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Sunday, December 28, 2003
Estremera: A different clock
By Stella A. Estremera
Spider's Web
There on the pier I discovered Middle-Earth; imagining that the faraway Mt. Bulusan, that somehow almost always had clouds darkening its peak, was Mordor "where the shadows lie." That was 21 years ago, a lifetime for the young ones, when each book cost P52.
CLOCKS, they're there to keep time. There's a whole bunch of them, including the biological clock that just ticks away sans lithium batteries, making menfolk have higher hairlines and womenfolk have wider butts.
There's one more that keeps time for me aside from the tick-tocking and biological clocks. These ones, however, don't bring the panic associated with a ticking clock and the depressing thought of aging that a biological clock tags along. This one just brings memories of worlds visited and enjoyed in the years past. They're called books.
*****
My muse was missing and writing was such an effort. I decided to catch a wink while it's gone, hoping I'd find it in my dreams.
As has become my habit, I settled down on the couch in front of the television and searched for National Geographic. That's how I put myself to sleep in the office when overnight work becomes too much.
The program on, however, was the same program I watched several hours before and it was just starting. And so I flicked on, channel surfing, until the screen was filled by the face of Gandalf the Gray.
HBO was showing J.R.R Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring and it has just started.
I settled back down on the couch, forgetting about sleep and scared myself anew with images of the Ringwraiths, Sauron's eye, Saruman, and the Orcs and getting elated everytime I see Gandalf.
I finally convinced myself to go back to work when Frodo and his friends reached Rivendell and Frodo woke up to see Gandalf beside him.
Nothing was more difficult to do that night. I wanted to watch, but deadline bells were tolling, reminding me that I'd soon be dead if I didn't haul my butt off from the couch to my chair in front of the computer.
Still, I spent several minutes reminiscing how I first fell in love with Tolkien's fantasy world.
*****
It was the summer of 1982 and I have just saved enough money to buy the trilogy.
I wanted to read the whole lot immediately but I saved the treat for a very leisurely reading on my week-long vacation in Sorsogon; holding on to my patience by chanting The Lord of the Rings verse... "One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them."
With no one of my age to hang out with in my aunts' home, I soon found my way to the pier where I settled down to read for hours on end, only going home when the sun already set and I could no longer read the words in the book.
There on the pier I discovered Middle-Earth; imagining that the faraway Mt.
Bulusan, that somehow almost always had clouds darkening its peak, was
Mordor "where the shadows lie."
That was 21 years ago, a lifetime for the young ones, when each book cost P52.
I've been collecting all Tolkien books since then, the last one being The Lost Road that cost P229.50 almost ten years ago.
I haven't checked on the present-day Tolkien books in the bookstores. I don't want them to taunt me about how much they cost now.
Somehow though, my books keep reminding of those fun and sometimes agonizing days called college. One huge tome measuring 8.5" x 11" and 3 inches thick is doing such everyday: The Time-Saver Standards for Building Types, one of the several hardbound books required for architecture students then that we lugged around with our 24"x36" drawing boards, 36" long t-squares, and taped three-Pringles long cannister that served as our tracing paper container. (There were no colored plastic Staedtler tracing paper cannisters then. We had to make our own using Pringles cannisters and just jazzing these up with gift wrappers and plastic cover and designing a sling to hang it on our shoulders).
I saved for several months to buy this tome and thought it cost a fortune. That fortune that I thought it was in 1981 was the grand sum of P170. Now I use it as a "pillow" in the office; tucked below the cushion to make it soft.
So much for fortune, so much for age... And guess what? Another year is coming. Now, I'm wondering how much the sixth Harry Potter book would cost once it's off the press having had to shell out P1,400 for the last one. And to think I once thought P170 was a fortune! Tick-tock...
e-mail: ikik@myway.com
(December 28, 2003 issue)
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