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Geeks bearing gifts

SO dirt-poor were those dullards nearby all they could give was dirt… but I’m taking neither their dirt nor dearth, so that just keeps on stacking up and burying ‘em under… Christmas can be a burial season of sorts, mwa-ha-ha-ha-happy holidays!

Suspicion sinks in that most of this column’s followers are gifted— so they need not be lavished with more.

However, I insist on giving them either the benefit of doubt or a break…
Easier to give than to forgive—one reason why most of my godchildren kunat find their godfather… I gave away a cheap chess set to a boy—“money po ninong!”-- hoping that such grows on him. Children grow—and they outgrow most of the presents that they get… best to dote on them with gifts that will grow with them. So I guess once that boy is done toying with strategies in chess, he’ll move on to playing with chests…

Our beloved departed Lourdes “Odette” Alcantara, art connoisseur and environmentalist once gave me several book-size boxes of matches with a naughty note that floored me in stitches— “Because you’re matchless, mahilig ka pang maglaro ng apoy, damuho ka!”

One of the tales in a set of books that she gifted my daughter had left fond impressions in the child… she had me write—for weeks in the cold fastness of the La Trinidad pine and Coffea arabica forest reservation area-- an entire musical based on the tale, “The Picture Wife” which turned up as “Larawang Kapilas-Puso” that she directed for a theater company.

Erstwhile Ateneo lecturer and Agence France Presse honcho Carl Wilson must have read an earlier column citing how use of tools can reconfigure entire mind and body with the skills plied… so he left me a pair of pruning shears, a Brazilian machete of high-grade tempered steel, and a pair of Japanese saws of similar material for tree surgery… the latter touched off fits of envy in Dennis Fetalino, kinuha tuloy ‘yong isa… here’s a tool that proffers a full set of dentures, tibay-talas ng mga ngipin.

There’s a streak of Scrooge in me who’d rather focus celebrations on Lent’s Feast of Resurrection—Pasko ng Pagkabuhay… kahit naman sinong kumag ubrang magdiwang ng kanyang pagsilang… but for the Paschal, the sacrificial lamb whose name rings an omen for the faithful, being born isn’t such a big deal… rising from the dead, that’s something else—not even zombies or Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s assemblage of corpse parts can claim such a feat.

Kaya mas masayang magdiwang ng Pasko ng Pagkabuhay kaysa Pasko ng Pagsilang.

In this season of cheers and jeers, beware of geeks bearing gifts.

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