Dear CAT

Dear Mouse, You read it right. This post and the succeeding posts will not be addressed to you. The long vacation due to holidays gave me ample time to organize short stories about people. Much as I want to participate in public forum, I find some people, turn-offs by their no-brainer rationalization of their political ideals. I rather remember the stories from people I met, from people whose lives give inspiration. Their stories reassure readers that they can muster strength sufficient enough to ward off self-doubt, loss, grief and hopelessness. The stories are just waiting to be told. Here are a few of them. Dear CAT, I lost my father at an early age. There was a silent agreement in the family that no matter what, we will stick to each other thru thick and thin. As I went thru my life passage, from adolescent thru adulthood, I saw life unfolded thru the eyes of people I met. Mr.Principal He was always in the office as early as six- o -clock everyday despite the fact that the flag raising ceremony that he attended without fail for more than 20 years was being held once a week only. His house was only a stone's-throw away from the back gate of the university. He would tell us during make up classes that he conducted when one of our teachers called in sick that most of the time he did not want to go home so he slept in his car. He would flash a smile whenever we chorused the question—WHY SIR ? It was just that he loved his car more than his wife. To us it was just a jest, until we learned from the more senior members of the high school community that his wife was not his fiancé. According to rumor, it was a shot- gun wedding with the current wife. Her love was also a teacher in the university and a roomie in their big house. She was among the teachers from other provinces who rented a room to stay during weekdays. Young as we were, we were suckers for life secrets of school "celebrities". So we probed. It was not easy for us to identify who among the teachers was the ‘ex girl friend’. Using the process of elimination, she was the only teacher who belonged to the age bracket of the principal and his wife. She was still single and was always wearing pink. As to what that color pink to do with her life, we really did not know. Maybe it was a sign for him that she was still in love or her love never died. The wife was always wearing the shades of blue and green. Green of jealousy and blue for blues? There were moments when we can read the mind of the Principal, from his story, from his sad life and from his closeness to us young people who he wanted to leave a message that we cannot understand. Was it a love story that never came into happy ending or was it a lesson that success was not everything. There was also the so-called happiness from being able to share it with a loved one. But that was not my story at all at that time. To be continued-