The Convivial Gist

                Have you ever thought about  how ants feel when they have sore feet from walking constantly  in search of food ? Do they ever scowl, grouse or go to their mothers, husbands or friends for solace? I have a nagging pain my my left ear from cold infection and I am reduced to a contemplative state of analyzing the physical pain of these social insects that belong to the species of Formicidae .  Are there any studies made  to measure the threshold of pain this animal can endure? How do ants  manage pain? I bet there are multitudes of dissertation made on these topics but I am making these as simple as the pain of an ant.   Humans being a more complex creature had to endure aggregation of suffering ; from physical to psychological to phantom pain.  If we can duplicate how the animals endure pain maybe life would...

The end of the work day starts with the fifteen minutes ride in the train. She considers that space as an extension of her cubicle in her office. Taking the same car at the same time, she will end up with the same home bound cube dwellers, perhaps doing the same ritual that she does at the end of the day. The white dignified lady, the two African American women who sits together, the middle aged passenger who she presumes is mentally challenged, for when she gets in the train and her favorite spot ,the first 2 seats nearest to the door are occupied, she would turn beet red and start silently cursing, prompting the dignified looking lady to request the unsuspecting occupant to give the cursing lady her pre-ordained seat. Every one have its designated spot, settling in and doing their business on how to pass the time on the train, some opening their dog eared books ready to lose themselves in the unfolding storyline, others will drown their thoughts with their IPODs or immersed them...

I was the last child of my mother, she died when I was a baby at the age of 40. Being motherless and with other 9 siblings to contend with ,ain't no fun.  People, successful or the opposite of what a succes should be are often asked, would you change the story of your life  if you are given the chance? Answer of  course would be relative, who would want to be a hobo all their lives; Bill Gates will say no, I am betting my last dollar on it.  After ruminating the events that had transpired from the day I saw the daylight (not even sure if I was born on daytime or at night) to where I am right now (a happy married life, good health, loving family and friends; and a demanding cat) there is only one thing I would change. I wish my mother had not died young.  But I believe there is no such thing as untimely death. If its your time its your time, no ifs and buts.  My siblings and I often wonder the scenario if...

Yesterday I had an interesting discourse with my TB (talk buddy).  A talk buddy is someone who I engaged in conversation by a telephone regularly, come tornado warning or the call of a child wanting to practice his newly acquired efficiency on using a toilet.  She told me that the opposite of love is not hate but apathy.  And she's right. The feeling of  hate  evokes strong emotions, it can still stir up feelings. But when you are dispassionate to someone, you just don't freakin' care if that someone was  trampled over by 27 elephants or suffered the most virulent  diarrhea on his/her wedding day.  Total indifference, that is painful , of course being under the elephant and having the runs are exhausting too.  Which would you choose? There is so much indifference in this world, it seems we just stopped caring or maybe we are suffering from the I Me and Myself  syndrome often. So in parting,  I would rather you hate me if I did you wrong  rather than be detached to my existe...

Lately, I had been watching a lot of Short feature movies. I find  these movies engrossing and thought-provoking.  No mega stars, CGI's or fancy props but it leaves an imprint on my mind that I can recall an entire movie even if I saw it months ago.  Last night I saw the brilliant work of Masanori  Babu, writer, producer and director of Chiyo. It's about the story of Chiyo (played by Miyu Tanaka) her quest to see her father (Hiromasa Takagi) , a soldier who went to war in 1944.  A year later on the night of the Obon, a Buddhist tradition wherein the dead  visit their relative, Chiyo searches  for his father.  During the course of her search she met various spirits but not her father. When she finally found him, he can not see her. He told her,the hell he saw in the arena of war  blinded him.  He was implying that there was  a limit to man's ability to endure extreme cruelty and not seeing what you were seeing was the only way to survive (his spirit not his physical being in...

A friend of mine admitted to me that she had an extreme aversion to washing dishes.   She would rather iron laundry as crumpled as crêpe papers than execute that somewhat mundane and so ordinary chore.  I can watch the episode of  Anthony Bourdain's No Reservation while scraping and soaping the china (that is if  I feel like being  environmentally responsible by not using the dishwasher which is not very often). It's one of the devoir that you can carry out without requiring an extensive ability and let's be frank about it, it is one of the most boring task to do around the house.  There are no variations or any deviations that you can engineer to make it more exciting . It's so starkingly and painfully simple task and yet  how come a lot of people started developing phobia (I still have to search for the name) to it.   Some household are resorting to using disposable eating  utensils instead of their exquisite porcelain or the so ordinary melamine dinnerware  (tsk tsk ...

Society in general set up criteria on which we as members are defined. Philosophers, thinkers and even  the detritus of our community muse on what is the definition of person.  Take note that I am using the word person instead of a more dramatic noun "man".  That is because I am a woman and I am trying to make a more politically correct piece. Let me start on our conception. We are measured by the inconvenience we gave our mother, so much so that we are compared to our siblings in terms of how much nauseuos mornings, cravings, moodiness and unwanted weight gain  we exacted on our host ( our mother, of course)  during the time of pregnancy. During our first foray in the outside world, we are measured on how  much we weigh ( she/he is a big baby 20 pounds)  , gushed our parents, the fracas brought about by our wailing and  how long and painful the labor pains are. This is  used often ...