A Walk In The Dark—A Poem

A Walk in The Dark

I walk in the Dark
with this goal in mind:
to touch whomsoever I find.

In the hope that one day,
this Darkness won't stay,
and cleared be the Blinders of sight.

I don't mind if it's scary
or if—I feel weary;
What matters is that this is right.

My (S)Word made of Light
will cut through the Night,
and bring that which has been foretold.

A world pure as gold,
and people not cold,
and goodness all over the land.

So please take this Flame
I hold in my hand,
and keep it inside of your heart.

May the Light shine on you,
forever so true,
and never again will depart.

Now come follow me,
in the Dark we shall be,
to spread out the Brightness of Day.

The World Wide Part of WWW

We all know that the Web had ended the tyranny of geography and had allowed people from all over the world to come together in forums or blogs to share their ideas with each other. But sometimes, people can still forget that not all the participants in some conversations have the same background and point of view.

I once participated in a discussion in one forum when a newcomer joined in. It was his first time in that forum so nobody really knew anything about him or where he came from. And unfortunately for him, the topic is a bit hot. It is of the mine-is-better-than-yours kind of topic. In fact, the embers were already starting to glow even before he came onboard.

Then he made a post in nonsensical English. I must admit that I could not understand what he was trying to say. If not for the individual words, I would have thought that it was written in a language other than English. He said things like “I lift me high verily ahead of you not me”. (or something like that. I can’t recall the exact words but I do recall that there is no discernible structure in his sentences. It seemed like the words were placed in a random order.) There was also something about catching a duck or something. And based on what happened next, the other participants seem to have the same problem.

They turned their virtual heads to this newcomer and either directed their annoyance toward him or mocked him. I myself was not sure at first if this person was truly serious or was merely trolling. After observing the exchange for a while though, I began to believe that he was quite serious because he really tried to explain earnestly what it is  he was trying to say by saying it in different ways. But his efforts were in vain. Not one seems to understand him.

So I asked myself “if he is not trolling, then why does he write that way?”. I mean, my English may not be good but his is incomprehensible. That question was answered when an enlightened soul came in and  asked the newcomer what translation software he used. He told the newcomer that he noticed, based on the newcomer’s IP, that he came from <country> and thus, he presumed that the newcomer did not speak English. So that was it.

That newcomer was trying his best to join and contribute to the forum, even bothered with translation, and got flamed and mocked in return for his efforts. How wrong was I to assume that everybody there spoke English! This is the World Wide Web after all.

Since that time, I have made it a point to check on people’s profile and even search them first in Google sometimes  before commenting. By doing that, I can have a glimpse on the person’s temperament. Not that I’m spying or something—it’s public, anyway—but it’s just nice to know where to place and how to phrase yourself properly.

I don’t do that all the time; but only in instances where the topic has explosive potential. In those instances, a Google search detonation kit might come in handy. For example, If most of the person’s comments are about how great L. Ron Hubbard is, then you should know better than to bash Scientology. You don’t have to agree with her but you don’t have to pick up a fight either. Afterall, we don’t have to be right all the time and impose our ideals and ideas to everybody, right? Right. So let’s go get some friends in the other side of the world.

About How This Blog Came To Be

Wow. This started with blog-hopping. I was a bit bored one time so I clicked through all the blogs in Dee’s sidebar. You know, the list you see at the side when you go to TalesFromTheMomSide.com. I planned to pass some time by reading what her friends in the blogosphere have to say.

I was very impressed. These people write so well. I did some lurking a little bit and some blog-hopping here and there until I decided to try dipping my toe into the water by dropping some comments. The first place where I did so was in Sa Labas Ng Mandaluyong. The author of that blog, Jan, (Not his real name. I have to protect his identity because this person is such a celebrity. The number of his devoted followers is increasing by the day and is almost near the point where organized religion will start to take notice.) is a very nice person who greeted me warmly. Seems like the water is warm after all.

After some time of leaving comments like crazy to every blog that would allow me to, it seemed like having a blog of my own is a good idea. After all, I want to improve my writing. And nothing could do that better than, well, writing. Dee, however, is hesitant. She is a thoughtful angel who does not want me to dress myself up like a clown for all the world to see. (Gee, thanks Dee. I appreciate the concern but a part of me always wants to make fun of people sometimes; and apparently, I am not immune to myself.) Anyway, Jan to the rescue. Jan of J.G. & Associates, my attorney-in-fact, made a well-constructed argument in a seemingly innocent comment in his blog. That did the trick. But it was not over yet; Dee made me sign an agreement. She also told me not to make fun of myself. I told her I’ll try.

The conditions of the agreement were simple. I’ll just have to educate myself by reading:

  • A small book she bought; and
  • This, this, this and this. (including the pages linked from those pages and pages linked from those linked pages.)

Of course, the dreaded portion is what I call the Or Else Clause.

I simply said that I’ll do it. But deep inside, I was laughing. Boy, could it get any easier than that? What a deal. Nope, not a deal; that was a steal! That small book? I’ll be done with it before she can even blink. Four webpages and their links? That’s nothing compared to the number of blogs I read.

So, I began. I started with the book’s table of contents to give me a glimpse of the terrain. Everything went fine in the early part of the book. That is, until I came across the term parenthetic expression. I’ll read on that in the Web later, I said to myself. Then came particulars, an appositive, an amplification, and an illustrative quotation. After that, my head began to spin.

I then decided that maybe I’ll have better luck with the Web pages. So, off I went to cyberspace. The first one was short. I followed some links, then another, then… Hey! How many links deep should I drill down? She did not tell me that. Great. And I thought this was the deal of my life. Geez, woman! Are you sure it’s okay with you if I blog or is this another way of saying no?

On a side note, I’d like to advise the members of the male species to watch out for what women say. Always keep in mind the song in the TV show The Wizards of Waverly Place. Everything is not what it seems. Sometimes they say yes but mean maybe or even no. To my mind, God created women to confuse men or maybe to exercise and test their comprehension skills. That, however, is in reference to women in general. If the woman also happens to be a lawyer, good luck. You’ll need lots of it. I did.

But going back to the terms and conditions, Dee said that they are more resolutory than suspensive. Meaning, I don’t have to comply with all those boring stuff first before I can start with the fun stuff. I can start right away with the understanding that I will continue with those readings. Stop the reading, stop the fun. Yes, ma’am!

The truth is, Dee did not want to keep me from blogging. She just hopes to prevent me from tripping over myself by making me read all those things. Well, that’s not a problem; because, to reiterate, the whole point of this blogging thing is to practice writing. That and the fun that it brings.

So, here’s my blog and here’s the first post. I had fun writing it; I hope you’ll also have fun reading it.

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