On Slaying Dragons and Horcuxes

by Yas Jayson Sunday, August 09, 2009 1 palagay lupang hinirang lupang hinarang pensive bottles

"Some lives are like that. They do not die. They do not die in ways that go beyond their thoughts continuing to influence people, their example continuing to inspire people, their memory continuing to cling to the minds of kin and friends. They do not die in ways not unlike those who are visited daily in their resting places by those who loved them indelibly deeply, who are kept company, who are caressed with words. They do not die because they remain a throbbing reality. They do not die because the detonation of the gigantic solidity of their lives scatters their atoms into the interstices of space, filling it, suffusing it, making themselves part of it. They do not die because they are, in every sense, still there."


- Conrado de Quiros, By way of Goodbye

Philippine Daily Inquirer 08/06/2009

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This is what a hero is – the man, or woman, who is confronted by the choice to do right, and who chooses it, not because of convenience, or power, or vengeance, but because it is right. People did not fill the streets of Edsa with bodies willing to die simply because they hated Marcos. They did because they believed in a woman who stepped forward when she was called, whose very ordinariness made her choice so much more.

Land of the morning, pearl of the east, cradle of the brave. The brave wore yellow in my imagination, yellow dresses and big glasses and had slim white hands. She loomed over my dreams long after Rainbow Brite ran out of magic stars, long after Prince Charming fell off his charger and Arthur stopped being the once and future king. It had all the flavor of magic—the ruthless enemy, the fate of the nation, the bold hero, the pure, white-flamed heroine, and most importantly, the necessary end: good triumphing over evil. And because it was real, it was possible.
Cory Aquino may be dead, but because she lived, I can write this today and believe that even if the dragons are still everywhere, the last dragon slayer is not dead.

-Patricia Evangelista, After Cory
Philippine Daily Inquirer 08/02/2009