Sabado De Gloria

Dear Mouse,
Sabado De Gloria is supposed to be more solemn than Good Friday. Sabi ng matatanda-- Patay pa ang Diyos, huwag kayong malikot.

I watched Ten Commandments again. One hobby that I adopted in the ESTET is to collect old movies. Yon bang mga pelikulang napanood ko noong bata at malaki na ako pero hindi ko napanood. Confusing ?

Like Gone with the Wind. My friends and I watched this movie when it was shown somewhere in the University belt, an old old movie but they said it is classic. I fell in love with Clark Gable (ba yun?) and I adopted Scarlett O Hara's resolve in Tara....that is never get hungry again literally and symbolically. So I always eat on time.

I missed a lot of scenes. My friend on my right cried a lot that I was distracted giving her my tissue paper, my hankie and a roll of toilet paper that I always bring with me. (peksman,kasi minsan wala niyan sa women's). My friend on my left was the other kind of breed of moviegoers. She empathized with the actors and actresses that she swore, she laughed and she cried with the heroine. I overheard her said ... sige, ganiyan, pahirapan mo, mga walanghiyang lalaki yan... Gusto kong banatan. The movie was more than 4 hours that we did not see its ending. Gabi na. Lagot pag-uwi. Ano kayang library ang huling magsara ?

I have watched Ten Commandments many times but it was only last Saturday when I noticed the prophetic remark of Cecil De Mille about people who have seen the movie making a pilgrimage where the Exodus happened. I did go to the place. But it was in Universal Studios where the parting of the sea is memorialized in a miniature version.

First time I saw the movie was not due to its religious message. My two brothers wanted to see the movie because it was only shown during Holy Week. They have to bring me along. Walang yaya. They heard so much about it and they wanted to see epic films. I did not care about the film. All I cared was the jumbo pop corn and coke that they gave me to sit still.

The next time I watched it again, I recognized the actors, Yul Bryner,...the King of Siam in the The King and I.( a movie in my collection too);Charleston Heston---from being the Deliverer, he was delivered in the Planet of the Apes. . I had a crush on Joshua played by John Derek. I did not get the names of the actresses though but I got the bangs of the Neferteri, the Queen of Egypt. (o diba). Later, I learned that John Derek was already old and married to BO DEREK. (ang taksil).

Oh yes, I remembered the most oftrepeated dialogues by the pharaoh. ..it shall be written and it shall be done. It got an impact in my well-being. I realized that history is made by Great men not the way it happened but the way they wanted it to be read by the future generations. (Erap must have been inspired by this when he had his own version of his trial.Sandali..I di-disable ko lang itong keys na politics ang gustong laging isulat. (hehehe).

I realized that I can make a resolution of what I want by writing it down. So during life's upheaval, when my hope was falling like dead leaves during Autumn, I just look at what I wrote and my hope is refreshed. SO IT SHALL BE WRITTEN, SO IT SHALL BE DONE. (The only thing that does not happen yet is to win a lotto. I kept on writing it on a post-it-note but that janitor in the office kept sweeping it away when the paper falls on the floor). Inggitero.

This time, when I watched it again for the nth time, I found out that the movie was more than a movie about Ten Commandments.

1. It was a love story. The usual love story where one loves the other that she can sacrifice for the sake of love.

a. The pure love of the Queen of Egypt to Moses that she did not hide from her husband. Even Rameses'threat of killing her with the same sword that he would use to Moses did not frighten her. In fact when her face was focused in the camera, she had that mysterious smile. Para bang sinasabi niyang bwahahahaha.

b.love stories of two mothers---the biological mother who gave him up in order to save him and the surrogate mother who gave up Egypt to be with his son in the exodus.

c. love of the Paharaoh to Moses as evidenced by the facts: 1. that he was willing to give the throne to him instead of his own son 2. he was willing to forget that he was a slave 3. he broke his own decree by saying the word Moses; the last word that he uttered before his death 2. a story of sibling rivalry 3. a story of intrigue and deception 4. a story of corruption 5. a story of power struggle 6. a story of human weakness that is losing faith

There are a lot more. Ten Commandments is not a story about the delivery of the slaves from bondage. It is a our story.

The tablets of stone did not change the world. It just showed us how these commandments were violated unabashedly by people who are supposed to be our deliverers.

Ironically, in the Philippines all the commandments that pertain to relationships with fellowmen are most violated. These are:

6. Thou shalt not kill. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery 8. Thou shalt not steal. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife

Bakit wife lang. May mga mang-aagaw din ng asawang lalaki di ba.
The CA t