Magdalena Zialcita Tomas

None of us had seen Maggie Zialcita Tomas for years. Then late last month, Yoling Capistrano Sevilla bumped into her at a party. Turns out Maggie is related by marriage to Yoling's husband, Boy. There was an exchange of email addresses, and now she's part of our egroup.

Maggie has sent us her picture, which got the following comment from Yoling: "Maggie looks even more gorgeous in person. Her photo does not do her justice. Plus, her signature walk (Let's do the Maggie :-) looks even more appealing with her fuller figure. (Note I only said fuller, did not add rounder - heh, heh!)."

We've got to see for ourselves. So, Maggie, we do hope to see you at the next class reunion.

The Coffee Table Book

Some of you may ask. What is this CTB that we're talking about?

Several months ago, while discussing ideas on how we can get members of our high school class to participate in our Ruby Jubilee celebration in 2010, some of our classmates (Des, Myrna, Loily and Emi) came out with the idea of making a coffee table book (CTB). In the next class meeting, we decided to take this up as a class project.

Objectives
We hoped that in the process of putting the book together, we would touch base with classmates whom we had not heard from for a long time, and inform them of what's happening to members of our class. We would also get to know our classmates better, and get involved in a project where we could all work together, even if we are so far away from each other. And have fun doing it.

As we get in touch with old classmate, broken friendships can be renewed and old hurts can be healed. The output will be a book in a format which we can put on a coffee table, which will make us misty eyed when we thumb through it.

Ideas
None of us knew what it would be like, but here were some suggestions:

We'd devote a page or two to each classmate
An active classmate would look for or research on a non-active classmate
We shall include poems, short stories, pictures, recipes, etc.
We'll talk about "then" and "now"
We'll emphasize on what the person is, and not on what she does or has accomplished.

Timetable
By the end of 2005, we hope to have updated our class directory and identify who will take care of writing on whom
By the end of 2006, we shall have established contact with the person or persons we're in charge of, and more or less know what her page(s) shall include
By mid 2007, final drafts are done
The whole year of 2008 will be devoted to putting the book together, including artwork and editing
The book will go to print in 2009
in time for our homecoming in 2010.

As first assignments: Des would be local coordinator, while Myrna would be US Coordinator. Ampy, Dada and Vinchu were to update the directory, and Yoling would do the initial financials.

Des, Myrna and Loily started their creative juices running and started to write poems, Yoling did her research and figured out all we could afford would be a book with mostly black and white pages.

Ampy, Dada and I started updating our directory, and the rest of us started looking for our classmates.

Since then, after a long long time, we've "found" Yoly Batungbakal Roxas, June Torrejon Rufino, and Maggie Zialcita Tomas. Our egroup has grown to abour 30 members, and we have the email addresses of 60 classmates. Juanita Acosta Inton has answered our email and Yoly, Maggie, and Linda Barretto have joined our egroup. And we're only three months into the project (which we have five years to prepare for).

This blog was first meant to be a depository of all the things we hope to include in the book, but it shall also be the journal of our class as we anticipate our Ruby Jubilee.

To Let It Begin With SSC-1970

Des was so moved after hearing Fr. Danny Huang's reflection at the community mass in Ateneo last Sunday in honor of St. Ignatius that she couldn't sleep that night, she had to write the letter below.

July 31, 2005, Sunday

To My Dear Classmates of SSC HS 70,

Today, at the Feast day mass in honor of St. Ignatius de Loyola at the Ateneo High School Covered Court, I was deeply moved by the homily of Fr. Danilo Huang, S.J., Father Provincial of the Jesuits in the Philippines. This very young and energetic priest articulated 3 points in line with the gospel of Matthew on the multiplication of the loaves and fish -- the reality in the Philippines today, the Jesuits in the Philippines and St. Ignatius.

He cited that in a recent Catholic Identity Survey that the Jesuit Order in the Philippines commissioned, some interesting findings were highlighted. Respondents to the survey were faculty and students in the various provincials like Ateneo de Davao, Ateneo de Zamboanga, Xavier in Cebu, etc. The questions posed were: Would you prefer to be a Filipino Citizen or a Foreign Citizen? To which majority still opted for nationalism (85 -90%). But, to the query as to whether they wanted to work here or abroad --- 58 to 60+% already preferred the latter.

The sensing in these findings was that there was a pervasive feeling of "lack" such as lack of opportunities. This resonates in the present statistics of our SSC HS Class of 1970. A head count among us will show that there are more classmates abroad than here in the Philippines. And the diaspora has become more intense with the compounding crises each generation of leaders saddles the nation with.

It goes deep into the history of our multi-colonized country. It goes wide from the peculiar geography of separated islands to a babel of dialects and cultural divisiveness. Just consider that the Manilenos have more in common with the Los Angelenos in America than our Muslim brothers in Basilan.

And so, back to the gospel of the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish feeding a huge crowd of at least 5,000 hungry people. Jesus turned human impossibility to Divine Possibility. Perhaps His disciples were incredulous but they obeyed him anyway when he told them to get the few loaves and a couple of "palaman."

And so how, do we find a glimmer of hope in the analogy of the Philippine problem with the Ignatian way of addressing the situation.

Also in 3 ways. First, look up to God. As St. Ignatius said, when he goes up on the rooftop and looks up to the night sky as he was wont to do, he realizes how small the world is. A deep faith in God's power and might emboldens us. Second, see our giftedness and not our limitedness or lack. We should focus on our resources and talents which then brings us to the third part which is to SHARE it with a "thankful heart.".

And so, we ask God to break our resources and talents and multiply it for His greater glory. (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam)

As the survey showed Filipinos still want to keep their citizenship because they still passionately love the Philippines. But, the lack of opportunities brought about by the inequitable distribution of wealth and the victory of the exploitative forces in society has driven Filipinos to foreign shores to get a better deal.

The third question of the survey was --"Do you believe that there is still hope.?" I will not tell you the result of this one.

All I can say is, if we lose hope, we would have lost to the forces of darkness. They say it is darkest before the dawn. Let's light our candles again like we did many times before. In the First Quarter Storm of the 70's; in the Twilight of Democracy in '86; in the Struggle Against Decadence in 2002 and now in the Destructive Divisiveness of 2005.

Let us mend and heal. Let us remain united.

In Christ's Peace and Love,

Dess Allanigue Madsen