They’re a different genus, these homo electronicas.  They walk upright, all right, but one always strangely finds his way without looking; his head is forever bowed, his eyes permanently focused on the cell phone in his hand. The other is almost always seated.  Fact is he can only sit comfortably when there’s a computer in front [...]

Never had a group of men taken pride in who had the smallest, commented one participant some years ago after he noticed in a business conference in Europe that the latest mobile or cell phones were getting smaller. For reasons lucid to the techno-savvy and incomprehensible to the techno-simpleton, small is better; the more expensive, the [...]

We will ask Mrs. Lewis to come forward and lay an egg on the altar, said an announcement in a church bulletin for Easter Sunday. This shows that the church as an institution isn’t exempt from language lapses, dangling modifiers and all, just like classrooms, offices, and those eager, or bored, students in English classes. And [...]

This famous Christmas story is one that makes one see that man in the midst of catastrophe can plumb the bottom of his being and find in its depths an innate goodness.  It is that goodness that makes him set aside untold hatred and inconceivable hurt.  It is a true story. The famed World War I [...]

Time was when babies who died before receiving the sacrament of baptism were consigned to limbo, that state of oblivion where souls remain and couldn’t enter heaven.  They weren’t condemned to the eternal suffering of hell but they couldn’t enjoy God’s “beatific vision” either. There were two kinds of limbo, the limbus infantium or limbo of [...]

Christians of different denominations hold this as a statement of faith.  The Credo, or Creed, is essentially a set of religious beliefs.  Christians, from the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, most Protestant Churches, to the Jacobites of Syria, pray the Credo, which is Latin for “I believe,” the prayer’s first words. Roman Catholics traditionally call [...]

A hundred and nine Christmases ago, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to the editor of New York’s Sun newspaper asking if there really is a Santa Claus.  She said that her friends had told her there isn’t while her father had said that there is if it’s in the Sun newspaper. The reply was an editorial that [...]

There’s always the challenge of adjustment in going to places with different cultures.  Blending in may not be expected, or even possible.  The challenge, then, lies in adjusting to local culture without sacrificing one’s own. It is Ramadan in the Muslim world.  One feels its import in an Islamic nation (Ummah.)  Ramadan is the name of [...]

A high place that lifts the souls of mere mortals on the wings of hope rests on resurrection.  Traditionally, resurrection is taken to mean as that state of physical return from the dead.  So there will always be an Easter after Good Friday, or where goes the meaning of hope? The concept of a god who [...]

In their early childhood their family held the tradition of spending Christmas with their mother’s family.  There was always Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. One early Christmas morning the eldest of those first four grandchildren talked breathlessly about how Santa Claus came the night before.  She saw a great light through the window and heard the [...]

They came from the east, thus from the Orient, and followed the star to bring them to the Christ child.  They had gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  This more or less sums up what we know best of the Three Kings ever since we became aware of Christmases and New Years and saw enough [...]

Angels in Art Expectedly, it is the language of art that gave shape to the intangible nature of angels.  Artists through the centuries have endowed them with form based on their imaginings and their understanding of the scriptures.  In our part of the world, deeply influenced by Western culture, the form of angels as we know [...]

Coming to a part of a certain novena that offers prayers to the “nine choirs of angels” compelled me to embark on an academic search on the nature of angels.  Besides, there was this number nine that refers to choirs, two beautiful words that become even more magical because they happen to describe angels. I must [...]

It was many nights at the veterinary clinic.  We not only had to wait for the ride after the husband’s office hours, there’s also this famed Dubai traffic gnarl.  Besides, the veterinary clinic’s open from 5 pm to 10 pm.  Thus it’s always night for us at the vet. One night our wait was longer than [...]

There was this gray-brown thing that seemed to stay permanently under cars in the parking lot.  I first saw it after feeding the alley cats in a nearby building construction.  It slowly went out from under the car, looked up and assessed me, and rubbed its head against my leg. This isn’t an alley cat, I [...]

A page devoted to cats and dogs in the Monday issues of a UAE broadsheet has a column by a veterinarian who gives advice on pet care, mostly by answering questions sent by readers, including how to make a scared dog get into a car. There are two pet welfare organizations in the UAE, K9 Friends [...]

The first thing I want to do in Dubai is to make a courtesy call to the consulate dog, and then to a camel, I declared to the husband. The consulate dog is now being taken care of by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, he had said.  As for the camel, an out-of-town trip is needed [...]

It was cruel to be awakened with a start at 2:30 a.m. when one had hit the sack at 1:00 a.m.  The head is groggy, the pulse is frenzied.  I can’t blame my cats, though.  What issues they had which they decided to settle with catfights terrible enough to awaken me must be issues of [...]

Unexpected happy returns The returns are immeasurable in terms of money.  Just as money cannot buy the wag of a dog’s tail, so could it not buy the reassuring magic of cats whose personalities (or catnalities and dognalities, as our father used to say) are as enjoyable, interesting and as varied as they come. Take Rexit.  Imperious, [...]