Easter eggs

Netnet Camomot

OUR family, including the third generation, has become too old for Easter eggs. There was a time when the youngest grandchild would still look forward to finding some, but those days are gone.

Only the traditional Easter feast has remained and this time, we celebrated with the girlfriend and boyfriend of the nephew and niece.

There’s always the possibility that our guests last Sunday would eventually morph to in-laws and we’re thinking, well, with their sense of humor as crazy as ours, yup, they would be fine with us.

The niece’s boyfriend talked about styrofoam and duct tape for his Engineering college projects, and there we were, laughing like all that pochero, sinugbang tiyan sa baboy and kinilaw from Roadhouse had built-in laughing machines in them.

Roadhouse is one of the family’s favorite restos. With Panagatan, Bigby’s, and Prawn House as the other reliables. Of course, that list excludes the fast food outlets which are favorites, too. Insert all those outlets here and the chorus echoing from our family would be a booming, Amen!

And then, Ramil Caballero aka Jack Fryday and Kim Daguman have discovered a new balm for food cravings: Choobi Choobi. Which has not been included in the family’s food source since our favorites there happen to have shrimps, the one with loads of salted egg sauce. Yum! But my sis is allergic to shrimps, so… Back to pochero, sinugbang tiyan sa baboy, and kinilaw.

Anyway, sometimes we still wonder who’s responsible for the way our family could create jokes out of nothing. But we don’t have to wander far for the answer. I wrote about this before and here it is again. Dad had this joke about a boy named Hesus.

It’s Sunday and Hesus’ Nanay asks him to go to the poblacion to buy asin sa merkado. Hesus asks her where the merkado is. And she replies, Basta kanang daghan tawo, mao na ang merkado.

Hesus starts to hike from their barrio to the poblacion. After many hours of walking, he finally sees a place with daghan tawo. He squeezes himself into the crowd until he reaches the inner part of the building. And that’s when the priest asks, Nganong si Hesus gianhi man sa kalibutan? And Hesus replies, Para mopalit ug asin!

Sundays could be the laziest day for the young after having too many spirits on Friday and Saturday nights. No, spirits don’t refer to Halloween parties although, yes, any of those nights could be a Halloween costume party where, after so many spirits, the costume could morph into the birthday suit and…sure na.

After a “spiritual” Saturday night, there was that one Sunday morning at the dorm way back in college when I and my roommates were relieved to arrive at the chapel at the right time: with all the nuns and our dorm mates standing, and the priest saying, The Lord is with you. We figured, Thank God, we’re not late after all. And then, the priest continued with, Go in peace. Oh, so, that’s why everyone was looking at us.

There are Pinoys who describe themselves as non-practicing Catholics. With Dad’s elder bro about to gain sainthood status, that is, if it happens during our lifetime, I guess we are expected to be as holy as our Tito. But we are not like our Tito Lolong who was one of a kind, I still have to meet a priest as kind as he was.

From the ’60s up to the ’80s, Tito was our Tito. He used to stay in our house whenever he was in Cagayan de Oro. He, Daddy, and Mama would talk for many hours after dinner, while there I was, trying to understand their topics that could be anything under the sun. I was young then, and too young to appreciate his words of wisdom.

During my last visit to Cebu last February, there I was, kneeling by his tomb, to ask for this one particular wish–that’s how my injured left knee got more injured. He gave me that wish for, hmmm, a few days, and I was so happy. But a few days later, it disappeared. I wanted to go back to Cebu then, so I could talk with Tito, ask him what happened.

At my age, I should be less naive now when it comes to prayers. After all, I’ve been there, done that, reality bites. But there are times when this human being here would wish for that one beautiful, hmmm, thing, and when it’s given, it’s absolute bliss. But when it’s taken away… Oh, well. Move forward. Next! Better focus on what’s there. Dory has good advice: Keep on swimming.

Other religions don’t have saints. But they do pray, too. It’s faith that keeps us going. For atheists, it must be faith in their own selves, and they can be better off than the rest of us since they don’t rely on prayers to make their wishes come true–they have to make them happen.

But sometimes making things happen for situations that require a maximum of two may backfire, and you now have to wonder if you can rewind to the beginning and start all over again.

Yes, better look for Easter eggs. Less harmful than, hmmm, shrimps with salted egg sauce?