TWENTY-TWENTY was the Year of the Rat. Geomancers predicted how the Rat, specified as the Metal Rat, would usher in a season of renewals. We know what happened then: the world went into a lockdown. Masks and shields became our lifestyle. Hope was diminished as deaths went up. The word…
Four small evergreens flank the entrance to the main lobby of the hotel. The trees, which are sized more like shrubs, have leaves speckled with snow. Poinsettias blazing in red and green frame the inner sanctum of the hotel, into which one can already catch a glimpse of a Christmas…
She was always against a blue Christmas tree. Maybe the word is not “against”; she was worried that the blue color dominating the usual red, silver and gold over the dark tree foliage of our tree will look gloomy. “Christmas should be bright,” she would say, a statement I dared…
How should I respond to a “Friend Request” on Facebook from a being who does not show his face and instead requires me to trust a person who goes by the identity of a sunset or a loaf of bread? Or to one whose profile is locked? It was not…
This is the second year now when the State has stopped its citizens from observing the All Souls’ Day. As true with all other feasting, a day set aside to pay respect to the Dead has not always been limited to one day. We, Roman Catholics, to be specific, conflated…