keeping the faith

september 24, 2007, 4:00 – 7:00 pm
araneta coliseum

dugong bughaw
puso
believe
forever
the sixth man
it’s the school we choose

fourth quarter, we lead 71 to 70 with four seconds left. the ball inbounds, is caught, is passed, the player takes aim, he shoots, he scores. we trail by one point (72 to 71). one second left to the game. the sea of blue balloons is stilled, defeat imminent. the yellow sea erupts in celebration. it’s all over. throw in the towel. do better in game 2. start moving and beat the crowd going to the parking lot.

nothing left to lose anyway.

or so we thought.

one second left on the clock, a 12-year old san miguel play is recycled. one second left on the clock, the ball inbounds, is caught, is thrown and – miracle of miracles – GOES THROUGH THE HOOP! in less time than it took the crowd to blink, we had won the game.

chaos. celebration. hugging people you don’t know. winning in such a magnificent way. there is no greater feeling than this.

keeping the faith is what this game is all about.

can’t wait for game 2.

september sorrow

this will be the second international coastal clean up i will miss.

i've hung up my beautiful bcd, packed and ziplocked my purple and black wetsuit, sold my pelican and mosquito, and lost all my dive logs. i haven't been in the sea in 15 months. and i have a funny feeling i never will again.

my memories of my last dive have begun to get fuzzy around the edges. i remember it was an unusually bright day for june. i remember we went to all my favorite dive sites and got to swim with swarms of my favorite little orange fish. i remember thinking to myself, at 85 feet deep amidst clouds of fish of every imaginable color, i can stay here forever.

if i had known that it would be my last time there, i would have written about it sooner.