Shall We Walk?

by Pura Santillan-Castrence
This essay was written during the Japanese Occupation but it is as relevant today as it was then.

I wrote an article some years ago on the benefits of walking. My automobiled friends praised the article
politely enough, they liked it (at least they said so); the points were well taken; people should really walk
more; it took someone like me to show in such graphic terms what could have been clear to everyone
before… then they went on their morning-till-night automobile rides, increasing the size of their paunches
and the number of their chins and illnesses…

I must state, however, that I didn’t start to sell the idea that walking is the panacea of all earthy ills, not that
one should walk from here to Tarlac if there is not truck available, not that rain or shine, in sickness or in
health one should walk or else. But I did set out to claim that if milady has to give up once in a while her
tricyle or carromata ride, she wil;l be one none the worse for the little exercise she gives her limbs.

Walking keeps the form fit. It obviates bay windows, inelegant in men, unsightly in women. Walking puts
into play painlessly and unconsciously, important body muscles. The leg muscles,obviously, are the ones
mostly affected. But when the legs move they pull at the abdominal muscles, giving them the needed
exercise which prevents their getting flabby and the abdomen’s becoming big and pendulous. The static
muscles of the back, especially those around the spine, are put into movement, too, and this is essential in
the maintenance of good posture. The arms also swing into motion as a natural accompaniment of walking.

There are all manners of walking. The ambling walking of the absorbed lovers, while satisfactory from the
point of views of giving opportunity for sentimental discourse, is not so from the point of view of exercise.
From the latter viewpoint, a brisk morning walk is the thing. You need not even plan it as a formal program.
It is a relatively simple thing to walk to the office, or if that is too much because where you work is quite
distant from your home, walk part of the way. Either choice you take, however, makes it worthwhile by
deriving from it the exercise you need. Wallk vigorously and enthusiastically. You can almost actually feel
the blood circulating in your body with a briskness equal to the vim and zest you put into your walking.

Some enthusiasts have it that a good habitual walker is also a good habitual thinker. Perhaps the situation
is a bit far-fecthed considered as direct cause and effect. Clean thinking may come as a result of good
blood-circulation an general body health, to which may have contributed the exercise derived from walking
improves the eyesight. Although when the walks are done out in the country, where a person has to look far
into the distance most of the time, at hill-peaks and tree-tops or upon green grass across the brooks, the
farsight focusing affords rest and is good for the eyes.

Walk and be healthy. Walk and save money. Why be a slave of His Excellency, the cochero, when it is only
a matter of a ten or a fifteen minute walk? Walk, instead, and see the city sights at close range. Many
things of varied interest will attract you. Show-windows will engross you if you are an addicted window-
shopper. Perhaps you intend to buy a pair of shoes next pay-day. Or a ves, do, or a barong tagalog for a
friend or hubby, a bag for little Wifie. Window-shopping now will help you later.
If you don’t care particularly to shop merely with your eyes, if window-shopping only gives you pain and
longings you never hope to see fulfilled, there are other things besides windows to make a walk interesting.
People, for instance. What o mothey crowned of interesting human beings a short walk can afford you. You
see all types, dressy fops with their uselessness written all over their persons, worried looking fathers of
families, frowsy dames with eyes that tell stories of hopes and frustration, eager youths and pretty girls
flirting with each other openly or subtly, but always charmingly, because they are young. You see an old
woman with her bundle of knickknacks, and you wonder how manygrtanchildren will shout for joy on her
arrival. There is a vicious-looking beggar whom you evade, because he appears more as your-life-or your –
money type than a bonafide pauper who needs your help. A loud-mouthed woman, with the market brand
stramped on her face and bearing, is haggling over the price of a ride with an equally tough cochero. Words
are exchange, voices become excited and shrill, but you are already out of hearing distance. All your
interest is now taken up by an old couple, worn-out and thin to emaciating, but still with the light of love and
adventure in their eyes. You see the man gallantly giving his arms to his wife as they staggeringly cross the
street. You wipe the mist in your eyes, and it is good that you do so in time or you would not see two little
children, their attention centered upon some candy displayed on a counter near the sidewalk, coming
plump into your path. You step aside, watch the eager hungriness of their look.

Maybe such city sights fatigue you as they do some people who prefer using a walk for meditation
purposes; then take to the wide open spaces. Don’t protest too soon…. You need not leave the city nor
your job; you can simply take a little time to get out of the streetcar lines and busy-streets, and seek the
fields or the less trodden path of so called civilized life. Walk and think, allowing Nature to soothe your
bruised spirit. Let the swaying grass teach you the beautiful lesson of resilience, of bending to the
inevitable, the wind of circumtance. Let the flower teach you the essential perpetuity of life, and the bird, the
joy of existence. The tree, symbol of dignity and serenity, indifference and aloofness, is to make you see,
with a sense of balance,trivialities for what they are; the little lakes, sometimes mere puddles, full of
tadpoles and fishes and insects, to show you that life sprouts anywhere, that your own, for all its seeming
importance to you, cannot mean so very much in the big scheme of living.

Perhaps you have a problem. Some would-be advisers walk it. Walk it and see it from different angles. Walk it
and see it for the first time against the background of the whole universe. And while walking, says an expert on
the subject, “think tall, pull your chin up and throw your chest forward no matter how heavy a burden you carry
on your shoulder.”

With your sense of proportion restored by quiet deliberation and by the palpable sympathy of Nature all
around you, you strike at one solution, then another. Your judgment, made clear by the classmates brought
about by your walk and your surroundings, becomes sound and wise. You reach a decision, and it is
generally good.

Walk and know yourself. You will be surprised to find out what an enjoyable companion you can be to
yourself. Don’t be like the man who gets so bored being left alone with his thoughts that he has to have a
book with him all the time he is not with people. Books have their place, too and an important place it is, but
so have walking and getting acquainted with yourself. Just thresh out the little doubts you have regarding
this and that, mull over remarks made by your friends or office mates, study the personalities you have
come across during the day. It’s fascinating pastime. And all this while you are taking your constitutional
walk.

Shall we walk this once then, Milady?

My Father's Tragedy
"My Father's Tragedy" is a story written by Carlos Bulosan. The story is about a father and his
children who grow up cockfighting more than being a family.

Carlos Bulosan is known for his non-fiction stories. His books and poems bore unsparing
witness to the racism and hardships Filipinos encountered in their adopted home.

Bulosan's parents were peasants who strived hard living from the land. In his autobiography,
Bulosan described his father's losing battle to keep the small parcel of land that supported their
large family, and the setbacks that continually dashed any hopes for improving their lives. In his
vivid portrayal of his family's poverty, Bulosan captured the forces that ultimately drove him to
seek a better life to the United States.

The story, written in first person, starts with a situation in which many people do not have
enough food to eat that drives farm-dependent families to poverty and hunger, including that of
the narrator, the son. His mother and his sister were the only ones who find ways to put enough
food on their table. His father was in a hopeless situation because no matter how much he tried
to retrieve their family from poverty,series of unfortunate events would happen. After the locusts
which destroyed their field was gone, the whole plantation was burned and they felt that all the
things they've worked on was wasted.

His father focused his attention to his fighting cock hoping for some luck to save them from
poverty. He's constantly exercising his fighting cock and dreaming his time away. Once, he even
teaches his son how to make it stronger and ready for the fight. Then the father draws up a
strategy that will put the family out of famine. Then in the late afternoon the fight was arranged.
The son and his father went home with some hope. The mother was cooking something good.
The whole family ate happily because they haven't eaten chicken for a very long time. The
father ate more than he usually eat then asked his wife where he got the white meat because
the poultry house in the village is empty. The wife answered, "Where do you think I got it?".

Then the father walked out of the house with great agony.

My Father's tragedy is story about bad luck and bad attitude. I think the story is a good start to
learning more about Carlos Bulosan, a satirist, poet, fictionist, essayist, born on Pangasinan,
Philippines. The story is picturing out the reality of some Filipinos who are resorting theirselves
to gambling and getting their children involved as a ticket out of a hard life.

I rate the story as 5 because it depicts reality and showed great lessons in our lives. The
characters had their own identity and all together, the story was transformed into a valuable
sattire.
Person Achievement Adversity

Franklin Four-time President of the United Paralyzed from the waist down
Roosevelt States by polio before running for office.

Winfrey is best known for her multi-

award-winning talk show "The Oprah
Winfrey Show" which was the Winfrey was born into poverty in
highest-rated program of its kind in rural Mississippi to a teenage
history and was nationally single mother and later raised in
syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She an inner-city Milwaukee
Oprah has been ranked the richest African- neighborhood. She experienced
Winfrey American of the 20th century, the considerable hardship during her
greatest black philanthropist in childhood, saying she was raped
American history, and was for a time at age nine and became
the world's only black billionaire. She pregnant at 14; her son died in
is also, according to some infancy.
assessments, the most influential
woman in the world.

Complications his mother

suffered during labor forced her
obstetricians to use two pairs of
Iconic actor, one of most successful forceps during his birth; misuse
actors; wrote and starred in three- of these accidentally severed a
Oscar-winning (ten nominations) nerve and caused paralysis in
Sylvester
Rocky, which became a franchise; parts of Stallone's face. As a
Stallone
starred as iconic John Rambo; got result, the lower left side of his
steps of Philadelphia Art Museum face is paralyzed - including parts
named after him of his lip, tongue, and chin - an
accident which has given
Stallone his snarling look and
slightly slurred speech.

He grew up in near poverty. The

family was dominated by his
Nominated for three Academy
abusive father, whom Cruise has
Awards and has won three Golden
described as "a merchant of
Globe Awards; As of 2012, Cruise is
chaos."; He was beaten by his
Hollywood's highest-paid actor.
Tom Cruise father, who Cruise has said was
Fourteen of his films grossed over
a bully and coward: "He was the
$100 million domestically; twenty
kind of person where, if
have grossed in excess of $200
something goes wrong, they kick
million worldwide.
you. It was a great lesson in my
life--how he'd lull you in, make
 you feel safe and then, bang! For
me, it was like, 'There's
something wrong with this guy.
Don't trust him. Be careful around
him." Tom is 5 feet 7 inches tall
(170 cm).

Leader of the abolitionist movement,

gaining note for his dazzling oratory
and incisive antislavery writing. He
stood as a living counter-example to
Born into slavery, violence, and
Frederick slaveholders' arguments that slaves
separation from his parents;
Douglass did not have the intellectual capacity
taught himself to read
to function as independent American
citizens. Many Northerners also
found it hard to believe that such a
great orator had been a slave.

Films featuring Depp have grossed

over $3.1 billion at the United States
box office and over $7.6 billion
Depp's family lived in over 20
worldwide. He has been nominated
locations, settling in Miramar,
for top awards many times, winning
Fla., when Depp was 7, living in
the Best Actor Awards from the
a hotel until his father found
Golden Globes. He also has
Johnny work. Prone to self-inflicted knife
garnered a sex symbol status in
Depp wounds, Depp started smoking at
American cinema, being twice
12, lost his virginity at 13, started
named as the "Sexiest Man Alive"
doing drugs at 14 and eventually
by People magazine in 2003 and
dropped out of high school at 16;
2009. He has been listed in the 2012
worked as a telemarketer.
Guinness Book of World Records as
the highest paid actor, with $75
million.

Nobel Prize winning physicist;

Couldn't get a job in physics for
created special and general
two years after graduation.
relativity, major contributor to
Albert Worked as assistant patent
quantum mechanics, statesman. His
Einstein examiner, passed over for
great intellectual achievements and
promotion until he "fully mastered
originality have made the word
machine technology".
"Einstein" synonymous with genius.

Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize

E. O.
for General Non-Fiction and a New Blind in one eye.
Wilson
York Times bestseller; Major
 contributor to sociobiology and
evolutionary psychology.

Michael Considered by many the greatest Cut from varsity basketball team
Jordan basketball player of all time. in his sophomore year.

Wrote Man's Search For Meaning,

one of "the ten most influential
Imprisoned at several
books in the United States." At the
Victor concentration camps by Nazis,
time of his death in 1997, the book
Frankl including Auschwitz. His wife and
had sold over 10 million copies and
family were killed by the Nazis.
had been translated into 24
languages.

Gold medal-winning paralympic

medalist in wheelchair rugby, main
Marc Quadriplegic from accident from
figure in Oscar-nominated
Zupan drunk driver.
movie Murderball; guest at White
House, skydived, rock-climbed.

At the age of 43, Bauby suffered

a massive stroke. When he woke
up twenty days later, he found he
Wrote number one best-
Jean- was entirely speechless; he
selling Diving Bell and the Butterfly,
Dominique could only blink. His mouth,
adapted to multiple award-winning
Bauby arms, and legs were paralyzed,
movie.
and he lost 60 pounds (27 kg) in
the first 20 weeks after his
stroke.
 Sanity on Fire
MINXIE
A Declamation Piece?

I wake up.
It's the same bad dream. A house in flames.. and voices.. shrieks.
It has always been the same bad dream! *laughs*

*gasp*

*sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff*

Doctor? *sniff, sniff, sniff* Doctor? Doctor! *sniff, sniff* F-Firemen! I smell the scent of
gasoline in my cell! My cell.. My cell is on fire! I smell smoke! Doctor! Firemen! It's blazing
in here! HEEEEELP--

Oh.

Hi Doctor. I was just playing around so you can come by and.. let me out.
PLEASE! I'm not mad! I'm not mad! I only want to end my life.. Please! LET ME! Please..

Huh?

The doctor's gone. Maybe I just imagined him again. Oh well.

A crowd? So many people! How -- how did you get here?! Who are you?! Who let you in?!
How long have you been watching me here?! *gasp* Oh, I get it now. You've all come here
to rescue me! Is that it? I can't just be imagining all of you here, can I?

Please let me out of here! I'm not insane! I'm not fit to be imprisoned in a filthy cell such as
this! I'm the daughter of a landlord! I can't be here! Please! Please! Please.. I'm Mr.
Kingsleigh's daughter.. Please..

I only have 2 hours 'til the jailer checks the cells.. 2 hours 'til the jailer locks me up
permanently.. 2 hours and.. my family burns in the fire.. Oh, they are screaming! They are
crying for me! PLEASE! I have to save them! Please..

WHAT? How dare! I did not start the fire! It wasn't me! It wasn't me! It wasn't me.. Why
wouldn't anyone believe me? I'm innocent!

Yes, my twin sister and I loved each other more than anything else in the world. Our
similarities never bothered us because it was funny how most people didn't know how to
tell us apart. It was funny until then.. Until then. SHE DID IT! She did it! She.. She did it!
She.. did it. She.. was obsessed with her lover. Unfortunately, mother and father had to
arrange a marriage for her. She was to be married to a landlord for financial reasons.
Yet.. she was with child. Her lover's. Thus mother and father had to get rid of the child
once it's born.
I can still remember the cold little corpse being thrown into the nearby river. OH, IT WAS
HORRIBLE!

My sister became quiet for months, and she cried whenever she received presents from her
fiance. She told me she heard an infant crying every night and she couldn't sleep. She
became distant, lethargic.. At most times, she did not move.

She served us tea one afternoon. She was surprisingly happy then, smiling as she poured
the tea to our cups. Her tea was peculiar, though. Too sweet.. too thick.. It made us dizzy..

*faints*

I wake up. I'm in my room!

*sniff, sniff, sniff*

*gasp* SMOKE! SMOKE! All around me! The house is on fire!

I run to the door. It's locked! "Mommy! Daddy! Elizabeth!" I turn around and find my
window open. I must quickly jump out to ask for help from the neighbors. As I open my
mouth to scream for help, I hear my window being shut. I look back. I see my sister
through the glass. She is smiling.. victoriously.. peacefully.. readily.. horrifyingly! She
begins to burn.. to melt.. Flesh dripping.. darkening.. stripping down.. and slowly eaten by
flames.

The house gradually crumbles right in front of my eyes. I could hardly move because of
what I just learned.

The neighbors approached, bringing buckets of water. I still could not move. My mind
stopped keeping pace with time. All things that moved are speeding past me.. blurry..
surreal. I could hardly hear their running steps.. their consolation.. their accusations. All I
could hear is the crackling and hissing fire! The screams of my parents! I'm gradually
losing touch with reality.

They brought me to my relatives to be taken care of. BUT I DO NOT WISH TO BE TAKEN
CARE OF! The desire to lose this life continues to stain my innocent mind. However, they
keep me from doing it.

Rope tied around my neck, one step from this stool and I shall taste the blissfully deadly
grip that has the power to take me to another world.

One, two, three! GERONIMO! *closes eyes*

*jumps*
*opens eyes*

It did not.. work! Oh for the love of --

The rope is too long!

"Iracebeth? Can I come in? I have your dinner. Um, I'm coming in now Iracebeth."
*sighs* Maybe next time, Rope.

My aunt is looking at me.

Hi aunt. Meet Rope, a friend.

Of course she screamed, and in an hour, men in white came in the house and took me
away.

They imprisoned me in a cell because everyone thought of me as dangerous -- having

burned my own family while watching the house break down and such -- and suicidal.
They tell me I'm on suicide watch and under treatment!

*laughs* HOW STUPID! I'm not mad! Insanity remains to be misunderstood, ladies and
gentlemen! I'm not mad. I'm not mad! I'm not mad! I'M NOT MAAAAAD!!! *screams* My
mother.. She's screaming! My father needs me! Please! Please! Let me out.. Let me out!
They're burning! I have to save them! Please.. I'm not mad.. I'm not mad!

I'M NOT MAAAAAD!!!