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Tetsugakudo Park

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It's a scene from Perfect Days , I say to Luther and Jaylord, my friends for more than twenty years.   They don’t understand the pop culture reference off the bat, but they listen, perceptive as ever. As we walk around Tetsugakudo Park, hiding under the shade to shield us from the summer heat, I explain: It’s a movie directed by Wim Wenders about a man who cleans toilets and lives a simple life. He reads a book at night and wakes up early in the morning. He takes a break at lunch, eats onigiri (or am I imagining that part?), and enjoys “the sunlight that filters through the leaves of trees.” The Japanese call it komorebi. The film won’t make sense anywhere else but in Japan, a country that isn’t quite like any other place I’ve been to.   We briefly rest on a bench and sip iced tea we got from a vending machine. I look up and witness the gentle dancing of trees, tickled by the intermittent whispers of the summer wind.    They look gr...

Morning walks

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I feel Paul's awareness of me as I walk past him to make myself coffee. At 4:30 am, he's half-awake, dreaming perhaps of the adventures he'll have during the day. I'm not sure if dogs dream like us, but I like to think they do. There are times when I'd hear Paul barking quietly, like he's responding to someone in a whisper. His rapid paw movement, his version of stationary somnabulism, generates the reaction in the house that sounds like, "Awww, look at The Other Guy." Paul is so smart I think he understands Hiligaynon. When we need to put a leash around him, we refer to him as The Other Guy and speak to each other quietly, just so he won't know we are out to get him.  Dogs don't live as long as people do. They don't look forward to anything much except the precious time they spend with their masters. Who Paul's master is depends on the time of day: it used to be Sean, until he went abroad. Then Manong too...

Tokyo and Olympus

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I can't wait to write about the weekend I met friends in Tokyo, but that, too, will have to wait. As with any meaningful trip I came back refreshed and delighted. And grateful. I get emotional thinking about the blissful weekend with Luther and Mau and son Leroy; with Razel who hasn't changed much after two decades; with Jaylord and his wife Raine whom I was meeting for the first time; with Mich and her fascinating stories of love. Sure, Kariuzawa and Odaiba and Shinjuku were amazing, but the rare chance to reconnect with friends-turned-family--to see God's providential and kind hand move in their lives, both personal and professional, was even more so.  * I now have my first prime lens: Olympus M. Zuiko 45 mm f/1.8.    I discovered it through Robin Wong's Youtube. Reviews are generally and overwhelmingly positive. The lens is a delight. The first time I tried it, I kept toying with the focus ring, which didn't so much to help with any focusing....

History in the making: first graduates of the College of Medicine of Mindanao State University General Santos

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Here’s my weekly newsletter, the second for July. I forget how fast time flies, like an airplane hovering above ground, undetected—that is, until an internal alarm tells me a blog entry is due. This is probably what it feels like to write a column for a newspaper, my wild dream since childhood but which never materialized. I became a doctor. To be an opinion columnist is to have a good-enough supply of intelligent opinions, which I don't have a lot of. (I don’t know about you, but I miss reading Inquirer columns printed on paper. My father bought them for me as a treat. Conrado de Quiros was my favorite. His turn of phrases thrilled me, even if I didn’t understand half of what he wrote.) *   I attended two graduation ceremonies this week, arguably one of the best ones I’ve ever been part of, largely because my 12 students at the College of Medicine of the Mindanao State University – General Santos were at the center of attention. My heart swelled...