hey, the old man is back!

This old man was supposed to have been silenced by the confluence of recent events in his life and had ceased blogging his takes on recent social and political developments, especially those that influenced his immediate community.  These events did not confine their effects on his blog but, more importantly, on his age-old and old age wish of earning a UP diploma, which he failed to do more than 40 years ago as an undergraduate aggie student in the University of the Philippines in Los Banos (UPLB). He’s now AWOL anew from his public management graduate program at the UP Open University.

Yet, there are issues and concerns that this old man could not allow to just pass without saying his piece.  Three main reasons prodded him to re-start his blog, even if it is read only by three, but, very intelligent people: his beautiful wife and his two equally beautiful daughters!  One, he was able to adjust to the exactitudes of taking care of his wheel chair-bound, Alzheimer’s-stricken mother and an arthritic and hearing-impaired father, who thinks he has sole monopoly of knowing all what is good and right.  Both are 89 years old.  Two, he has to do, at least one, completely different activity from his care-giving chores as his way to stress debrief himself.  Writing would be doubly beneficial in ensuring the functioning of his mental faculty and, in the process, helps him keep it in tiptop shape to avoid getting embroiled in the same circumstance as his mother.  Three, in relation to the above, he has to relieve his pent up emotions and anger over social and political issues that he assiduously follows from way back his days as a national democratic youth activist for the sake of his aging heart.

Whereas before he was able to move around to gather and validate his information and personally make his observation on the topics he wrote, this old man will temporarily be forced to rely on various electronic and print media for this.  That’s a tall order given the quality of local media in Pampanga.  Despite this, he’s hoping he could his sustain his blog for good. (30)