A Rare Afternoon

As far as we know, even before creativity was at its zenith, sitting at the feet of scholars or experts in any fields do not evolve in a seemingly suffocating four-walled classrooms alone. Both educators and learners themselves have gone against the tide in the name of education–in aggression–whether or not it was a life-long learning. A casual discussion over lunch and a simple coffee talk are only a few of these examples or, better yet, defiance. I had to go to UP Diliman to meet a professor, a God-fearing man and a genius. For one reason, I thought, to wrap up the upcoming excursion and cultural exposure of the selected youth from Cambodia in October this year here in the Philippines. But it turned out a rare afternoon instead–in a positive and an unexpected way. Before I realized it, I found myself sitting at the feet of a filmmaker, a movie director, a novelist, a musical scorer and a theater enthusiast. Al I had to do was listened attentively and tried to be receptive enough. There were ahs and ohs–when eureka and jaw dropping moments were like unending. Many times they spoke in the language of an alien while I prayed my hardest not to lose my sanity, and prayed for God’s grace to get even a bit of a grasp about what they were trying to deliver. Things they had learned for years and years, they laid down before me in just four hours. That unusual encounter was a gift without a doubt from heaven above.