Creating a Nice Feeling

Sometimes I wonder if it is possible to create a nice feeling just in the mind. But that is not enough, I see. If it is just in the mind, then as soon as we open our eyes, the bad feeling sets in. Or as soon as we open our senses, then such a feeling overwhelms us.

So to have a nice feeling, we should really create an environment that brings about such a nice feeling. For example, when I came back from London and started talking about feminism, the women in my midst saw me as rather odd, as anti-men, and truly off synch from the political situation in the Philippines which was calling for the booting out of martial law. So I had to tell them, especially those in the academe, the intellectuals steeped in political involvement from the grassroots to the different government bureaucracies that no progress can be met without women's involvement. Hence women must be liberated from those obstacles that are barring them from full political participation.

Another time, as I was feeling asthmatic, I saw people smoking inside air-conditioned rooms, inside jeepneys and buses, air-con and non-air-con, and even inside some theatres. I felt like dying right there and then. My reaction was to tell off the smokers, to call the attention of drivers, or whoever was in charge of that particular event I was attending. At one time, a man got off the jeep and showed his gun, as if to say, don't tell me what to do because I have a gun. Then he even said, I am a police officer. So I replied, "You are a police officer; therefore you should be a model to other people, a model for respect for civilians." He smiled rather mischievously in reply. Then I also wrote in the papers about the ills of smoking .

Today, we can breathe well, everywhere except, except where public vehicles are running without concern for the need for fresh air. Yes in MetroManila fresh air is a very rare if unavailable commodity, what with diesel- and gasoline-fed engines running around and polluting the air. Yet, this is not the end of the line. electric-driven vehicles will soon be the, THE, vehicles that will crowd the streets.

Still another way of having that nice feeling is surrounding ourselves with nice people, those who think we matter in this world, not necessarily a lover, but rather just a friend or even a stranger who could have those positive feelings for us as a fellow human being. The thing is with regard to friends, we have to cultivate them. With regard to strangers, we need to cultivate our antennae to find out if that person is truly or could be truy sensitive to us.

Sometimes that person could be a foot away from us, or thousands of miles away. How funny, I am able to connect with certain people in this manner, just using invisible antennaes. And they respond in the most appropriate manner. So now sometimes, I ask myself, do I belong to this country or to another as I am able to connect faster with them. Or maybe my mind has read too many books, ideas coming from those places and so I am more attuned to people who think in the same manner and think the same thoughts.

My goodness, human beings are still a marvel to me.