ALEX P. VIDAL: #AlexPVidal

Showing posts with label #AlexPVidal. Show all posts

Friday, March 22, 2024

Alex P. Vidal Quotes

The one person I am with forever is me. My relationship with myself is eternal, so I choose to be my own best friend. I choose to love and accept myself and talk to myself as I would to a beloved person in my life. I saturate all the cells in my body with love, and they become vibrantly healthy. I relate with love to all of life.

-- UNKNOWN :

We have been taught to love our neighbors as Christians. Let's also teach ourselves the art of self love. It's not selfishness and greed. It's rational selfishness that revs up and solidifies our inner strength, self worth, and self confidence.

-- ALEX P. VIDAL #alexpvidalquotes

Alex P. Vidal Quotes

Don’t fall for someone who is not willing to catch you.

—THINKNSHINE :

Some of those who are willing and always ready to catch us are true friends and loved ones who will never let us fall in the first place.

—ALEX P. VIDAL #alexpvidalquotes

Thursday, March 7, 2024

I made eye-to-eye contact with ‘scion’ of Gen. Villa, the result was nearly fatal

“Violence has always been unfortunately embedded in masculinity, this alpha thing.”

—Sebastian Stan

By Alex P. Vidal

A MAN who is reportedly the “great grandson” of Pancho Villa was apparently picking at random people he wanted to hurt with a steely chain whip when he chanced upon me in the gate on my way outside the apartment at past seven o’clock in the evening recently in Queens.

The muscular man, identified later as “Francisco Arango”, was either drunk, high on illegal substance, or a plain yahoo. Or both.

As he approached me, he couldn’t walk straight and was violently murmuring something in Spanish.

Because his feet could not sustain his unruly deportment, I feared the medium-built “Incredible Hulk” could be knocked down with a strong push by any heavier adversary.

Arango was holding with both his hands a heavy chain whip, “preparing” to smash it into my head without any apparent provocation when our eyesight accidentally collided. Nobody blinked.

“Hello, good evening,” I told the amok nicely while preparing my legs to make a dash like Usain Bolt, just in case.

The wacko stopped talking and cancelled his homicidal attempt.

The violent man allowed me to walk away. Thank God.

Back in my apartment room on second floor at past 11 o’clock in the evening, I heard a commotion downstairs.

-o0o-

When I checked in the terrace, I saw the mad man chasing with the same deadly weapon a tall but sober person while engaging him in a shouting match. They both spoke in Spanish. Drugs and alcohol were probably still very much in control and Arango was wild, woolly and dangerous.

The victim managed to elude the attack using his own tantrums and quick feet.

I went back to sleep.

At around past three o’clock in the morning, a more intense and boisterous commotion erupted anew. I was roused from sleep. I dashed to the terrace and saw Arango exchanging blows with another unidentified man (I have been a professional boxing referee and the action I saw downstairs was peanuts-- except it did not have the rules).

The chain whip wasn’t there anymore thus the slugfest was even.

At one moment, Lou Ferrigno-look alike Arango, who could still be under the influence of alcohol and drugs, overpowered his foe.

But to his misfortune, another man joined the fray with intention to rescue Arango’s opponent.

Fighting against four fists and four kicking legs, Arango was battered black and blue despite his superior built.

A final kick delivered by the second person hit Arango’s chin and knocked him out cold like a sack of rambutans.

There were no police; no ambulance; no passersby; no witnesses other than myself.

It was like an elevated ringside view in a WWF bout.

I went back to sleep.

-o0o-

I had no idea what happened to Arango, but I figured the punishment he absorbed that dawn was enough to land him in the emergency room.

Did he suffer from major injuries? Did the physical assault paralyze his body? Did he die from head injuries? No one knew.

I haven’t seen him for several weeks after that fatal fisticuff.

To my surprise, Arango was alive and kicking. While I was on my way outside the apartment one morning days later, he was sitting outside; he saw me and opened the gate for me voluntarily.

Meek and ashen-looking, this time he avoided an eye-to-eye contact.

The erstwhile Eurasian wild boar has become a shy kitten.

I learned that Arango is from Durango, Mexico and is the “great grandson” of Pancho Villa, born Doroteo Arango.

Pancho Villa was a Mexican revolutionary hero, a man of bold action with an uncanny sense of destiny whose exploits--whether actual or mythical, inherently good or evil--have become the stuff of legend.

-o0o-

As a general, Villa staged bold cavalry charges that overwhelmed his opponents even at great risk to his own life. He was very popular with the ladies (purportedly marrying 26 times) and loved to dance.

With the start of Mexican Revolution, Villa came down from the mountains to form an army in support of the populist platform espoused by Francisco Madero.

He was assassinated by unknown persons while visiting the village of Parral in 1923.

When Filipino boxer Francisco Guilledo made a debut in the United States in the same year, his handlers named him as “Pancho Villa.”

Boxer Pancho Villa was an Ilonggo from Ilog (now Kabankalan), Negros Occidental who won the world flyweight title by knocking out Jimmy Wilde in the 7th round on June 18, 1923, at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

He died on July 14, 1925 at 23 in San Francisco, California of tooth infection.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

Friday, March 1, 2024

We and their Baroque

Friday, December 1, 2023

The Epic of Gilgamesh in Penguin Classics

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

— Benjamin Franklin

By Alex P. Vidal

PENGUIN Classics has produced a 127-page English version of The Epic of Gilgamesh by N.K. Sandars for $2.25.

Luckily, I got it only for $.35 in a book sale.

In the Philippines, book sale stores in malls and shopping centers that offer affordable “used” books have proliferated, thus if we are book worms, we can now have a date with Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Copernicus, Jesus, Judas Iscariot, Caesar, Charles Darwin and Queen Elizabeth, among other historical figures.

We can now travel back to the ancient civilization, revisit the Trojan War, relive the Glory that was Greece and the Grandeur that was Rome, and review the Ages of Gaia.

We can now, more or less, understand in the English version The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Miraculously preserved on clay tablets deciphered in the last century, The Epic of Gilgamesh is at least 1,500 years older than Homer. Its volume contains the English version of the adventures of the King of Uruk in his fruitless search for immortality and of his friendship with Enkidu, the wild man from the hills.

Also included in the epic is another legend of the Flood which agrees in many details with the Biblical story of Noah.

Let me share briefly why The Epic of Gilgamesh is a must read for lovers of religion, archeology, history, literature, political and social sciences.

Gilgamesh was the son of a man and a goddess and king of the ancient Sumerian city-state of Uruk.

He was also the strongest and most handsome man in the world.

-o0o-

But his assets have gone to his head, and he spent all his time wearing out the young men of the city with endless athletic contests and sexually exploiting the young women.

When the citizens of Uruk couldn’t take it anymore, they prayed to the gods for help.

The god Anu heard them, and commanded the goddess Aruru to create another human who will be a match for Gilgamesh.

Aruru created Enkidu, an uncivilized wild man, and placed him in the woods.

There, Enkidu had several run-ins with a trapper who uses the same watering hole.

Terrified, the trapper went to Uruk for help. On Gilgamesh's advice, the trapper went back to the watering hole with Shamhat, a temple-prostitute.

When Enkidu showed up, Shamhat enticed him to have sex with her.

Afterward, Enkidu found that he could no longer keep up with the animals, but that his mind has been opened.

He started living with Shamhat, who initiated him into human life. When she mentioned Gilgamesh, Enkidu realized that he wanted a friend—and that he wanted to give Gilgamesh a beat-down.

Gilgamesh had been dreaming about getting a new friend, too.

Soon enough, Enkidu went to Uruk and faced down Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh won, but there were no hard feelings, and the two warriors became best buds.

One day, Gilgamesh decided to go to the distant Cedar Forest and killed Humbaba, the monster who guarded it. Against the advice of the elders of Uruk and Enkidu himself, the two friends set out on their quest.

Once they made it to the Cedar Forest, the sun god Shamash helped them overpower Humbaba, who started pleading for mercy.

-o0o-

Gilgamesh was about to grant it, but then gave in to peer pressure from Enkidu, and killed him.

The friends cut down the tallest tree in the forest, which Enkidu planned to dedicate to the god Enlil.

They built a raft and sailed home down the River Euphrates, taking Humbaba's head along for the ride.

At this point, the goddess Ishtar developed a crush on Gilgamesh and asked him to marry her.

Gilgamesh rejected her, pointing out that all of her previous lovers have come to bad ends.

Seriously pissed off, Ishtar borrowed the Bull of Heaven from her dad, Anu, and sent it to earth to punish the friends. But they killed the Bull, and, when Ishtar appeared on the ramparts of Uruk, Enkidu threw one of its legs in her face.

Not long afterwards, Enkidu dreamed that the gods have decided that, for killing Humbaba, chopping down the cedar, and killing the Bull of Heaven, either he or Gilgamesh must die—and that Enlil picked Enkidu. In no time, Enkidu fell mysteriously ill, and died after much suffering.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)

Friday, June 10, 2022

Alphabets of our spiritual literacy

"Most importantly, the meaning of spirituality lays the seeds for our destiny and the path we must follow."

—Dennis Banks

By Alex P. Vidal

BEYOND politics, war and pandemic, there is a chance for humanity to heave a sigh of relief by reading and spreading the sacred in our everyday life.

We found this out in Spiritual Literacy, written by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat (the book is worth $19.65 in Amazon.com and $9.95 in Google Play).

The authors give us a kaleidoscopic view, full of color and fun, of the wisdom of the ages, including our own.

We may need this wisdom desperately, as told by Thomas Moore, in a time when information and data have taken the place of insight.

We need opportunities such as the one presented in the book to mediate and reflect, not just to learn and act.

And it doesn't hurt to discover how many different people of our own time are hard at work sorting through the obstacles so often associated with spiritual endeavors.

Let me share the alphabets of Spiritual Literacy:

ATTENTION: Pay attention. Stay awake and totally alert. See with receptive eyes and discover a world of ceaseless wonders.

BEAUTY: Walk the path of beauty. Relish and encourage its inward and outward expressions. Acknowledge the radiance of the creation.

BEING PRESENT: Live in the present moment. Don't obsess about the past or worry about the future. All you need is right here now.

COMPASSION: Open your heart, mind, and soul to the pain and suffering in the world. Reach out to others and discover the rewards and obligations of deep feeling.

-o0o-

CONNECTIONS: Cultivate the art of making connections. See how your life is intimately related to all life on the planet.

DEVOTION: Express your feelings of praise and adoration through devotional practices. Pray with words and pray through your actions.

ENTHUSIASM: Celebrate life with this intoxicating passion. It adds zest to everything and helps build community. Hold nothing back.

FAITH: Recognize and accept that there is another dimension to life than what is obvious to us. Live with obstacles, doubt, and paradox, knowing that God is always present in the world.

FORGIVENESS: In both your private and public lives, discover the sweet release that comes from forgiving others. Feel the healing balm of being forgiven and of forgiving yourself.

GRACE: Accept grace and your world will be larger, deeper, richer, and fuller. Look for its intimations everywhere. Let this seed of the Giver of Life bloom in your words and deeds.

GRATITUDE: Spell out your days with a grammar of gratitude. Be thankful for all the blessings in your life.

HOPE: Let this positive and potent emotion fuel your dreams and support your service of others. Through your attitudes and actions, encourage others never to lose hope.

HOSPITALITY: Practice hospitality in a world where too often strangers are feared, enemies are hated, and the "other" is shunned. Welcome guests and alien ideas with graciousness.

IMAGINATION: Give imagination free rein in your life. Explore its images and ponder its meaning-making moments, and it will always present you with something new to be seen, felt, or made known.

JOY: Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Find t his divine energy in your daily life and share it with others.

-o0o-

JUSTICE: Seek liberty and justice for all. Work for a free and fair world where oppression and inequality no longer exist.

KINDNESS: Let Spirit flow through you in little acts of kindness, brief words of encouragement, and manifold expressions of courtesy. These deeds will add to the planet's fund of good will.

LISTENING: Cultivate the art of deep listening in which you lean toward the world in love. All things in the universe want to be heard, as do the many voices inside us.

LOVE: Fall in love over and over again every day. Love your family, your neighbors, your enemies, and yourself. And don't stop with humans. Love animals, plants, stones, even the galaxies.

MEANING: Constantly try to discover the significance of your experiences. Seek further understandings from sacred texts and spiritual teachers.

NURTURING: Take good care of the best that is within you. Self-exploration and personal growth continue throughout our lifetimes and equip us to tend to the needs of others.

OPENNESS: Hold an open house in your heart for all people and all things. Practice empathy with others and receptiveness toward the universe.

PEACE: Protect the earth's future by promoting peace every day. Your small steps will link you with others who are combating violence in the world.

PLAY: Be playful. Express your creative spirit in spontaneity. Hurrah the pleasures of being, and let loose your laughter.

QUESTING: Savor questions and thrill to the quest. See your life as a journey that quickens your faith and deepens your soul.

REVERENCE: Practice reverence for life. The sacred is in, with, and under all the things of the world. Respond with appropriate respect and awe.

-o0o-

SHADOW: Give up trying to hide, deny, or escape from your imperfections. Listen to what your demons have to say to you.

SILENCE: Slow down. Be calm. Find a place where you can regularly practice silence. There you will find the resources to revitalize your body, mind, and soul.

TEACHERS: Be willing to learn from the spiritual teachers all around you, however unlikely or unlike you they may be. Always be a sensitive student.

TRANSFORMATION: Welcome the positive changes that are taking place in your life. Open up the windows and let in some fresh air. Wholeness and healing are waiting in the wings.

UNITY: In this age of global spirituality, respect differences but affirm commonalities. Work together with those who are trying to make the world a better place.

VISION: Practice the art of seeing the invisible. Use the wisdom of your personal visions to renew yourself and your community.

WONDER: Cultivate a vibrant curiosity and welcome the reports of your senses. The world is alive and moving toward you with rare epiphanies and wonderful surprises. Remember you are standing on holy ground.

THE MYSTERY: Accept the unknown as part of life. Don't try to unravel the profound mysteries of God, human nature, and the natural world. Love the ineffable.

YEARNING: Follow your heart's boundless desire. It takes you out of yourself and fosters an appreciation for the multidimensional pleasures of life.

YOU: Accept that you are a child of God. Sing your own song with gusto. Fulfill your mission as a copartner with the Holy One in the unfolding drama of the universe.

ZEAL: Be passionately aroused by life. Cherish every moment, honor your commitments, and treasure your kinship with all.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)