Accents
Jet-lagged
Your eyes are bleary. You are drowsy, and sleep, restful sleep is all you need for the moment to the exclusion of everything else. After the hugs and kisses with kith and kin, you long for the oblivion a mattress would bring. You've just come from the other side of the globe where it was night, and where you are now is daytime. You want to focus, but you can't because you are suffering from "jet-lag," intense jet-lag after having been away from Bayan Ko for a year and a half.
Jet-lagged or not, writing this column is a must. I have pledged unto myself to write a weekly column, and so be it. A pledge is a pledge. And you, dear reader, proceed quick to the next article if you find these ramblings too, too trivial.
Having started my seventh decade, I think I've accumulated enough years to earn the distinction of being the oldest among the wordsmiths in the two local papers where my column is syndicated. Wisdom comes with age—old age—how often this is said, and this is mine to prove or disprove. In the haze of jet-lag, I am inclined to the latter — to wrest away the accolades heaped on the aged who comes out inane, petty, befuddled because the Profound Thoughts just refuse to surface.
One simple, cardinal rule a journalist must observe is to meet a deadline. Nothing like a deadline to produce the adrenaline rush. You turn up silly, it's the deadline, stupid. Your story is half-baked, it's the deadline, stupid. In the ticking of the clock, nothing is more powerful than a deadline to turn the push to a shove.
And so, here I am — jet-lagged and writing on to meet a deadline. I glanced at the framed writings on the wall, jotting them here, hoping to help "in the ushering of the dawn," regardless of the discomfort of the hour.
"In the midst of a deafening cry for social change in a society beset with inequalities, journalism cannot find a neutral sanctuary. Either it contributes to the prolonging of the night or it helps in the ushering of the dawn. After all, to write is already to choose." Pronouncements from the College Editors Guild of the Philippines.
The core values we hold sacred stay paramount even as we beat the clock in the haze of jet-lag.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)