Skip to main content

Please enlighten me

I find it disturbing how men I normally regard as intelligent, discerning, and bequeathed with a sharp and invigorating social and environmental consciousness, are eventually drawn to golf or go through a golf phase -- that elitist, expensive, space-wasting, water-guzzling past-time in which men chase a ball with a stick while their lackeys carry the golf clubs for them or search for the balls when they go off course. I have a short list: Number One Biker Boy, Frank, Neal Oshima, and Kabigat a.k.a Kidlat Tahimik whom witnesses saw teeing off at the Baguio Country Club recently. When asked to comment he explained that he joined his sister after twenty years of shunning the golf course for old times' sake, as she was leaving for the US that evening. (My relatives don't count. They are beyond saving. The elders have been playing golf since before I was born, while those of my generation were born with golf clubs in their hands.) I don't get it. Talk about cognitive dissonance. I still love and respect No. 1 Biker Boy who hasn't gone farther than talking about learning golf, Frank (who blew his putter budget on books instead), Neal who stopped playing golf a long time ago, and Kabigat who played just this once, but will somebody please tell me: Why golf? Why?

This is the sort of 'green' I'd rather see.

The Wright Park Pony Boys, my Big Little Sister, the Artist-in-Residence and I have a dream. We tear through the Country Club golf course on our wild and galloping steeds, dropping seeds rolled into clay balls in our wake. Long after we have thundered through the fields and been chastised by the Country Club management (arrested maybe? how exciting!) a thousand edible plants will sprout and wildly break through the mono-cultured, manicured greens, and food will grow uncontrollably, and the fortress will be breached by the hungry! Nyahahahahhahaaaaaa!
Labels:

Comments

The Nashman said…
Me hate golf in a country like da pelens which has so much land and water.
29 July 2007 at 19:36
Mayumi Masaya said…
sounds great! id love to take photos! do it do it do it!
30 July 2007 at 20:42
Anonymous said…
Why golf?

Ask the Bishop, too, li'l girl.

Look for him right after siesta, ha-ha-ha!
21 September 2007 at 02:34
resty said…
...can anyone tell why no one dares squat in a golf course? but would in a watershed area....
29 October 2007 at 21:18
Anonymous said…
well i myself am no big fan of golf...in fact, i silently hate it for all its elitist appeal (silently because a few good friends of mine play it regularly)...and yes, i too have thought about all that land and water being wasted for a few people to enjoy...
but when i tried playing it a few times, it did make me feel good. and even though i dont play it at all, i can clearly see why some people love it...there are far worse things other people do with their time, money and the world's resources. - jon sy
20 May 2009 at 01:09
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cordillera Folktales and Story-telling

It was cold and wet outside on the day of the launching of The Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and other Cordillera Folktales . But inside Mt. Cloud Bookshop we were warmed by stories read and performed by the Aanak di Kabiligan community theater group. Storytelling on a stormy afternoon. Paco Paco. A Benguet story from the book, published by the Cordillera Green Network. Aanak di Kabiligan means children of the mountains. The theater group was born out of the Cordillera Green Network's eleven years of conducting workshops in which children transform their grandparents' stories into theater productions. Here they perform the title story of the Golden Arrow of Mt. Makilkilang and Other Cordillera Folktales.
Post a Comment
Read more

Lola of Maipon

It's all too easy to fall asleep under the blanket of everyday life and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. But once in a while, along comes a sparkling vision that jolts me out of my daily sleep and reminds me of the existence of convictions and worlds so different from my own. "Our beloved LOLA of Guinubatan, Maipon, Albay is the last true messenger of God. So, let us follow her holy teachings so that we will gain TRUE SALVATION without sufferings and without death." In another story I, the intrepid heroine, the adventurer seduced by mysteries, the pilgrim in search of truth, would follow them back to Guinubatan from Session Road, thirsting to see and hear their Lola for myself. However, it's all too easy -- much safer! -- to fall back asleep under the blanket of everyday life, and to smother dreams with the mundane things I surround myself with. Then along comes 9 a.m., and really, it's time to down the dregs of coffee at the bott...
4 comments
Read more

Ritual for all Occasions

Attended a talk delivered by Dr. Albert Bacdayan, UP Baguio. Feb. 20, 2013. "Ritual for All Occasions: The significance and persistence of the 'Senga' in Northern Sagada." The senga is a ritual in which at least one chicken and one pig -- sometimes more -- are sacrificed. The senga is usually performed for milestones such as the completion of a house, the opening of a new business, a wedding, a funeral, when someone is ill, when someone is leaving on a journey. He spoke of how Cordillerans have a ritual for almost every occasion or ailment. Indeed, the word he used was not ritual but "remedy."Dr. Bacdayan described this as a "healthy agnosticism."He mused that the abundance or such remedies and rituals is the reason there are rarely feelings of helplessness among Cordillerans. He described ritual as a bundle of activities that assures people and anchors identity. When one calls the old men and is the principal of a senga, you are perceived t...
Post a Comment
Read more