Death & Taxes.Certainly! Music.Absolutely!

Call me opportunistic but there’s no better time to talk of death than on the eve of Halloween. Yes, Halloween, that commercial enterprise that somehow made its way to Philippine shores. I was at the mall earlier and their mall music (hey is there such a word?) was the theme of Undertaker (that wrestler from WWF… and I don’t mean WWF with the panda logo).

Our country holds by far one of the most musically inclined people in this part of Asia. Everyone, from the janitor to the security guard to the rank and file to the manager can belt out a tune. Just don’t sing My Way and you’ll be fine.

More than just singing notes and lyrics, I am quite amazed and appreciative (!) of how music finds its way to almost all sorts of establishments – restaurants, malls, banks, hospitals, the wet market. But the one thing that really stands out is music in public transportation.

I’ve blogged about my recent short travel to HK. The buses and taxis there play nil. The only sound you will hear is the loud voices of the passengers. The passengers listen to music too though, but privately with their iPods and other music players. More than music players are the PSPs I saw that every other person seems to be holding while on (their) public transport.

Locally, most public transportation vehicles play music from 90.7. Now I can’t say that I’m a real fan of that station, but I’ve seen how one station’s demise has given birth to another’s rise to fame.

Permit me to be jologs for just this once. Once, the dominant radio station was 102.7 Star FM. O di ba? I know that by heart, although I can tell you that it’s definitely not by choice. They even made STAR an acronym, that, prepare thyself!, meant:

Sama-Sama Together Always Remember!

@#$. Now I won’t be able to take that out of my system. I’m glad you won’t too teehee.

I don’t know how they did it, but eventually 90.7 started creeping through the airwaves. It used to just play love songs, now they play all sorts of songs. Don’t you just hate it when every so often, that station plays out continuously “Naka-love ka pa ba”. They just play it to death (you can include your eardrums). You can either get out of the FX/Bus/Jeep/Pedicab/Tricycle if you want. For me, I just stay. I’m tolerant and at times, even find it amusing (there’s really nothing much else you can do anyways).

Democracy does not exist when you are using the public transportation.

I’ve been quite busy these past few days and haven’t had the time to write stuff here. I was asked by a friend, “What keeps you busy?”

I only stared blankly back, “Huh?”

There’s really nothing to blog about taxes. I just like the sound of Death & Taxes. Hmm wait. I think I have an idea. Death to Taxes!

1 + 1 = 1

This is in no way a dissertation on mathematics, rather, this is a thesis on the idea of relationships. I know, I know, February is months away. It’s probably the chill of December that’s reminding me that I need the warmth of somebody. Hence my sudden urge to pen this topic today. Heh.

Then again, I think it’s more of the Friday factor. It’s the go signal for the weekend. You look forward to it (a long one at that!), and then realize, “Oh shiet, what am I going to do?” Sometimes it’s a problem of having no money. Sometimes it’s a problem of me not being such a social butterfly or enjoying gimiks. Then, there’s that sometimes, that you realize, who the hell am I going to go out with?

Sure. Friends can keep you company for a while. But friends, whether male or female, will one day have their own better/bitter halves. One friend less, one more lonely person in the world – you!

Although loneliness has always been a friend of mine (now doesn’t that just seem so familiar). I’ve learned that unlike most of my other friends, having children isn’t my lifelong ambition. In fact, I’d rather do away with having any. I don’t hate kids but neither do I long to have my own.

That’s getting ahead of myself though. I definitely won’t have children if I stay a bachelor. Now that, I’m not just quite sure yet if that’s my preference either. Being bachelor has its perks. But as a friend told me once. Who will you share your successes with?

Indeed. Who will you share it with? Your dog? Your cat? The lizard up in the ceiling of my room?

You can share it with friends. Yet, sometimes, you still feel that that’s not enough. You want to share it with someone more special than your friends. Damn this is getting sappy.

If there’s anything else that sells faster than sex, it’s sappy love stories. Well, I don’t have a story of my own to tell. What I do have though, is a real nice question that a college professor back then asked my class.

If you are in a relationship, is it 1/2 + 1/2 =1 or 1+1 = 1?

It’s amazing how professors, teachers and mentors can plant seeds in your head. Their knowledge is not as apparent then as it is wisdom now.

The point of the question was this, when you go into a relationship, must you lose yourself to support the relationship? Or must it be a joining of two whole persons, each with his own set of personalities? And that both should accept each other?

Romanticists will choose the latter. Realists and pragmatists though, will say most of the time, it’s the former.

Should it be, “If you love me, change for the better.” or “If you love me, accept me.”

There are no black and white answers. It’s a puzzle to me when I come across this (upon seeing relationships). Do relationships falter because we lost ourselves by “changing for the better”? Or is it because we just couldn’t accept the other person?

Relationships are always a dichotomy, not just of people but of emotions. It’s that duality of things – love & hate, love & lust, anger & forgiveness – that spices up things. Yet too much of any one of them will either constrict or tear apart a picture of almost perfect bliss.

Indeed, we need not look farther than the sign of the yin and the yang. There will always be two forces, two personalities and two prides trying to win one against the other in times of conflict. There is no point in trying to conjure for ourselves an image of what a relationship can be if we ‘learn to adjust’.

What is better is to see the relationship as it is now. Do you match or not? Are your personalities just the right blend so that you don’t try to overdo or overcompensate what you have or have not?

1+1=1 does not make mathematical sense. However, it makes perfect sense for an otherwise imperfect world filled with imperfect relationships.