March 17, 2012
Saturday thoughts during breakfast
here in Cebu
It has been hard to write these past
few days. Aside from poor health, a former player of mine passed away then an
uncle of mine who I am closed to, also succumbed to a long battle with cancer.
While processing this and thoughts of my mortality, Karl Roy, brother of my
Ateneo classmate and colleague at Solar Sports, Ralph, died as well. I do not
claim to be close to Karl unlike Francis M who I ran around with in my younger
days but it sure made me think, think, and think some more.
My poor health notwithstanding, I have
had to attend to my day job at GroupM and my teaching duties in Ateneo. I also
had to go through a voluminous number of stories (I was asked to judge a
journalism contest) that kept me busy.
In between all of that, I have been
wrestling whether to weigh in about my thoughts about the on-going sexual
harassment (that’s what she said) and racism (he thinks it is not) issues that
have put Philippine football in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. I was
supposed to join the national team in Nepal but was unable to because of my
other work. I have to think about that a little more because well, I want to
put everything in its proper perspective. If I end up writing that, I do not
want to offend Ms. Cristy even if I disagree with the way she has dealt with
the issue. I’ve known her awhile and well, we’ve been friends.
Anyways, I’ll figure that out later.
I guess what has made me happy this
past week is seeing my kids do well in school and in sports. My youngest son,
who is in first year high school (he plays varsity football and basketball), lead
his class team to the intrams finals where they lost by three points. In spite
of going down in defeat, it sure makes me feel proud to hear that his coach and
teammates call him “Larry Bird” because he does everything for his team (score,
rebound, assist, and block shots). And he’s only a frosh and he’s already
taller than me and I’m 5’11”!
There’s a dilemma there because as
much as I want my son to do well in sports, I need him to do even better in the
classroom. While his grades are not bad, they could be much better. I want him
to do so much better because I am preparing them to love abroad in the near
future. Because of that, he is not as good as he could be in sports. What I
mean is he shows a natural talent and intelligence for the two sports
So I am here in Cebu for the second
staging of Xterra, the off-road triathlon series. Triathlon is something I
began to write about in earnest in the past two years and while I was supposed
to join a relay team with two of my officemates, my insane work sked and health
have not made that possible.
Hopefully, I’ll find that inspiration
to write something other than my tangled thoughts. And maybe the great view of the sea from here in the hotel lobby will ease them as well.
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