Serendipity
Joanne Marie Combong-Pijuan
Eat, Pray, Read
One of the things that I love doing and that which I have not done much of in Iloilo is reading. The last book I read when I was there was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I read it shortly after it came out and managed to finish all 198,227 words and 784 pages of it overnight not because I wanted to test myself if I can speed read (because I can), but because I had a pile of tasks that needed to be done the next day. I think the hardbound HP book costs 1500 plus and for the ordinary Pinoy, that amount could be better put to use for groceries or for food.
There were times when I would just longingly look at the shelves in National Bookstore burgeoning with hardbound or paperback novels and just salivate because I could only buy one (or none at all – they were obnoxiously expensive). I'm a mother, so I'd rather spend money on diapers, milk, and other essentials than spend a thousand on books for myself. My kids, however, are lucky to have a library of children's books from my sister here in the US, so I was spared the agony of having to buy let's say, a Dr. Seuss book in the store for around 400 pesos.
Ugh! The cost of books in the Philippines is probably one of the reasons why kids and grown ups alike can't even spell or construct sentences without grammatical errors nowadays. And of course, there's SMS (Short Message Service or text messaging) that has all but ruined the English language. One of my pet peeves is having to read an E-mail from someone who writes using text speak. I mean, I understand the space and cost limitations when using a mobile phone, but when facing a computer with a keyboard, is it too much to ask to type in complete words and sentences? Unles ur iliter8 dat is.
And so imagine me when I got to the first Barnes & Noble I could find in New Jersey. I literally had to stop at the door and hold my anterior chest, specifically in the area of my 5th mid-clavicular intercostal space because I could feel my heart thumping like Cuban bongo drums. Since I got here, I've been hanging out in B&N voraciously reading book after book after book usually with a plate of cheesecake and a cup of tall latte at the Starbucks Café inside the bookstore.
Now this is why I love America -- books are so affordable. Or, if you're smart and you have time in your hands, you can just go to B& N, get a book from the shelf and read it with your coffee. When you're done, you can either buy the book (but what's the point if you already finished reading it?) or return it where you got it and just go home with a smile on your face. In the Philippines, try reading in the bookstore and the security guard will bust your ass: "No Private Reading", ¿entiendes?
One book that I've read which I recommend (but predictably, Oprah beat me to that) is Catherine Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. It is a wonderful book, one that could change your life if you will let it. It is an autobiography / self-help memoir where Gilbert transports you to Italy, India, and Indonesia while she searched for pleasure (i.e. food), spirituality, and love after a bout of depression and failed relationships.
The reason why I love this book is because of its significance and relation to my own journey. I too am "searching" here, maybe not of love (I have more than enough of this human emotion from my dear husband and kids), but of what life can dish out for me in this part of the world. I'm searching for answers, for direction, and opening myself up for just about anything that would come my way that would make me a better person, better mother, better wife. Like the author, I'm also praying to God like I've never prayed before, as well as giving myself a chance to experience "pleasure" (through food and company, that is). But, unlike Gilbert who went all the way to India, my Ashram is America and yes, I am waiting for my own "awakening" here.
"It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection." - Bhagavad Gita