The ever famous "Macho Image"!

Men are usually attributed by being tough, strong enough to handle every single situation, someone to lean on and all that. They are expected to do things that women cannot, we rarely see them cry or chicken out or else they would be labeled as gay. To be exact, men are straight to the point and are brave enough to say what they want to say without hesitation; they are like well-built walls that won’t easily break down. There are lots of motives why men act as if they are the strongest person on Earth. It can be that they don’t want to be called coward and they want to show everyone that they won’t back off at any kind of situation. Also, we all know that most girls look up to guys that possess “macho image” but most of the times and what we rarely see is that men act as if they are strong and just keep whatever pain they have inside to protect the ones they love. They always show their calm face most specially in difficult situations not because they also want their love ones to be calmed and feel safe. If men are as emotional as women are who would be the ones that can be leaned on to? This concept was shown both in the two stories both written by Francisco Arcellana that are tackled recently (The Mats and &Divide by Two).

At first when I read the first story which is entitled “The Mats”, I was like “What kind of story was that? I can also write stories about things I like, what’s the whole point in it? What is the author really trying to say? I don’t know, I just don’t get the whole point about it. I wondered what Miss Diane saw in this story for her to share it in class considering the fact that it’s just about a family who gets too excited upon hearing that their father was coming home with Mats with him, and then so what? If I were them, I wouldn’t waste even a second thinking about it. I’m saying this because of all my entire life, I never get too excited like that, I mean my mom worked in another country when I was still in high school and I usually receive different kinds of stuffs from her like cell phones, mp3’s, Gba’s and things like that, I get a little bit excited but I’m won’t go ever and over it almost every night. For me its like “All right, my mom’s going to send me something cool, PERIOD!” After an hour or two, I’m not so excited about it anymore and it’s no big deal.

But then as I read the story again, I realized the whole point. It’s not just about the mat; it’s about the family finding happiness in little things. I told myself that perhaps the father knew that his children and wife is not that happy inside, they have this grief inside longing for persons that are close to their hearts who died. They are delighted by simple things because they undergo through numerous agonies before and they are trying to forget every single pain by appreciating small things. I figured out that for such a long time, the father just keep all the hurt inside for his family’s sake, so they won’t think about it anymore and that they would get over the pain that was left after the death of their loved ones, but what hurt him more is that instead of forgetting just the pain, the family almost forgot about their family members as well.

In his own words “is it fair to forget them? Would it be just to disregard them”.

This statement shows that he was very disappointed that they almost forget them, For me, what he was trying to say is they should forget the pain and move on but they never forget the memory of their loved ones and that no matter what happen, they would always be part of the family.

The next story “Divide by Two” was intriguing and at the same time confusing. I don’t know where they are really up to. Are they talking just about the unfair division of the lot or there are deeper things related to it? At first I find the girl nagger and very selfish. Why won’t she stop talking, it won’t kill her if she just shut her mouth up and get over the miscalculated division of the lot. It’s no big deal; she’s just the one of the many girls in the world who seeks for attention. The guy on the other hand is not “under, probably the reason why he followed what the girl was saying is that he’s tired of what his wife was saying, so he has no other choice but to go after what she want. As I was reading further, It get even more confusing, I was like why all of a sudden it’s as if they are not talking about the fence anymore, they are talking about betrayal and something like that.

“He was only being friendly as I was,” Belle said.
“Oh, Yes” I said.
“He was only being neighborly as I believe in being,” Belle said.
“Sure, sure,” I said.

It was like the fence is just an excuse, that’s not really their point. It’s like they both are afraid to know the truth, the girl was jealous to the other girl on the other house and same thing for the guy. For me, the whole story was not about the fence, it’s about tangled love affair and the fence may be symbolizing something like the other guy realized that they it’s wrong for them to be together because they both are taken. The girls cannot take the truth but cannot say fight for what she want because she knew that it was really wrong so she made up excuses so that she would somehow show the other guy she was upset but she did it indirectly. Indirectly in a way that she made the two guys argue about the fence when in fact what she really wanted was to get back with the guy who turned her down. In this story, it showed me that men are strong enough to say exactly what they wanted to say unlike most girls that can say directly want they want to say as if waiting for the cows come home.

* Best things in life are priceless! *

Attaining happiness out of simple things is just one of the countless traits of Filipinos that people from different parts of the world admire. We strongly believe that best things in life don’t really require money for us to have. For us, just being with our family gives us joy and enough reason to wake up for the next day with smile on our faces. Just a smile could make someone’s day perfect. A short phone call can possibly mean everything to a person. To be exact, for most Filipinos; small things mean the most.

The story My Father goes to Court showed the typical kind of a Filipino family that are satisfied with what they have. They never envied their neighbor although they know that the family living there is very wealthy. For them, happiness doesn’t depend on too much money. They have their own ways for them to be glad and they find it in simple things that don’t cost even a single centavo. This story tells us about the most precious treasure that people can have. It certainly is not money neither power, it is love and care. You cannot buy love anywhere and at any cost, this treasure is exceptional and you would never find anything that would cost more than love.

Meanwhile, the story How my Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife is also about close family ties. This was shown when Leon finally introduced her wife to his family, his mother didn’t help it but cry probably because they are thinking that Leon’s time would be only after his wife and that he won’t be able to make his family feel loved, but later on another Filipino trait which was being loving and understanding was shown when Leon and Maria talked to the father, it was not directly stated that the conversation went well but there’s no sign that it went bad and it’s natural for Filipinos to support the one they love even if it hurts at the start but then sooner or later they can easily take the truth with smiles on their faces knowing that this is what exactly their loved ones want.

~ This clip is about a study that was conducted by some American students which focused on common Filipino traits. ~

Personally, I can say that I’m loving all those Filipino traits. I won’t go too far for an example. I can really feel how much my family treasures one another, we always want the best for each other. My parents and I sometimes argue about things but we don’t let the day pass without resolving the matter. My parents understands everything about me, even it’s about matters of the heart, they are always there to listen but they never forced me to, once I’m ready to tell then my problems they are all ears on me without hesitation. I won’t say that I never made anything that made my parents somehow depressed or sad, the thing is even thought I made so much mistakes that I regret, they always have a room for forgiveness, they let me change for the good. Also, we find happiness in simple things, we are not very fond of gadgets or things that money can buy, and just being together is more than enough for us. Sometimes, problems come but it’s not going to make us hate God, instead we believe that God just want to develop the bond between me and family, another is God won’t give us something that we can’t get through with and whatever difficulty he gives us will just make us strong in the end. I’m very gratifies that along with my imperfections is a family that never grow tired of loving me and this love is something that money can’t buy.