posted May 08, 2009

Of Parting and Absence

By Tito Emil

"Parting is such sweet sorrow"; "Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

            These are two age-old adages which indeed deserve a more intimate dissection to unravel the things that they tend to infer. The interpolation of meanings and inferences of words are complicated especially when symbolism and metaphors clothe them.
          
           A brief and temporary absence from one we love spawn intense fondness and seemingly endless cravings beyond reality between or among those separated. We fix our consciousness upon each moment that ticks away, and wish that the day when we are together once more would soon come.
 
           Amidst all the loneliness and emptiness where we may find ourselves in, the absence makes our heart grow fonder through regular and mutual communication to bridge the gap that time and distance have interposed. Thus, we diminish our emptiness and nurse our longings.

          On the other hand, such parting and absence may ferment our relationships through the intrusion, either intentionally or inadvertently, of intrinsic or extrinsic factors or variables and events that waylay our attention, thus, the poisonous fangs of neglect and non-concern will cultivate the inevitable vicious triad of painful waiting... hapless hoping... and chronic contempt.

          Similarly, it is said that time is a great healer of wounds. Our eagerness to see who we once longed for wanes and finally expire. Our heart becomes hard and calloused.

          The realm of our emotions is jaded with pains infinite to our heart especially when the Grim Reaper signs the death warrant of someone we love, or when we leave something behind in our attempt at searching for greener pastures. How can parting be sweet when we are standing on the end of a line looking forward to the permanent absence of our departed? Or how can our heart grow fonder for one who has left us forever? How can a place forlorn grow fonder of us when familiar landmarks have ceased to be the memorials of
days gone by when everything seemed unshaken?

          Fond memories? Yes...

          But these are merely memories. Will they not incise our heart and uncork the fissures where pains have been buried and scaled, and now to invite them again to come out and lead us to painful retrospection? Must we be in willing servitude as jailbirds of the past?

          Where is the fondness felt from someone's absence? Where is the sweetness of parting? And how can sorrow be sweet?

           THERE IS ONLY SORROW TO BEAR.

I’M PROUD TO BE A SAN ESTEBANIAN! EBAN NAK! EBAN TAYO! AGBIAG!

 
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