Joy/Division

When routine bites hard, and ambitions are low
And resentment rides high, but emotions won't grow
And we're changing our ways, taking different roads
Then love, love will tear us apart again


Bakit? Feel ko lang.

G.K. Chesterton on why Chess Players and Literary Critics Go Crazy and Great Poets Don't

There is a notion adrift everywhere that imagination, especially mystical imagination, is dangerous to man's mental balance. Poets are commonly spoken of as psychologically unreliable; and generally there is a vague association between wreathing laurels in your hair and sticking straws in it. Facts and history utterly contradict this view. Most of the very great poets have been not only sane, but extremely business-like; and if Shakespeare ever really held horses, it was because he was much the safest man to hold them. Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination. Artistic paternity is as wholesome as physical paternity. Moreover, it is worthy of remark that when a poet really was morbid it was commonly because he had some weak spot of rationality on his brain. Poe, for instance, really was morbid; not because he was poetical, but because he was specially analytical. Even chess was too poetical for him; he disliked chess because it was full of knights and castles, like a poem. He avowedly preferred the black discs of draughts, because they were more like the mere black dots on a diagram. Perhaps the strongest case of all is this: that only one great English poet went mad, Cowper. And he was definitely driven mad by logic, by the ugly and alien logic of predestination. Poetry was not the disease, but the medicine; poetry partly kept him in health. He could sometimes forget the red and thirsty hell to which his hideous necessitarianism dragged him among the wide waters and the white flat lilies of the Ouse. He was damned by John Calvin; he was almost saved by John Gilpin. Everywhere we see that men do not go mad by dreaming. Critics are much madder than poets. Homer is complete and calm enough; it is his critics who tear him into extravagant tatters. Shakespeare is quite himself; it is only some of his critics who have discovered that he was somebody else. And though St. John the Evangelist saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators. The general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion, like the physical exhaustion of Mr. Holbein. To accept everything is an exercise, to understand everything a strain. The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens.

Bliss Full of Activities

From Jim, the favorite American biker of Ed, Choy, Chona and Grace Subido:

Shanti and I are just back from an amazing two week stay in Singapore. We attended,along with 3200 others on the Buddhist path, a series of teachings and events of Kadampa Buddhism. We brought back many photos and fond memories which we are happy to share...just ask us when you pop in. Also we are selling this Tibetan sect's book ' Introduction to Buddhism ' hardbound and beautifully produced for 850 pesos only. For every book sold we are donating 350 pesos to the International Temple project of NKT Buddhism.Curious ? Check out the website www.kadampa.org

EXHIBIT OPENING

Saturday 20 October 6-9 pm at BLISS
' BIYAHE '
An exhibit by five female artists from Manila (Ruth Jacob, Jhoan Medrano, Lady Mendoz, Guia Salumbides and Vanessa Tamayo) There will be food and drinks. The exhibit will be for the benefit of the local NGO S.A.V.E. which stands for Stop the Abuse and ViolencE against women which Shanti and I are proud to be founding members. Members of S.A.V.E. and four of the five artists will be on hand to meet with us.

Sunday 21 October 7:30 pm at BLISS

Sunday night ART film
WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION. 98 minutes. A documentary produced in 2004 about the media's role in the IRAQ invasion...thought provoking and well produced.

MY VEGGIE DAY PROMO

You have been asking for something AFTER our successful "red rainy rebate" promo we ran from 5/15-8/15 so here it is.

Fact : 85 % of our customers are non vegetarian.
Fact : Many have expressed interest in how to get started.
Conclusion : "My Veggie Day" Program
For : Baguio area residents
Ages : 5 - 95 years old
Those over 95 will be considered on a case by case basis !
Period : Indefinite
So here is how it will work.

* You choose ‘ my veggie day ‘ anytime Monday - Sunday. Sign up with your server…she will give you your ‘ veggie day ‘ card for your future use.
* Every time you dine with us on ‘ your veggie day ‘ you will get a 15 % discount voucher for your bill that day… you can use within a month…any day you like.

What we like about this program ?
Gets you ‘ thinking veggie ‘ at BLISS at least one day a week…that’s good for your body, the environment and the animal kingdom.
And
Means we will be looking for your smiling face at least once a week !
It costs you nothing to sign up AND saves you 15 % on your next visit AND the first time you use it you get a free BLISS patch….

God Weather

When it drizzles, we in Baguio say, "agsapsapri ni Apo Dios (God is showering i.e. while He speaks). When it really pours especially after a tragic happening (rains after the July 1990 Earthquake), we said, God is crying. We never had tornados (that will be the day!!!) or more precisely, waterspouts. Because then we would say, God is...

Spiritual Fashion Show

From Marrio Mapanao:

This is to give advance notice for a Time and Transformation (TNT) FREE educational concert cum spiritual fashion show in Baguio City come Nov. 12 (a Monday)! To be interwoven into songs, video presentation, experiential stories and meditation will be the tapestry of Narda Capuyan's world class weaving. This follows in the mode of the June 18 Araneta Coliseum big event: "When we change, the world changes" (pls. see blogspot in signature below). Grace Nono, Joey Ayala and Timmy Cruz are invited to weave in their uplifting songs. The spiritually educational activity will be in participation at the International Delphi Arts Olympics - the olympics of the art world. It is in celebration also of 15 years of the Brahma Kumaris in Baguio City. Info on venue, time and contact particulars are to follow. At this point, may this soul request for names and details (e-mail, mobile, landline, postal mail) of contacts, friends, relatives and all that can be invited individually or by groups to this once-in-a lifetime event from Baguio, the Cordilleras, Ilocos and northern Luzon.Kindly share and forward this notice to friends and all as well.

For those in Baguio, you may contact the Brahma Kumaris Baguio Center at:

1 Maya St., Dizon Subdivision
(074) 445 5935
baguio@ph.bkwsu.org

St. Denis

Yesterday, I tagged St. Denis as one of the reasons to drink this month. Guess who St. Denis is? You can find him in Paris. At the Cathedral of Notre Dame, to be exact.

The next time you are standing in front of Notre-Dame, look closely at its left-hand portal. There you will find a rather strange sculpture of a saint, complete with halo, holding his head in his hands. This is Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris, who met his death around 273 A.D., almost two millennia ago. The Romans, who then occupied Paris, already had their hands full in fighting off barbarian hordes when this charismatic Christian arrived on the scene. According to legend, Roman soldiers tortured Denis near the present site of Notre-Dame and then decapitated him on the slopes of Montmartre. Then—still according to legend—the martyred saint astonished one and all by picking up his head and walking northward almost four miles until he collapsed on the site now marked by the cathedral (formerly the abbey church) that bears his name. No matter that the legend was created centuries afterwards, probably by the monks of Saint-Denis. It gave their abbey and their founder a special aura, and Denis—whose torture and martyrdom were doubtless real enough, if not so fanciful—went on to gain a special prominence among French saints. His abbey church became the traditional burial place for French royalty, and his legend continued through the centuries. Which is why, on the portal of Notre-Dame or wherever you see him depicted, he is the saint who patiently holds his head in his hands.