Mele Kalikimaka

Okay, so it's a few days after Christmas. But remember when it wasn't just Christmas Day that we celebrated but the whole season? It used to be at least a solid month of Christmas carols, shopping, partying and merrymaking. We used to also do stuff that would seem insanely inconvenient now. Remember the "Misa de Gallo"? Mass of the rooster? You went to mass before dawn, right when the roosters started crowing. Now for the most part, this was no fun, but when you got to a certain age and became interested in the opposite sex, this afforded great opportunity to make early social engagements while showing the adults your pious commitment to the season. By the time one was a young adult, this could be combined with late night partying for all night to dawn marathon of holiday celebration. The best was that it ended with the church's blessings and an all day nap.

Now this could only take place during that special time when you were young enough to be going to school but old enough to be allowed to stay up past midnight. The reality of jobs, children, and anything that smacked of responsibility meant that the all night merry making had to go and then you were stuck with merely rising to go to mass in the middle of the night.

Now, I find it difficulat to find the time to go to church on Sundays at the very reasonable time of 9 am. I confess that when Meet The Press started airing at 9 am, the same time as Sunday Mass in Mountain View, political discussions amongst the pundits and talking heads wins. When you become used to airing all sides of every issue, it becomes painful to sit through lectures that cannot be questioned. Faith is one of those things that has to be complete. Any little nagging doubts take over and you find yourself holding mental arguments with your parish priest while you pretend to be in submissive agreement.

My parents had faith. Many of my friends and former schoolmates have faith that strikes me as incredible in this day and age. I admire them and see that it brings great peace of mind. For the time being, I shall have to make do with honesty. The honesty of my doubts and the honesty of my desire to make sense out of a world of randomness and difficulties.

For the New Year, I am trying to have resolve so I can finally have some resolutions that I can keep. But instead of trying to change something about myself, I'll just try to do things differently. Like resolving to blog at least once a week. There you have it.

Oh, as an aside, I am watching CNN and the news reporter is at the Philippine Airlines check-in counter at LAX. She is astounded at the numbers and gargantuan sizes of all the LBC boxes going to Manila!