amarillo, Texas.

It was minus 4 C when we visited Grand Canyon last December. It was almost dark when we--the blogger, Mommy Estelita, Rene Boy who was visiting us from Singapore reached the place--more than 8,500 feet above sea level, according to our Voltaire who drove us to the place from Las Vegas.

WEARY, WEAK AND SICK IN AMERICA

     This physical sickness worries me. It's the flu caused by the Singapore virus brought in by son Rene who arrived in US with a cough and I caught it. I have been sick since arriving from that long trip to the Grand Canyon in Arizona several days ago. For the first time in years, I can feel the weakening of my body. I can walk and go to the yard but this odd feeling always come back again and again.
    An old man getting sick and feeling useless in America. What is there to look for in the so-called land of milk and honey? The best is yet to come is just a figment of the imagination. Count the minutes and look outside the screened window for the low brown mountains of Menifee.And then remembering the translation days in Baguio--the Bible project, getting the Scriptures into the language of Amianan.
    A flicker of hope of recovery is probably better than a ton of worries.

Callaguip Girl

Amarillo, Texas

Snow on her hair:
A memory sans end.

AGDANIW NI PABLO NERUDA ITI ILOKANO

( An Ilokano translation of the Nobel Prize recipient's "The Saddest Poem")

Ita a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw.

Kas pagarigan, isuratko, "Nakarangranga ti rabii,

Ket agarigengen dagiti asul a bitbituen iti adayo."

Agkanta ti agrikusrikos nga angin-rabii iti law-ang.

Ita a rabii, makasuratak iti kalidayan a daniw,

Nagayatak kenkuana, no dadduma idi, inayatnak met.

Idi, tunggal rabii a kas iti daytoy, agpatpatnag
                                                     nga ar-arakupek,
Ag-agkak iti awan patinggana a langit.

Kasano nga awan agayat kadagiti naulimek
                                  ken mangnibinibi a matmatana?

Narnuoyan iti bituen ti rabii, awan ti imnas iti sidongko.
Pampanunotek nga awan iti dennak ket aglimduak
                                                    ta napukawko.

Denggek ti mangliwengliweng a rabii nga ad-adda
                 nga awan patinggana gapu iti kaawanna.
Matnag ti daniw iti kararua, kas iti pannakatnag ti linnaaw
                                                           iti daga.

Diakon ay-ayaten ti imnas idinto a dinungdungngok.
Biroken ti timekko ti pul-oy a manglalailo
                                                 kadagiti lapayagna.
Addanto sabali a mangtagikua kenkuana. Ay, addanto
    a kas iti panangtagikuak kadagiti agekna, ti timekna,
ti nalap-it a pammagina, dagiti saan a malansad a matmatana.

Dagita amin. Iti adayo, adda agkanta. Iti adayo'
Agtawataw ti kararuak ta awan ti imnas iti sibay.
Biroken dagiti matak, kasla iyasidegda kaniak.

Sapulen ti pusok ngem awan ti imnas.

Isu met la a rabii puoranna dagiti puon ti kayo.

Dakami, wen, dakami, Saankamin a kas idi.

Gapu kadagidi rabii, kas itoy, inikutak kadagiti takkiagko.

Uray no daytoyen ti maudi a saem nga impalayna kaniak
Ket daytoy metten ti maudi a daniwko para kenkuana.

Grandchild Marga Denise de los Santos Julian

DEFILED MIND, DEFILED LIFE AND CORRUPT BODY

    To following quotation is from a red notebook that the blogger--a former government information officer and correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer-- used to write and jot down gists of interviews of people including politicians:

     "Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled life and a corrupt body. Thought is a found of action, life and manifestation; make the fountain pure and all will be pure."

Grandchild Margarita Denise in Panagbenga attire in Baguio City

 

Grandchildren Christian and John Philip

Gilbert bridge over the Padsan River in Laoag City, Philippines