Indulgence

a visit and a meeting with old friends

from Angels in America written by Tony Kushner
"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers..."

"Well, that's a stupid thing to do."

Like Lazarus, I'm back from the dead; back in the real world. Walking to the jeepney stop and taking the Metro Rail Transit to work and back in the work force and looking at piled up e-mails and checking up on the work that needs to be done. I'm back in the world of the living, in society.

But I'm glad for that flu because I discovered I'm not diabetic and I'm relatively in healthy shape and that's always good to discover. I've always been afraid I might be a diabetic and I wouldn't be able to handle it properly if I were. And because of all that time were I required rest, I was home most of the time and I was able to watch Mike Nichols' amazing film Angels in America. If you love moving works that crosses history and messages -- about real people who intellectually cuts through the core and breaks down everything into a discourse, an intelligent discourse, this is for you. It's an amazing film and I'm glad I got to see it.

Now I'm back at work. But during my sickness, I had two visitations. My very good friend DC went to my house to see me since it was not the best of ideas for me to leave the house at night when my fever kicks in. We talked for 4 hours, catching up on each other's lives because we haven't seen each other in months and we had no real inkling about what was going on between us. He has a girlfriend and is very much in love, I have both hands on the steering wheel of my life now and I'm on the right road finally towards my destination. We both reveled in each other's joys and little triumphs and I'm so glad to have got to see him again. DC is one of the few people who I can speak for 2 and a half hours about music with and he would not get bored with me and would probably have just as much to say as I do.

Prior to DC's visit, I went and met up with Brian Vallesteros and Chris Mariano, two old friends from before -- my college days. True artists and great people and it was great to keep in touch with them. We had dinner and then we dropped Chris at her bus because she couldn't miss her bus but Brian could stay with me a bit longer and he did and we kinda took our time because we hadn't seen each other in the longest time and we just got to talking. I've realised, through my conversation with Brian that I've changed so much. When Brian was with me last, I was a totally different person then. I hadn't come into myself and found myself and made myself. I wasn't half as confident as I am now. And I don't know, I was wondering if he thought I was arrogant. I was wondering if he was wondering what had happened and why I had turned into such an asshole. I suppose it is a huge jump from who I was back then to who I am now.

But after everything is said and done, Brian is still my friend and it must be jarring to have to adjust to someone in that manner. Brian has remain steadfast a great artist and a great person. All he is now is older, more mature, wiser but he hasn't changed essentially.

I have, though, by leaps and bounds.

And friends are a great way of measuring how much you've changed. Old friends, especially because they knew you then and they know you know. And I'm very, very happy for these two meetings this week, during my sickness. The time to really catch up and re-establish bonds.

I'm very happy for that. It's time to re-establish connections, re-establish bonds.

posted by wanggo @ 12:18 PM