YOUR reach should be beyond your grasp

For what is heaven for?

-- M quoting Mr. Cabrera quoting some forgotten writer

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For me, Cagayan de Oro has ways to go yet to being the best city in the Philippines. It reminds me a lot of Cebu when the downtown area was still the hot spot. My visits there are often by chance and don’t last for more than an hour. At best, it’s a stopover on the way to Davao or wherever in Mindanao.

One time though, on our way home from Camiguin, a friend and I decided to stay overnight and a day to explore the place.

First thing it did to me was greet me with catcalls at the pier.

My gutsy friend Ann was ready to go into a fistfight just to defend my honor and my very skimpy orange shorts (well, I just came from a very hot beach, didn’t I?). Next thing it did was swallow my money as I tried to withdraw from the monstrous ATM about 2 blocks away from VIP hotel. Up to now, I don’t think I’ve completely forgiven Cagayan yet for the harassment and inconvenience.

My sexy cousin Maya-babes though sees Cagayan beyond such trivialities. For her, it stands for something else -- freedom, independence and a new lease on life.

Her decision to leave her husband and a thriving business in Davao del Sur – her home for more than 30 years, to follow a dream was not an easy one. After chasing answers to a life-altering question as far as northern Luzon for months, she’s finally found the light, went back and settled in Cagayan.

Why Cagayan of all places? Well, she says, at least it’s not too far from home yet far enough to disappear to for awhile. To grow, she wants time out from the familiar, the ready clutches and constricting buzz of a comfort zone.

Brave, M said.

Foolish, some would say.

Go on, the heart says.

So she went, searched for and rented her own house. After more than a decade, she decided to go back to school and enrolled at the top university in the area. Getting into the college course she wanted was not as simple as she thought. But life has taught her that nothing good is ever really simple. So, in her natural way, she just eased out a sexy shrug, straightened her spine and started plotting how she’s going to create a door when there isn’t one for the moment. Come what may, she’s going to reach for that star. And, for better or worse, she’s chosen Cagayan to bring her there.

I have my own stars and heaven to reach for. But somehow, even after all those places, I’ve yet to find and chase my own Cagayan, elusive as it is.

Perhaps, heeding Maya’s call for a visit might just point me in the right direction.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on June 19, 2010.

3.

books

LEGO: A Love Story

THE unofficial LEGO Museum lies hidden in Bellaire, Ohio, with millions of plastic bricks sculpted into everything from robotic bands to Dirk Nowitzki to a goat on a lifeguard tower.

A secret set vault slumbers beneath a hidden panel in the original house of LEGO founder Ole Kirk Christiansen in Billund, Denmark. An eleven-foot LEGO replica of a speedboat teeters on a rickety wooden dock in Seattle, Washington, threatening to plunge and sink into the Pacific Ocean as five men struggle to keep it balanced. And in the Kansas City, Missouri, home of Jonathan Bender, a massive Star Wars LEGO set leans against the wall in a vacant room.

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Jonathan comes face-to-face with all of these scenes as he explores the obsessive and diverse subculture of adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs), walking the line between art and commerce, play and Serious Play, and fantasy and real life, hoping to learn how the plastic brick of our childhoods inspires us as adults.

Awakened from the “Dark Ages” – that period of time when LEGO bricks are forgotten in a childhood closet – Bender rekindles his dream of becoming a master model builder, putting his skills to the test at adult fan conventions around the country. Here he meets fans who design their own sets, customize minifigures (LEGO people) to resemble superheroes and movie characters, and amass collections that number in the hundreds of thousands of bricks. Bender also recruits his wife – the furniture builder in their household – to build alongside him, attempting to fill the child-size void in their lives. As their home slowly fills up with LEGO bricks, the spare bedroom swings between build room and potential nursery. Immersed in a toy-centric world without children, LEGO: A Love Story is ultimately about what it takes to build a family.

LEGO: A Love Story explores what happens when the imagination of your childhood intersects with your life as an adult.

Jacket art by Nathan Sawaya, a New York–based artist who creates awe-inspiring works out of some of the most unlikely things. His work has been featured in collections across the country. His most recent North American museum tours feature large-scale sculptures using only LEGO bricks.