Pandoraspace

The Unexpected Adventures of Boktor and Pandora in Legazpi, Albay coming soon…

Another of my favorite poems is To the Virgins to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick.  I laughed the first time I read it.  To everyone, carpe diem. To the virgins, go marry and don’t tarry.

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day

To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,

The higher he’s a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse, and worst

Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,

And while ye may, go marry:

For having lost but once your prime,

You may forever tarry.

The Unexpected Adventures of Boktor and Pandora in Legazpi, Albay coming soon…

As part of my Valentine’s Special, I am sharing with you one of my favorite poems called Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines by Pablo Neruda.  The first time, I read it (eons ago), I wished someone felt this way about me.  So, here it is -  

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, ‘The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

“Never pride yourself for overcoming a temptation you have never had” is what my friend, Bill McGarry SJ, told me when I entered his office one day. He was quoting Francois Mauriac and I was just 17 and did not know any better.

I do not remember when I met Bill. What I do remember is that Bill and I would have long conversations in those days when I had nothing but time on my hands. It was years later when I realized that, in between jokes and senseless banter, Bill had taught me more about life, the goodness in people and the Jesuits than anyone had, and probably ever will. In fact even before I realized how much Bill had taught me, I was so moved and inspired by Bill’s stories about the Jesuits that I actually wanted to be one. But, as I am a girl, this is not a possibility. Lucky for the Jesuits.

The best thing Bill taught me is how to forgive myself so I could forgive others. I believe Bill himself practiced what he preached. Through the years, I have confessed my misdeeds to Bill. Worse, Bill learned first hand what an awful friend I could be. Despite this, Bill has accepted me and remains to be a true friend.

The one constant request Bill has ever asked of me was to “be good”. I have always politely refused that request by telling Bill “I’ll try”. Since it is Bill’s birthday today, I won’t try to be good. I’ll really be good…but just for today.

Happy 81st Birthday Fr. Bill.

I came across an article appearing in the 23 April 1973 issue of Time Magazine about the Jesuits.  It is an interesting read because it gives one an inkling of what the Jesuits are all about.  The then Superior General of the Jesuits (also one of my favorite Jesuits), Pedro Arrupe SJ, was on the cover.  Check it out.

The Unexpected Adventures of Boktor and Pandora in Legazpi, Albay is coming soon.

Happy Valentine’s Day! As today is a busy day for me, I will be posting a Valentine’s Special in a couple of days. Check it out.

Cambodians, like many of us, are a paradox. They are brilliant builders, and at the same time, cruel destroyers.  

At the end of the journey, I again ask myself this question: “If Cambodia is a jar, what would it contain?” My answer:  Right now, Cambodia contains only hope. Hope that the horror of the Khmer Rouge atrocities would never be felt again and hope that the Cambodians would once again achieve the glories of their ancestors, the great builders of Angkor Wat.

Malis

Before visiting Cambodia, I had never tasted Khmer food. For that reason, I was grateful to Toe and her husband, D, for taking Padma and me to dinner at one of the more popular Khmer restaurants in Phnom Penh called Malis (the Khmer name for Jasmine flower).

The ambiance of Malis is similar to that of any stereotypical fine dining restaurant where the tables are covered with crisp white table clothes, the chairs are comfortable, and although there is background music, the place is quiet enough for the diners to hear each other and not hear the conversation going on at the next table. There is, however, a distinctly Khmer feel to the place. Outside the restaurant are a Buddha and a lotus pond. Inside, the restaurant is dotted with Buddha heads, the walls are painted red and the windows are rectangular-shaped.

Despite the great ambiance at Malis, it was the food that took most of my attention. The food not only looked appetizing and beautiful, it tasted wonderful as well.

The first dish was an appetizer of diced stir-fried scallop with bunches of fresh green Kampot pepper served on scallop shells. The taste of the sweet and tender scallops combined with the fresh, spicy and crisp peppers was explosive. As this dish was novel, I have come to associate it with distinctly Khmer cuisine.

For our main meal, we had pork ribs, kangkong (this is a green leafy vegetable that grows in water but I do not know how it is called in English) and prawns. Those dishes tasted similar to Thai or Chinese dishes but were delicious nonetheless. The pork ribs were deep-fried and basted with a salty-sweet glaze. The pork was succulent and its oiliness tempered by the glaze. The kangkong was sauteed in garlic. Simple but good. The prawns were my favorite. They were fresh, sweet and as huge as a child’s fist. The prawns were decapitated, shelled, dipped in a light gossamer-like batter, deep-fried and served to us with a sweet chili sauce. In the customary Filipino fashion, we ate these dishes with moist piping hot steamed rice.

For dessert, we shared the pumpkin crème brulee. It was slightly thicker and had more texture than a regular brulee. It did not have a pumpkin or custard taste. It was not too sweet or too bland either. The taste was rather unique and I loved it.

Malis is definitely one of the places you should not miss when visiting Phnom Penh.