Limitless

I remember my father mentioning to me that we, human beings, have not really accessed our brain's full capacity. Even Einstein could not boast he did. This is what makes us human, he said.

Limitless. The title is mundane, the actor is an upgraded version of himself, escaping from his stereotypical chick-flick roles, and the genre a pinch of everything. When I saw the trailer, I thought it was another Matrix type of films, mind-boggling, action packed. Surprisingly, it jumped out of the expected. It tends to provoke the mind but in a direct kind of way. I guess we have had enough of Inception to last us for another decade.

The secret is access, and the password is Math. Had I known the significance of Algorithm I should not have dozed off during class. When Eddie Morra swallowed the pill, his last resort to salvage his hopeless career, his 'blindness' was cured. He awoke to the undivulged world of endless possibilities. It is the modern version of Adam and Eve, only this time Adam initiated. Adam becomes invincible.

The effect lasts for a day, the side-effect fatal. Heavy traffic of information being bombarded by liberated neurons pumps in his brain that if he stops, he might explode. He feeds his hunger for knowledge. He uses them wisely. He befriends Mathematics, and he gains two million dollars from investments on Wall Street in two weeks, leaving everyone baffled with this new specie of genius. He is declared a deity.

I half-expected that he would run out of the pills, that he would suffer from its medical consequences, but that he would survive to tell the tale. He did not run out of it. He employs a scientist to reproduce it, thus extending his stature for eternity, with the world in his hands. While everyone was struggling to climb their way up the corporate ladder, he has already conquered and is waving the flag. The pill was the shortcut.

The concept knocked on the door of my image of God. Imagine the Greater Being that monitors our every move. The idea of the film may in the future be feasible, but the basics will hog us - the Higher Being that created 'all that is seen and unseen' still holds the throne to absolute consciousness. We have a glimpse of His Being as of the moment, maybe experience a quarter of it once we attain 100% control of our brain, and He will still be light years away ahead of us. The magnificence of God beyond human mind, eyes exposed or bound, with or without the pill.

Limitless, yet marginal. That is what makes us human. We are.

New Beginning

I had been enveloped with dark, heavy cumulonimbus these past few days. I started and punctuated the days with tears, a heavy heart, and an outlook of a dusky future.

No man is an island. We will always need someone to strengthen and resuscitate that lost glimmer in our daily living. Mine held a stethoscope. And he cost $68.

He took a needle and poked me with it. I witnessed my precious blood flowing right out of my teeny weeny veins into his mighty, frightful syringe. I stared in horror. This liquid version of me will either relinquish or reclaim my being. I chose the worse.

The good thing in being part of a religious community is having prayer warriors. Immediately after that nightmarish jabbing experience, I messaged everyone to intercede for me. A chain of prayers was built, God agreed with it, and translated the collective plea into a positive result from the clinic the next day. I entered the doctor's office with crushed spirit. I left it with renewed soul.

Some people regain life from a horrific accident. Some from a tragic experience. I came into being for the second time after a depleting paranoia that consumed my cheerful personality. It is a miracle. The results nailed factuality of God's definitive miracle hands still at work, though they may appear ambiguous at times, through communal intercession among his brethren. Communion of the saints works wonders.

I have been breathed of a second life. I am eternally grateful. :)

Sunday School: P5 Version

I guess a teacher's greatest achievement is seeing her students learning something. It definitely is a cloud nine feeling.

I taught my catechism class a song last week. I was surprised to know none of them knew it; it was such a popular one. The lyrics were simple, the melody too, and the good part is, it is an action song. Some practice here and there, laughing at everyone who got confused including me, and we perfected it. As expected, they acquired and sang the song like they have known it for a long time.

I was talking loudly today, trying to get everyone's attention, but to my surprise, it was mine they caught. One of the students informed me he sang this particular song I taught them in school, two of them in fact as these guys are also classmates academically, that their teacher even noticed them. Then they started singing the song in front of me, doing the action while seated, making me gape in amusement. They giggled. I giggled. So they learned something!

I volunteered to handle catechism class as a minute way of reciprocating to God. But instead, God, in His most sagacious, showed me an alternative route that leads to His grace of fulfillment. My Sundays have been a happy rainbow, and my one-hour journey with these wise miniatures has been the shortest and the most meaningful. Who will not fall in love with them? I did. ^^

Kiddies

Time has changed me drastically that I seemed to have forgotten one basic survival kit: faith that of a child's is the key to eternity.

I have spent the few days, and one full day today, with kids. I have witnessed their way of fervent praying, one that requires closure of eyes, uttering the simple sentences with conviction and full of heart, like they are the missing links to solving the most puzzling of mysteries, believing that God hears every word though maybe in silence. I guess the guarded and concealed view of the confusing world has made them the most real of all creatures. It's either you like them or you don't. No gray areas.

They pour out their hearts. They talk insensitively. They trust their life to you, letting you drive it for them. You get lost. You found your way. You get frustrated. At the end of the day, all it takes is a gummy bear, a bar of chocolate, some promises that might be unattainable, and they will offer their hugs and kisses unconditionally. Again. Oblivious to the past event that made you both exasperated.

So I guess God has a point for emphasizing this gift of faith of the kids. They may have limited vision of the temporal world around them, but they are capable of one thing. They have the highest qualifications in the field of loving. And that of which is the greatest that remains. The sole reason for Jesus' death.

The Adjustment Bureau

I have free will. The choices I make depend on my own preferences. I exercise my free will very much.

So I believe.

The 'Chairman' has a blueprint of everyone's destiny. Regardless of the options and decisions, they all lead to one solid end: the one that the Chairman has laid upon us. Free will is a puppetry in disguise.

The idea might be obsolete. Defying the norms, letting love govern, good prevailing. 'The Adjustment Bureau' is all about redefining your destiny, which is not a new concept. But something left me hanging. The movie questions free will. Are we really exercising it?

There was once a philosopher who pointed out that every human being exists in the divine mind of the Creator. We are like characters in a book; a ventriloquism. Therefore, from small decisions, like which clothes to wear or which music to listen to, to big ones, such as to cave to sin or not, are not ours exclusively. They have been planted within us. All our actions accord to plan. Inconspicuously. We are not running the show.

The main idea of the movie is realizing, not the good from the bad, but which motives are we solely responsible for, and separate them from those 'free will in disguise'. David literally and metaphorically turned around from Plato's cave, witnessed the crew behind the reality we are so glued on, chased after the love 'that is not part of the plan', and has garnered the approval of the Chairman. Yup, all antiquate except one. The secret ingredient is love.

According to the Bible, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. The movie highlights the reasons for every occurrence. But there is one deistic flaw: love. Even the most concrete of all plans becomes dispensable to it. In order for His brethren to maximize free will, God gave one vital clue. Love. The purpose of the adjustment bureau. The sole reason why God even bothers to draft our imprints. The reason why David achieved perfect living. It all boils down to a small step towards divinity. Love.

It is the still the only reason why the sky is blue.

It's all about trying

So I have learned something new today. The amazing thing about this applied science is that it creates something, injures your normal, routinely self, and heals it back miraculously. Improving it. Proving its worth. I am a convert now.

Like blogging. The main reason why I ceased momentarily was because I found difficulty in accessing blogger through my mobile phone. Guess what, I can easily post through my email now. What an amazing discovery! Now, I can post on the MRT, or on the bus, or virtually anywhere I am, and noone, not even my tired, dopey eyes can stop me! I feel invincible!

Technology at its best, from a blogger's point-of-view. I am determined to laugh the loudest, live the fullest, love the humblest, and my blog will be the living witness to this ordeal. And my fingers. They will be the sacrificial lamb for this noble undertaking, pink nail polish and all.

This is passion in the digital age. :)

First love never dies

February. It came and passed like my days sometimes. I never noticed a whole month expiring and my blog empty. I got preoccupied.

I have my new toy to blame. It got me connected 24/7. I stayed in touch 24/7. The ironic thing was, I was online all day and all night, but not a single word exuded from my fingertips. Words and ideas took vacation and did not leave a mark in my brain. They spoofed! like the wind.

I hopped in the bandwagon, hoping to be the best blogger I could ever be, being thoughts and ideas would always be readily translated into a readable blog material. Writing was at my fingertips. My greatest achievement for the year! Until I discovered the power of Twitter. The immediate publication of pictures taken from the smartest phone I have ever owned onto Facebook. Hangman (the addictive hangman!). BB Messenger. Yahoo. Yahoo Messenger. And everything and anything the world wide web can offer. I got entangled in the cobwebs. I kicked, used all my muscles to tear every part of it,  but it was mightily powerful it swallowed me whole. Oh well.

But now I'm back! My smartphone has decided to take a rest for a while and permitted me to resuscitate my bloglife. My brother sojourned here and back, movies and characters had been empathized, a book adorned, my life kicking in. Emotions were a roller coster. My blog missed them all. But I am back. If my phone has decided to reenter and distract my life, I re-pledge allegiance to my one and only means of salvation. I shall not be swayed.

So help me God. :)