Saturday, March 17, 2012

Saturday morning thoughts here in Cebu


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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