We had a private joke in our college publication way back (Okay. Waaaaaaaaaay back!). I was the unofficial and self-proclaimed
Miss Intro and Ending. No one can take that title from me (I'm so apt for that title, hello?)---I may have happily passed on the responsibility to our SILAK
apos but you have to take me down real hard first for me to give away the crown. And I'll tell you, I'll give you a good fight if you have to resort to that.
Anyways, I'll find time to post the countless intros and endings that I've written. For now, here's a prologue and epilogue for Conrie's art folio project with his students which he requested me to make----another addition to my long list (I can see some raising of eyebrows. Ahahaha!) of lifetime achievements (Ahahahahahaha! See? I'm really making this whole epilogue-prologue thing a serious business.)
PROLOGUE
You can’t help it.
Despite all your efforts to break away from all the
stirrings inside your soul and embrace normalcy, there’s this little tingling
inside you that calls you back from the edge of what is safe and common to the
sphere of what others may label as “the zone of madness”.
But here’s a little secret. Everyone that you know, no
matter how drab or dull or normal they may appear, actually suffers from this
little sense of madness. We’re just all trying to do the same thing, we mask it.
We mask it with our everyday routine and with talks that make a lot of sense to
the point of being dull and uninteresting.
Let’s give this monotony a break. This would serve as a
warning. The moment you open the pages, you will be led to face some of the
greatest stirrings of madness that you try so hard to break away from every
day.
This madness will lead you to once more believe in…
Bahagharis.
Can you exactly remember the last time you believed with all your heart
that there’s a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow that you were willing to
fight that belief no matter what, until one day, some scientific truths made
you face the fact that a rainbow is but just a ray of colors scattered from
white light? But the truth is, you didn’t
really stop believing in your theory of the pot of gold. You just
pretended to be all so grown up and mutter, “That is kid’s talk!”. When
actually, you just don’t believe in rainbows or the pots of gold at the end of
it-----you actually live on it.
This madness will lead you to remember that you actually
still possess these….
Emotions.
In a desensitizing world in which you are pushed not to feel anything,
sometimes you wonder if there will come a time when your heart can still
remember how to feel and beat like it belongs to a human. Don’t worry, you haven’t lost any of these emotions. They
are just masked. So let’s peel the mask layer by layer and feel those strange
emotions again----to the point of being so happy that you cry, of feeling all
the excruciating pains and smile that bright smile, of loving too much and appear uncaring, and feeling that
gnawing hate while performing that understanding nod. Nobody is telling you to
understand your emotions, just feel them though they may be strange and mixed
up. Feel and embrace all of these emotions until you feel your heart beating
that erratic beat again, until you remember that you are not a cyborg, you’re actually human.
This madness will lead you to remember strumming the keys
of your....
Guitar
strings. It doesn’t matter if they’re broken or loose. It doesn’t matter if
the thick strings give you an even lower tone than expected or the thin ones
gives you shrill and high notes. Just strum like it’s all there is to do in the
world. After all, the most beautiful tones and music ever heard are not those
with clean notes----they are those which are haunting and with episodes of
imperfections.
EPILOGUE
Truly, you can’t help it.
We all need to slide back into normalcy. We need to wake-up,
eat, do our routine-based activities, eat, sleep, and then wake-up again. In
short, we need to comply the basics in order to live.
However, beyond all of these, let us listen to and embrace
the musings of our inner madness from time to time. Let’s not fear this because
it’s part of what makes us humans. In reality, this madness is the pure energy
that drives us to dream, fuels our passion, unleash our inner light to inspire
others. This madness is the voice that calls us to love deeply and to transcend
any limits in order to achieve greater things.
So our secret is out. We all suffer from this madness. Let’s
embrace it.
Continue believing in the pot of gold at the end of every
rainbow. Take a slide in one if you must. Because we know for a fact that it’s
not a myth, nor do we just believe in them for the sake of believing---- we
actually make and live on our own bahaghari.
Dissect your emotions, piece by piece and fragment by
fragment. Lie down and in that complete silence, listen to the beatings of your heart and let
it overpower the loud mechanical sound of your brain in full gear. Just listen.
Even if you don’t understand most of its beatings, just listen. For one of the
things that define you as a human is your emotion.
Create the most haunting and soulful music that you can in
your entire lifetime. Create a piece that could move others to tears, to a
whimsical smile, to action, to believe…to love again. Create just exactly this
kind of music, do not settle for anything less. You have the power to mend and
tighten any loose and broken guitar strings.
