Netnet Camomot
THERE are many ways for you to be led to wherever you should be. That’s after you’ve made a difficult choice which prompted family and close friends to ask, Wwwhhyyy???
But another friend’s advice was to listen to the heart. And you thought that’s what it was saying. Darn. There’s a book on this. Its title: “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.”
And the things happening later began to tell you, Wrong choice! Juice colored. This is what you get when you ask for signs. The whole universe is already responding.
Well, let’s see—pronounced as the Spanish word for milk—what will happen next.
2017 can be a turning point. There’s that number again—17—and the song that goes, “I learned the truth at seventeen.”
And that song goes on to… “That love was meant for beauty queens.” Beauty queens like the Miss Universe candidates? Do they also seek answers from the universe? Hotdog’s Dennis Garcia posted a meme on Facebook that says, “How can people declare someone Miss Universe when they didn’t invite participants from other planets?” Hmmm. Good question.
The question hovering over Pinas, though, is if Miss Philippines Maxine Medina needs an interpreter for the Question and Answer on coronation night. In case you haven’t noticed after all these years of watching beauty pageants, the crucial Q&A portion is for the Top Five. So, I guess Pinoys are already predicting she’ll reach that, uh, point of no return.
Well, that’s called presumptuous which is defined as “failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate.” Hmmm.
I don’t know if it’s appropriate to say US President Donald Trump is presumptuous. As promised during his campaign, he’s building a wall on the Mexican border. And all along you thought he was joking. Think again. Better go back to his promises during the campaign because it’s beginning to look a lot like they were not made to be broken.
That wall will cost the US$15 billion to $25 billion. Well, to be refunded by Mexico later according to Trump. Still, that’s a lot of money. Too many zeroes there after the first two digits. If that same amount is used to buy food to feed the hungry, imagine how many will benefit from that.
Life always has its way of keeping us awake. Just when we thought the only humongous wall to remain on this earth is the Great Wall of China after the Berlin Wall went pfft many years ago, here’s the US building a wall on the Mexican border. And that’s coming from a US president who used to own the Miss Universe Organization. And from a country of immigrants. If they care to go back to their history, the US’s first inhabitants were the Native Americans pre-Christopher Columbus. If you want to know the rest of that history, please Google na lang.
So, the Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free.” Too bad for the universe—it’s probably No Entry for extraterrestrials, too.
Lady Liberty now needs new words. And if you’re the writer of those words, write it while trying to morph to her. The words should sound like her, like as if she’s speaking from the heart, even if she’s not.
Inserting jokes into her words is tricky—if she tends to stumble on her spoken words, the joke will lie flat on the ground, never to be resurrected again. If she needs a microphone to get her message across, she has to ensure her mouth is directly aimed at the mic because if she tends to bow down while reading the written piece, her voice would go in and out of the sound system, allowing the audience to wonder and wander. You don’t want that. Everyone should be able to hear every word she’s saying now especially with that wall on the Mexican border.
You, the writer, will wait anxiously as a member of her audience, and when that audience reacts appropriately—laughs at the jokes, listens intently to the rest—you’ve written a good one and it was delivered well. Yup, it takes two to tango.
There are people who should never be allowed to speak extemporaneously because they pause and stare blankly not for the longest time but enough to allow the audience to respond with a blank stare, too, emitting an aura of unease throughout Liberty Island and the nearby Ellis Island or—gasp!—the universe. All these while she tries to find the right words.
And there’s the extemporaneous speaker assigned to deliver an inspirational message, only to end up depressing the audience. Try saying, “America First!,” to immigrants who have arrived a minute ago at the JFK Airport in New York. That kind of depressing.
There are times when you’ve written a speech and while reviewing it before being called to speak, a friend, says, Basahon gyud? That may challenge you to speak from the heart. The result: the written speech’s ending becomes the actual speech’s beginning, and you now have to work your way from there.
A speech should be inclusive, and not exclusive. Whether it’s targeting or praising, it should remain general, embracing all. There should be no, Hi, Donald. And making pa-cute towards Donald. This makes the rest of the audience uneasy as they wonder, Are we supposed to leave them alone now?
The thought churning in your brain while listening to a speaker who’s focusing only on one person or a certain group of people in the audience is this: Get a room already!
And build walls on the borders of that room. Kung si Madonna pa, “You just keep on pushing my love over the borderline.”
