- Advertisement -

Netnet Camomot /

MONDAY last week, the sunset was unusually pink. But its colors changed so fast, the photographer, or wannabe photographers like us, had to catch each one the way we take photos of, say, a swimming competition?

- Advertisement -

My niece was able to catch the crimson sunset, my sis had the orange one. I posted a photo on Facebook of the sunset’s reflection on the house across the street, and a friend then commented that her mom used to tell her that a pink sunset is a bad omen—a warning for an earthquake. But there was already an earthquake in Valencia, Bukidnon on August 5, two days before that pink sunset.

When the 6.3-magnitude earthquake did hit Batangas days later on Friday, my friend said, See? I told you so!

An earthquake and other natural disasters remind us that life is indeed short and all that jazz. That’s why the need to find time to relax and savor life, like what I do nowadays—staring at the green trees outside the window and listening to the sounds of construction around us. There must be at least five houses about to sprout in this neighborhood, in addition to the new ones that have already sprouted, and if there are people still telling you these are hard times, you have to ask, Please define hard times.

Some Cagayanons continue to move to uptown Cagayan de Oro, no thanks to the floods and traffic downtown, and some Marawi residents who don’t have their second homes in CDO yet are now looking for houses here, too, for obvious reasons—the siege has been going and going like an Energizer Bunny on a perpetual sugar rush, and rebuilding Marawi won’t happen overnight.

In case you haven’t noticed it yet, people are now blending in, with more respect and understanding for cultural differences.

Extremists win when their way of defining those differences is also absorbed by their white-paper young recruits on whom anyone can write on, and the first one who can do that eventually wins. There’s now a concerted effort to educate Marawi’s displaced youth with the truth. They’re the ones most vulnerable, especially those who are living in evacuation centers.

Marawi’s city government has been working with government agencies and Lanao del Sur’s officials in toning down the effects of the siege, but they need the whole country’s help in stopping extremism from spreading to other places in Pinas’s 7,107 islands. Or 7,641—it depends on who’s counting.

Meanwhile, there’s Channing Tatum dancing with a convenience store lady cashier in North Carolina, USA. He was there to promote a movie, and dropped by that store to buy bottled coffee. There he was, dancing a la his “Magic Mike” character. Whoa!

Talk of savoring each day, Tatum has perfected it to a T. We should all be dancing, too, like no one’s looking.

But how to dance amidst the bad news? Like as if earthquakes and the Marawi siege are not enough, that news also includes drug raids plus skeletons dug up in Ozamiz City, 6.4-billion worth of shabu that’s being scrutinized in a Senate hearing, attacks by communist rebels, bird flu outbreak in Pampanga, a nuclear conflict between North Korea and the US.

But there’s good news, too—Irvins Salted Egg opened its first branch in the country at SM Mega Fashion Hall in Manila last Friday. Its specialty: salted egg chips. Yum!

What I have in the fridge is a bag of The Golden Duck Gourmet Salted Egg Yolk potato crisps, bought at S&R. Also made in Singapore like Irvins, it’s the only salted-egg chips available at S&R. Golden Duck’s tagline: “Not all snacks are created equal.” Yay!

While writing this, a military helicopter flew overhead, and it sounded like it was only, what, a meter away from our house’s rooftop? Oh my gas! Is that how they do surveillance now? I think they should be more open to the offers of surveillance assistance from the US and Australia—these two countries are probably more, hmmm, discreet when it comes to finding out the truth behind the headlines.

A Philippine Air Force pilot friend used to do the same thing—flying a helicopter with a distance of a meter above our house’s rooftop way back when we still lived downtown. That was the age of Jurassic phones and party lines, and one way he would let me know he’s in CDO was to fly that helicopter right above our house. Well, of course, it’s a not meter—more like one foot away. Haha.

Sunsets are expected to be much clearer when viewed from a flying helicopter. But while we’re inside a house or building, better get outta there and savor that sunset while it lasts because, according to Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

Disclaimer

Mindanao Gold Star Daily holds the copyrights of all articles and photos in perpetuity. Any unauthorized reproduction in any platform, electronic and hardcopy, shall be liable for copyright infringement under the Intellectual Property Rights Law of the Philippines.

- Advertisement -