Walang tigil

Netnet Camomot

“WALANG tigil ang…”

Walang tigil ang Christmas parties? Exchange gifts? Traffic?

Here’s more, as the Apo Hiking Society song goes, “Walang tigil ang ulan.”

Typhoon Vinta is here, expected to add more chaos to the forecasted Carmageddon today, the Friday before Christmas.

So, if you have a party today and it requires travel from uptown to downtown Cagayan de Oro or vice versa—good luck na lang! You can’t even fly your helicopter in stormy weather. And then, you remember, Ay, airplane man diay ang naka-park sa garage karon.

Hehe. Katawa na lang ta ani.

Christmas sans a typhoon is already stressful. You have to wonder, Why? Why do we do what we always do every Christmas? Puede man unta magtanga na lang ug magtan-aw sa mga dahon outside the room with a view.

Christmas is supposed to be an excuse to do nothing the whole month of December. Well, of course, “nothing” excludes work and its Dec. 31 deadline. You need to work in order to have money for the gifts and parties, but if you choose to chill and stare at the trees outside the room with a view, you won’t need money for the gifts and parties. It’s a vicious cycle, eh? With the 13th month pay and even the bonus and credit cards grouping together for the Christmas season.

And how many pounds have you gained so far? Especially if this is your mantra: You inhale food; you gain weight.

Be warned, though, in using “inhale” in this age of Tokhang and extrajudicial killings. Read the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act (RA 9165) if you still need more convincing on how serious this present Philippine administration is in its War on Drugs since the past admins were not as, hmmm, serious?

The past may give “inhaling” Pinoys false hope that they can again survive the present through wink wink, moolah, and political connections. For those stuck with that false hope, here’s an unsolicited reminder: “The world is a circle without a beginning/And nobody knows where it really ends/Everything depends on where you/Are in the circle that never begins/Nobody knows where the circle ends.”

Whenever you’re stuck, the best thing to do is pray. If you’re a non-believer, at least have faith in yourself. Wait, that’s not an “at least.” That’s the best thing—to have faith in yourself. Kayang-kaya mo ‘yan.

If only we can also apply that in this mad rush toward Christmas Eve.

Shop, eat, rain. Repeat. Haven’t you had enough yet? And then, next year, repeat the same routine. Unless you decide to hibernate during the season and only make a great comeback after, when all the parties are over.

You should be reading a book, and having hot choco and strawberry-jam-and-cheese sandwiches in this weather. Instead of rushing to one more party or another Christmas sale. Or to buy a gift for the one whom you’ve forgotten to include in your list but he did remember to give you a gift—awkward moment!

I don’t expect anything in return from the one I give a gift to. I’m already in the midst of a major spring cleaning, I don’t need more things, unless you’re giving me food—that is always welcome. Hehe. But who am I to complain if there’s a gift for me?

A gift goes through a long and winding process. You make a list, check it twice, find out who’s naughty or nice, but you give to the naughty, anyway, because they remind you of you.

So, there’s the list, and you now plan on what to buy for the family and friends in that list. Even if it’s the same gift for each—say, a refrigerator magnet—you still have to order or buy that, wrap it, put a gift tag, send it to the recipient, and pray for the messenger to survive Carmageddon.

A high school classmate warned us not to give body lotion, shampoo, or conditioner for our exchange gift. That was the only requirement. Other parties may choose to have a theme—wet and wild, long and hard, soft but with the potential to morph into hard, which may sound green to the green mind, but the truly environmental brain will think of green leaves swaying under the wrath of Vinta (wet and wild), old trees (long and hard), and mud (soft with the potential to be hard).

Me? I still go crazy over piggy gifts. It’s almost like meeting Brad Pig, er, Pitt.

Oh, well. Merry Christmas!