The theory of Friends.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
♥ Sunday, July 02, 2006
I began with an indecisive nature: should it be poetic? or philosophic? or comic? Maybe, it wil be a mixed. I do not know; I will just blabber what needs to be blabbered. But i urge you, if you should ever summon such energy to read my nonsense, read it through completely and clearly. I am hoping to make an impression, thats undeniable, and i believe in the moments to come, i will.
This months' theme is friends. And that coincidentally happens to be the title of my favourite series. But thats what i call
nonsensical coincidence. Somehting that has no meaning even in identifying the case where it is or is not a coincidence. Semantics= the study of meaning. We'll do that today.
Heard a lil from Janice, that theories have to come from theses and hypotheses. Well, to tell the truth, i dont wanna bore you, and i dont really know how each is different. So lets move on shall we?
Friends, the topic of eternity. Friends, the question of who is and who isnt, what is and what isnt, and finally an existential question that eludes us all, but one that perpetually nags at us like a pissed off wasp; who are we? Michael W. Smith made a certain attempt in "Friends are Friends Forever", and then Vitamin C tried to echo that in "Graduation Song"..so on and so forth, but we arrive at something from the depths of 2000 years, in the Bible, yea you've got to know that phrase, " there's no greater love than a man laying his life down for his friend".
See, i forgot that while we deal with so heavy a topic we have got to talk in metaphors and analogies. Our language is grossly limited by what we call the un-tapped intellect, where truth resides and love speaks. We therefore got to come out with a miracle. Like the one in Keeping Faith (160606) by Jodi Picoult, about a young girl who doesnt even knows the faith, and develops stigmata. An atheist newscaster gets converted and another fantastic lawsuit. Loved the book. (thanks da jie!) What is this miracle i speak of? Metaphors. The ability to convey a message via a completely different and exclusive message.
"there's no greater love than a man laying his life down for his friend". Mere Christianity (230606) by C.S Lewis does deal with this. Either this man (Jesus) is nuts, or he is really who he say he is! Between a man and his friend, this
other person( Jesus, again) comes, intervenes and gives us a glimpse on what love is, what life is, and what a FRIEND is. Would i lay my life for Val? Or Evelyn? Or people in my platoon im growing close to? I cannot answer. What i can do is to feel. But is that fresh, raw superficiality? I just don think so. And between you and me, i feel for them. I feel close, i feel that in the millions of people that walk us by in our lives, i exist.
Maybe, just maybe, (of course everything lies in mere speculation until we reach at the end of our lives when we get to see the fresh, raw superficiality of truth?) this is what God is talking about! What is a friend? Someone whom in his or her eyes echo the depths of us, telling us that we are someone to them, and that in our inadequate understanding and spacing of love, we do occupy a tiny portion. If all of us are mirrors, then our friends are that which we get to see our reflection, most beautifully. Now, beautiful here, must become the miracle of a metaphor. I am not speaking of a literal beauty as what u would think movie stars are, but how the sunset, or the mountains and skies look 'beautiful'. (unless of course you go by Oscar Wilde's weird, homosexual philosophies:)) The meaning of beauty is strictly that pertaining to one's soul. Semantics here is imperative. The meaning of beauty is indeterminate. By our history? by our relationship with Jesus? By our daily choices? Yes. We all have a responsibilty to think, for the banal reason that we can. And we will know, in a poem, or some poetic chance, where our beauty lie.
And there's a world on friends right? (what exactly is this world i speak of? A world bound by perception, by dreams, by illusions. A world of the cognitive and responsive.) Misunderstandings, forgiveness, jokes, relationships, loss, grieve, understanding, love, fun, joy, laughter...and the list goes on. We all know how important friends are, even a pretty lousy cynic like me knows tat. Lousy because my philosophies waver with the times and feelings.. A good cynic, simply
is cynical. Anyway, the question today isnt how important friends are, since thats ardy established. The question today is. Ands thats it. Its so open-ended, we wanna ask whether we have our answers, have we just stopped at questions? Or more seriously, have we stopped
before asking, even? Thats the world i am talking about. A world that leaves one to do so much discovery, we had better start before we
expire ( in italics for being quoted by Fr Gerard).
I went out with Alvin, Kelly, Kenny, Cheryl, Jason and Jeanette for some run. Consider the beauty; 7 different individuals ( all of course askjing the same questions in different metaphoric manners) seeking in each other, a refleciton of themselves, in more ways than we might think, ina single run, on a blazing hot day, and eventually leaves with a slight inexpressible glimpse of what we call, FRIENDS. Dont get me wrong, its not at all sarcasm. Its truth. We must rightfully attach good significance of any given circumstance to avoid plunging into the deep dark waters of cynicism.
Immortality(010706) by Milan Kundera does not so much deal with friendships, but more identity. The search of oneself. He's books are sometimes pretty cheem. But i just read and revel in the sheer genius that it is. Now, this is poetic coincidence- Immortality also happens to be the name of the song performed by Bee Gees and Celine Dion. ' We dont say goodbye..with all my love for you, in all that we may do.. we dont say goodbye." With immortality, comes the idea of death, definitely. There's this german poem i memorised "On all hilltops, there is peace; in all treetops you will hear hardly a breath, birds in the woods are silent, just wait, soon, you will find rest." The morbidity of it is overwhelming. But more i feel that its meaning lies with inevitablity of death. And with inevitablity, comes panic, and comes question. The questions i've been marking in the earlier stanzas, that asks one who, in the vast world you are exposed to, is a friend? Yes, in all our love, our mark of immortality lies in the people we refuse to say goodbye.
I have my marist friends, i have my church friends, i have my army friends. (using bimbotic means to express oneself, is actually quite something. :) ) There arent criterias for friends. Maybe, the criteria is in chance, in coincidence. I am not here to give answers. I never, ever am. I am here so that in telling you, i become aware that there are answers out there, for us to keep a firm grasp on once we find.
And if you are reading this, although i do not know you, i shall tell you i love you. You might be a friend i know, or i am close to, or are just in the sphere of this blog and this message. But regardless, i love you. The theory of friends is really, this. We love. And we shall to the point of death, for without love, you and i wont even have a death to be at the point of.
"Immortality...ill keep the memory of you and me, inside..."- Celine Dion.
