Ariel

Call Of The Sea

This blog extensively uses song lyrics of Part Of Your World from The Little Mermaid movie.

Look around the wonders of her cavern. 

You may think, Isn't this collection complete? Wouldn't you think she's the girl who has everything?

After all, she's got gadgets and gizmos aplenty. 

And whooz-its and whatz-its galore. 

Plus twenty thingamabobs.

But who cares? Ariel, the mermaid princess in the 1989 cinematic classic movie, cries out,  I want more.

As we have known all along, that more is wanting to be human. 

To be where the people are. 

To see them walking around on those, Whadd'ya call 'em? Oh- feet.

So she makes a deal with an evil sea witch to get her wish, but she loses her beautiful voice in the process and must be kissed by her true love to get it back. 

Gasp...

The love story that ensues is very touching.

To relive the fantasy, watch it now. 

Watch it again.

Explore the ocean below.

Make a splash with Ariel and be part of her world.

Splash

Call Of The Sea 

Seas the day. - Unknown

You may remember The Little Mermaid, a fairy tale written by Christian Andersen in 1836.

It is about a youthful mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the ocean and her status to acquire a human heart and win the love of a human prince.

A fantasy narrative at its finest. The one that started it all. You know, all the naiad and water nymph stories.

And just when you thought all possible plot lines had been explored... 

... Hollywood comes up in 1984 with the movie Splash in a modern retelling.

Except only better.

The movie is a hoot. Rambunctious and funny. A fishy tall tale that has sex and some cursing.

Check out this early scenario. A girl shows up naked at the Statue of Liberty. 

She can, it appears, metamorphose from a mermaid into a human. She has a tail when she's wet, but it turns into legs when she's dry. 

For Allen Bauer, it is love at first sight. 

Now, everyone is chasing her, trying to prove she's a mermaid. 

The film is a perfectly light, warmly hilarious romantic comedy. I was hooked from the first laugh. Imagine Madison (that's what she says her name is), totally ignorant about all the ways of civilization and eating lobsters, shell and all.

You'd have to watch the movie for the ending (or watch it again, if you had forgotten). 

I promise, it will be an aquacade of myth and chuckles, glimmering like moonlit tide.  

Sometimes, life can be overwhale-ming.

Why not make a splash and catch the movie, perhaps at the dive-in?

Mermaid At Heart

Call Of The Sea

My nose is red, my flipflops are blue

I love the beach, how about you? - Anonymous

(Left): I Was Born, From a Personal Storyboard.

 Honolulu: 2019

(Right): Six-month Curly Head after a bath.

Photo: V.E.V. Columbus: 2012 

I just know there's something about her. 

As a toddler, she would draw a small dot on her Etch a Sketch and show me. When I asked her what it was, she said, A bug.

Growing up, she would cut up little sheets and make a book. Then painstakingly create a picture story.

In her sketch books, she had made many drawings of cuddly bears and unicorns and dolphins and whales.

When she was seven, First Granddaughter interviewed me for a class assignment. Including a photo was optional. After looking at all pics with the two of us together, she chose this picture. After Sunday Service, Central Union Church.

Last year, coming home from a week-long summer art class, she had lugged along a booklet that was entitled Isela's Sea. Both for Artist's Name and Pictures By, she had written down her name.

It was a joyous depiction by someone who loves the sea. 

Of a blue whale whom she seems to counsel, Don't listen to them. I think you're fintastic.

Of a red crab with protruding eyes whom she encourages with, You're great to have around in a pinch.

Of a green turtle who makes her giggle with his joke, What do mermaids sleep on? ... Water beds!

Altogether they celebrate a life with no troubles, a life that is the bubbles, under the sea.

And the crowning glory of it all? 

A mermaid with a green-jeweled shell flower on her hair, a starfish on her hand.

What I find the most incredible thing behind all this... 

…. is the heart of a young artist who dreams of the ocean and the wild salt air.

One who makes me feel that, yeah, some days you just wanna put on some sparkly fins, be a mermaid, and go live under the flippin' sea. 

Just look at this photo. She has always been a mermaid at heart, seemingly wondering, Have I dreamt I am a mermaid. Or am I a mermaid dreaming I am me?

Cutest Little Mermaid. First Granddaughter, four years old. Photo: V.E.V., Honolulu: December 2016

She turns ten today. My beautiful First Granddaughter.

She calls herself a fish. 

At the moment, she's probably snuggled within her underwater world, maybe playing in the waves, or simply dreaming about the treasures of the deep. 

But beware, intruders. Flounder guards the cave... er... room... where she dwells.

Come out already, dear one!

Let the sun kiss your cheeks and receive mermaid kisses and starfish wishes on your especial day. 

May the current carry you - 

Let you dance with the waves,

Move with the sea.

May the rhythm of the water set your soul free.

Dyesebel

Call Of The Sea 

Growing up is such a barbarous business, full of inconvenience… and pimples. - J.M. Barrie

I was a comic book nut.  

Friday afternoons, I would wait for the hawker's voice, plying the latest edition of Tagalog Klasiks. I loved its stories of magic and dragons.

I grew up on the hilarious antics of Kenkoy, scary bouts with the tikbalang, and adventures of super-heroines like Darna.

But my most favorite of all? Dyesebel.

She was half-maiden and half-fish, both mysterious and enchanting. Like fairies, she had magical powers. She loved music and often sang.

I was enthralled that she had the ability to breath underwater. I would imagine her many exciting exploits.

Like when she fell in love with the human Fredo.

I think she was sunning on a rock and he just happened to be passing by. 

He smiled and she smiled back at him with unguarded pleasure. No words needed to be uttered aloud. It was a companionable silence, not the silence of strangers but of lovers who knew each other intimately enough that words weren't necessary when the moment spoke for itself.

Sigh... 

Snuggled in a rattan hammock under our balkon, comic book in one hand and a pan de sal in the other, I remember how I would savor each episode, smiling coyly. I was mouthing the words without making a sound as I read on.

And how I would whisper in protest when the episode ended with, Itutuloy (To be continued).

(Spoiler alert): In the end, Dyesebel became a human permanently, and she and Fredo got married.

In my youth, I hadn't realized it, as I do now. 

Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.

It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. 

Perhaps, even through the rear end of a mermaid's tail fins.

Cheers To You, Jach!

 Inside every older person is a younger person - wondering what the hell happened? - Cora Harvey Armstrong

Most of my days right now are like this, the air thin and eager, with something in it sad and familiar. I feel a pang - a strange and inexplicable pang of homesickness for old joys and memories. 

Suddenly, I want to go back and be in all the places I'd ever been, every street I'd walked down, every room I'd sat down in. I want to see it all again. 

School Valedictorian, 12 years old.
Quirino Elementary, Quezon City: 1957

That's why when birthdays come around, I go for nostalgia, the lump in the throat, the tear in the eye, the tug in the heart. I try to remember, flipping through old family photos and mementoes that amplify good memories.

Like these ones.

(Left): High School Grad, 16 years old. (Right): High School Diploma, Original Document. UP: 1961

Left: Birthday celebration, Columbus, 2021.
Right: After-lunch drink on Waikiki Beach, 2022

But enough of the past. You can't change it.

Forget about the future. You can't predict it.

Enjoy now, for there is no time like the present.

So, here's to you, Jach.

You're like fine wine. 

Aged.

Indeed.

Sophisticated. 

Not sure.

Full-bodied. 

Alexa is still thinking about that.

Lunch from Olay's Thai Lao Cuisine, DoorDash birthday gift from First Daughter and Son-In-Law, 2022

Chocolate banana bread dessert, Roy's Eating House, Waikiki, 2022

Happy Hour has never been happier. Roy's, 2022

Whatever. However.

May the fleas of a thousand dogs infest the crotch of those who screw your day, and may their arms be too short to scratch.

 Let your especial day be filled with joy... and wine!

Shine On!

Light Up Your Life

Home isn’t where you’re from, it’s where you find light when all grows dark. - Pierce Brown

You already know I'm 'extra.' 

It’s just the way I am.

I like to overdo anything.

My daughters say I'm obsessed. Hubby says I'm over the top. They're right.

If I had my way, I'd serve double entrees, triple desserts, and mac/potato salad/ bread for carbs all at the same time at parties. 

I'd fling open all double doors to create a welcoming gesture to guests. 

And most of all, I like to light up the house at night like there is no tomorrow.

Why? 

To me, pitch darkness is a scene that looks sad. I don't like it when the night sky is dark, with no moon to light the way. Or when only a sliver of moon rises, just enough to cast long shadows across the empty street.

So it is that lighting up my life and every conceivable corner of our house has become a lifelong pursuit.

Marquee lights outline the top of the free-standing partition between the dining room and the kitchen (left).

On the corner of the dining area are potted bamboo stalks and a bush with bright white LED lights (right).

The railway up the stairs and on the balcony of the second floor that overlooks the living room is festooned with a series of tiny bulbs embedded in rope lighting.

When night calls, visible through the glass walls is the full glory of the deck's lighting, casting a nice glow over the shadows blanketing the English ivy. It shines upon the lilac branches leaning in toward the house, I imagine because the house is bright inside and the lilac craves the light, like bugs.

Isn't this such a happy scenery, dreamy and malleable? 

The night may descend around me with flat and complete blankness. The sky outside may be ink black and moonless, but our home will glow.

Radiant.

Filled with vibrance.

And moments that twinkle.

Festival Of Lights

Light Up Your Life

Light up the darkness. - Bob Marley

Have you ever considered how water retains the memory of all that is reflected in its surface and takes it and holds it in its depths? And how the deeper the water, the more it can retain, including your vision, and mirror it back to you?

I know. 

That's deep thought.

Despite my measly understanding, however, I've developed a fascination for that eerie imagery of light reflected on water, or more accurately, of light floating on water.

That was why when I heard about the Shinnyo-en Festival of Lights, I was all ears.

Each summer in Japan, people commemorate the memory of loved ones by releasing lanterns decorated with special names and symbols into local rivers and lakes.

Perhaps one day, I could witness and take this journey of light. 

When I do, I can imagine how beautiful that nocturnal atmosphere could be. 

I can see myself standing at the edge of the water just out of reach of the waves that lap at the shore. 

Above, the stars will be numerous, the sky looking like a navy blue fabric covered in thousands of polka dots.

I'd stare out at the ocean looking like the ship, just over the horizon, that I'd been waiting for all my life.

It would perhaps be a moment of recognition.

A discovery of the light within myself. 

A light that will lead me on the path towards love.

Joy.

And peace.