Wooden Heart

Valentine's Month

The shattering of a heart when being broken is the loudest quiet ever. - 

Carroll Bryant

In early high school, you were either Camp Elvis or Camp Pat Boone.

I belonged to the latter group, but when the other camp idol came up with a pop song in 1961, I quickly reverted my allegiance temporarily.

Wooden Heart was lilting and sounded folksy, not rock-and-rolly. That was probably why I loved it. Interspersed in the English lyrics was this phrasing, Muss i denn, muss i denn zum Städtele hinaus?

Only now, looking it up, did I know that the composition was based on a German folk song. The foreign words translate into, Must I then, must I then, leave this little city, little city, and you, my darling, stay here?

I did empathize with the romantic plea.

Can't you see I love you?

Please, don't break my heart in two

Oh, woe, should that happen.

Then I know that I would cry

Maybe I would die

'Cause I don't have a wooden heart

But come to think of it, it may be sad but sometimes moving on with the rest of your life starts with, Goodbye.

Maybe it's a blessing. A way for you to realize that you were saved from the wrong one.

Or it might just be good for your career.

 

An Affair To Remember

Valentine's Month

True love has a habit of coming back. - Anonymous

Have you seen this movie?

If No, and you have nothing better to do and want to immerse yourself in a sense-assaulting love story, rent it now or search for it in Netflix. It's the 1957 movie An Affair To Remember starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr.

If Yes, and you remember the sappy plot but want to skip it, scroll to the end. However, if mushy is okay with you, let me continue.

Nickie, a well-known playboy, and Terry have a romance while on a cruise from Europe to New York. Despite being engaged to other people, both agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months.

On the day of their rendezvous, Terry is struck down by a car while crossing a street and is gravely injured. Nickie, waiting after many hours and unaware of the accident, leaves, believing that she has rejected him.

The story is relentless as it progresses into a celebration of how not even tragedy could tear asunder the love of the two soulmates.

What hardened soul could not be moved by the final scene where many years after, Nickie pays Terry a surprise visit on Christmas Eve?

Although he tries to coax her to explain her actions, Terry dodges the subject, never leaving the couch on which she lies.

As he is leaving, Nickie mentions a painting on which he had been working when they first met, and that it was just given away to a woman who liked it but had no money.

He is about to say that the woman was in a wheelchair when he pauses, suddenly suspecting why Terry has been lying still on the couch. He walks into her bedroom and sees the painting hanging on the wall, realizing that she was the woman in the wheelchair. 

Cue the gorgeous music score. Get the tissue box out.

What a turn of events! It tosses and turns the emotions. 

Tugging the heart to go for the cheap weep.

The film ends with the two in a tight embrace as Terry says, If you can paint, I can walk. Anything can happen, don't you think?

Aww, did anybody say true love is usually the most inconvenient one? 

  

Loves Me, Loves Me Not

Valentine's Month 

Without Valentine's Day, February would be... well, January. - Jim Gaffigan

Yeah!

Ignore those who say, I'm just waiting for discounted chocolate on February 15th. My plan is to take you on a month-long blog series celebrating Valentine's Month.

Let's do it, shall we?

***

Remember that tingly little feeling you get when you like someone? When you want to be the reason someone looks down at his phone, smiles, and then walks into a post?

And to find out if that person loves you back, you pluck a flower to play the game called, He loves me, he loves me not?

You'd place your finger on one petal, gently pinching its base, pulling down toward the stem. Keeping the object of your affection in mind, you slowly and gently say a phrase.

You move on to the next petal and say the next phrase, and alternately continue the recitation as each petal is taken off.

In the end, as luck would have it, you'd either just picked a human and you're like, Yes! This is the one I'm allowing to ruin my life forever.

Or alas and alack! You feel like your heart had been played, stabbed, burned, broken.

Young love is so ridiculous and it's also hilarious. For when have you ever felt so vulnerable and wonderful and terrible at the same time?

Moonstruck

Talking To The Moon 

The moon is accomplice of all things related to the heart.- Walter Mercado

I had planned on talking about the movie Moonstruck, but I don't really remember much about it.

It is funny, I recall. It stars Cher.

So, I googled it for its cast of moonstruck characters.

First of, there's Loretta Castorini (Cher), a widow in her late 30's. She finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls in love with her fiancé's hot-tempered, estranged younger brother.

There is her wise, cynical mother who goes out to dinner by herself on a moonlit night and meets a middle-age university professor who specializes in seducing his young students, but who has found in this mature woman a certain undeniable sexuality.

There is Cher’s father who has a furtive and yet somewhat sweet affair that he has been carrying on for years.

So, there. Need I say more?

When the moon hits your eye, like a big-a pizza pie - that’s amore!

You're moon·struck.

adjective

unable to think or act normally, especially because of being in love

And so this blog series comes to an end.

Moono

 Talking To The Moon

Only those who look with the eyes of children can lose themselves in the object of their wonder. - Eberhard Arnold

We were in search of something in the Kaneohe sky that night.

Moono.

That was how First Grandson used to call... (could you have guessed it correctly?) ... the moon.

The night was pregnant with stars. But the moon was lost. Lost between clouds. 

Carrying baby boy close to my body, I'd hoist him up sometimes so he could see beyond the rooftops and plumeria trees.

 

Then we caught a glimpse of the moon hovering just above the canopy of coconut palms at the bend of the road.

Until it was in full sight, splashing its pale glow onto us.

Little Grandson pointed at it and crooned, Moono. 

It seemed like the moon followed us everywhere, putting on an elegant show of shape and color. At times, it looked like a mandala.

It never left. It was always there. Watching. Steadfast.

The moon was our loyal companion even as we headed home.

Looking back at it, baby boy muttered in a sleepy haze, Moono.

Then just like that, he was asleep in my arms. His chest moving up and down, his lips puckered soft.

Since then, his growing up has been happening in a heartbeat.

Hasn't it only been a few years back when he romped with Lolo or blew four candles on his birthday cake?

This is baby boy today, towering over us all. 

Bronze Medalist, TransPacific Volleyball Championships. First Grandson, 14 years old. Hawaii Convention Center, Waikiki: January 13-15, 2024

He calls me a midget, but I just smile.

Of all the things my hands have held, I was thinking, You are by far the best.

One whom I love to the moono and back.

No Longer A Baby, Our Moono Boy

   

I'll Be Seeing You

Talking To The Moon 

... And when the night is new, I'll be looking at the moon but I'll be seeing you. - Song Lyrics recorded by Bing Crosby, 1944

Do you feel woozy every time your object of affection passes by your desk in class? Do you swoon with delirious happiness whenever he says as much as, Hi?

Well, guess who's having a crush?

Pimply teen me in second year high school.

A fallen victim to that wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart which weakens the brain, causes eyes to sparkle, cheeks to glow, blood pressure to rise, and the lips to pucker.

Impish, youthful love.

That was when I woke up in the morning and went to school, just so I could see his face.

It was that time when I'd spend hours trying to find one imperfection, and I just couldn't find any.

It was when I'd hear a song on the radio, and looking up at the moon as the single most romantic place in the galaxy, I'd hum the tune, 

I'll be seeing you... All day through 

... thinking about him with Every.Single.Word.

It may be that the moon was looking upon many night flowers, and the night flowers saw but one moon.

But for me, that eventide, I looked at the moon and was only seeing you. (Sigh...)

In hindsight, how pathetically adolescent.

Silvery Moon

Talking To The Moon

The moon was a warm milky glow in the sky, as if the sight of it could become a song in the eyes of anyone willing to raise their head upward. - Angela Abraham

Among Auntie Lucy's suitors, Mr. Mendez was my favorite.

He was kind and gentle.

More importantly, he had a car.

Whenever he visited, I remember that I'd pat my plaited hair neatly, smoothen out my dress, and put on my chinelas (slippers). Then, dragging First and Second Brothers, I'd advise my Mum, 'Mie, punta kami sa kabila (we're going next door) and run the few steps to Lolo Gorio's house.

Why?

Because I knew that Mr. Mendez would be taking us all on a ride along Dewey Boulevard. 

The area was a popular waterfront promenade. Running along the shores of Manila Bay, it was well known for its sunsets and stretch of coconut trees.

I didn't know why, but every time we did this ride, we'd belt out:

By the light of the silvery moon

I want to spoon

To my honey, I'll croon love's tune

Perhaps, it was the grace of the white-gold moon that made us sing.

Honey moon, keep a-shinin' in June

Your silvery beams will bring love's dreams

We'll be cuddlin' soon

By the silvery moon

Maybe it was its glow.

Its magic. 

The wonder.