Si isn’t like the Bob Ong books I’ve read in the past. Gone were the comical words with satirical context. Gone were the portrayals and constant references to the society where we exist. Instead, I’ve read about love, hope and faith, the two sides of these three, and the power of both sides to make or break the person within us.
Love is the most powerful thing ever existed on the face of the earth. No, you can’t touch it, nor you can see it. It’s the only kind of ideal matter that gives you a thousand more feelings. The feeling of being able to soar up the skies and live your dreams. The feeling of being able to conquer and defeat anything that tries to break you and put you down. The feeling of being able to give everything you have, despite your weakness and incompleteness. It is only love that makes you recognize the missing piece of yourself despite your wholeness. It fills you up even if you’re already adequate, yet you’d never be more than enough.
Love is also the most destructible thing that was given to mankind. It makes you set aside the things you’ve been holding close all your life, just to numb the pain and un-feel the things it made you feel. It sucks all your strength — the strength to believe that you’d be whole again, the strength to even stand up and cope with the wounds brought about by your broken heart. It leaves you completely empty, maybe except for bitterness and regret. And these two will haunt you until they eat you up inside and decide for the inevitable.
But then there’s hope. It’s the crack in the dark of doubts and fears. It fuels your soul and gives you the desire to stand up and decide to live again. It gives you the will start again, to try again and to take back the things that were once yours. It mends the broken person within you, and help you recognize the person that was once you. It provides you the strength to create bigger and better things with what was left in your hands. For the hundredth time, it finally convinced you that everything will be better this time around.
But then hope becomes evil. It gives you false pretenses. It feeds your mind with the things that are unreal. It shows you only the good side of things. And no matter how big your hope is, reality seeps in. Hope deflates, and the next thing you know, you’re once again wounded and broken.
But maybe that’s why you have to have faith. Because come what may, faith is something you could count on. Always. No matter how ugly the things around you, faith makes you see the good side of it. And it’s all and enough to keep you going, to make you try again, make you hope again, and to make you love again. And maybe, just maybe, faith is all you need.
So yeah, this Bob Ong masterpiece has become more than just my entertainment. Si became my tangible manifestation of the main purpose of why I continue to blog. Life cannot be measured by its entirety, but by the little moments that happen along the way. The little discoveries, the unexpected meet-ups, the goodnight kisses, and the laughter over silly things are what makes life worth reading and living for. And these little things put us to the true test of how far our faith can go, and how big can we hope in the name of love.