SILENT AS A GRAVE (7/14/10)

SILENT AS A GRAVE(7/14/10)

Typhoon ‘Basyang’ passed-by so quickly as when she came doing damages to several regions including the National Capital Region. Now there was a long period of calm, not the calm that goes with the typhoon. This was the calm resulting from the damages.

Power was cut off so no T.V., no radio, no internet and yes, no cell phone signal. As if to join the great calm, the dogs stopped barking, the roosters stopped crowing and the tricycle motors seemed to cooperate.

I was wondering… was this nature’s way of showing that the prohibition of “wang-wang” was indeed very effective to completely suppress all sources of noise? Or was my inherited deafness getting too serious so suddenly? This was the kind of silence I experienced only in a truly effectively managed library. The kind of silence one felt inside the adoration chapel.

This must be what they mean when they say ‘silent as a grave’. But as I pondered more deeply on the peaceful calm that engulfed me, I started to hear in my mind the sounds of raindrops, of thunder and of the wind last night that prodded me to sleep deeper and dream dreams of by-gone days.

I heard the sounds of my children playing at the backyard. I heard their shouts at each other while quarreling about simple things. I heard their happy songs. I said I must be nearing my grave that I was hearing its ‘eerie silence’.

But no, I have not yet heard the complete sounds of all my children. Many of them were far away making their noises in other countries. I may never have the luxury of the chance to hear them all… but I always pray that they will always be safe, peaceful and happy where they were.

I knew I have traveled a long way. As I heard the sounds of the ‘Jejemon’ I was reminded of the noises made by the ‘Jologs’, who learned their crafts possibly from the ‘Jefroks’, who in turn were taught their lessons by the many ‘gangs’ and ‘barkadas’ ahead of them.

But only those like me who started early must still recall the young ‘Borokintos’ of olden times. They were the noise-makers of their days. Young boys and a few girls who gathered during moonlit nights not for a session with grass or a taste of uppers and downers as they could get euphoric with only boiled bananas or ‘bualaw’ and coffee. Many times the boys went on serenading the pretty girls in the community.

After the ‘Jejemon’, a new generation of noise-makers shall evolve. I still hope to experience how I would feel or behave with my grandchildren joining the latest technical ‘Borokintos’. When that time comes I shall be totally happy, completely at peace with myself and finally ready to embrace the eternal silence of the grave.