Simple Pleasures

A friend asked me recently why do I seem always happy and I was kinda lost as to what to say.

It is true that my bouts of sadness and depression have been so far in between that I can only remember the major ones such as the death of my dad and uhm, the death of my dad.

Even my so-called heartaches did not really get me down except for a couple of hours of emotive talks with friends. Of course there were a few tears here and there, a moment of a faraway look and some heaviness in the chest not caused by growing boobs. But these were also still sprinkled with smiles and jokes.

Then there are matters like extrajudicial killings and abuses against migrant workers. While they make me sad, I feel more angry and indignant about these stuffs to the point of strangling General Palparan until he chokes out what he has done to victims of enforced disappearances; or force abusive employers, recruiters and government officials who treat migrant workers like dirt to be a domestic helper for a day and see how far they can go until they cry uncle.

Am I just too carefree? Or maybe, I’m just the kind of guy who finds it easy enough to get pleasure anywhere. And I don’t mean cruising spots.

When I was a kid, I used to get happiness just from watching tadpoles inside a bottle turn into frogs. Pleasure with an ewww. Or just lying down under the stars on these colorful folding beds with my cousins during power outages while playing “bugtungan”.

Also, I used to be satisfied with just sitting around with these other kids under a tree waiting for the scorching sun to lay off a bit while one of my friends sang this commercial combo: “Palmolive shampoo … Shower to Shower … Ovaltine!”.

As a grown up and all, I still take pleasure in anything at least once a day.

Like three nights ago with the beckies to celebrate the birthday of a friend over drinks and talks of the mundane and the profound.

Or the other night when me and my housemates sat til 2:30 am watching a Spanish movie with teenie weenie subs. But because it was a horror film, I did not really mind not getting the drift of each dialogue for as long as I jumped out of my seat at the right moment.

Or yesterday morning when I overslept and thus caught the showing of The Ultimate Avengers on TV. In the afternoon, I sat listening to a mixed playlist of favorite singers speckled with Regina Spektor songs that I found weirdly good but, since I was working, I couldn’t be bothered as to think about why so.

Or now that I’ve finally finished writing something for this blog instead of just thoughts driving around my head without any direction at all.

Some may call it shallow. But with all the bull and a-holes in the world, simple pleasures from what I do and how I live are just the things I need to go on.

I’m happy just sitting here drinking my coffee and smoking my yosi. Heck, if GMA is ousted, I’ll be too freakin’ happy it’ll make everyone’s teeth hurt. Simple enough eh?