a question to you guys: if you could live any life you wanted to live, what would that look like?

reply from sinta:
how i would like to see my life... i would like to help shape society the way an architecht can change a skyline... so i'd love to continue work at the aclu like i did in nyc this summer or at the ford foundation. and i'd like to continue having sports/dance in my daily life for the rest of my life because i think there's a great correlation between physical health to mental/emotional health. and i'd like to always have time to indulge in writing and crocheting :)

(gotta go. little puppy beckons to be played with!)

ALTO? what do you think? an interesting code word that we can throw around if we find ourselves around the family... hah hah. by the way, i can change the address of the blog from tablang.blogspot.com to something else. unfortunately, alto.blogspot.com is taken.

recommended book i've been reading: if you want to write by brenda ueland. a quote:

at last i understood from william blake and van gogh...writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that i myself had. not to preach to them, but to give it to them if they cared to hear it. if they did not - fine.

when i learned this i could write freely and jovially and not feel contracted and guilty about being such a conceited ass; and not feel driven to work by grim resolution, by jaw-grinding ambition to succeed, like some of those success-driven business men who, in their concern with action and egoistic striving, forget all about love and the imagination, and become sooner or later emotionally arthritic and spiritually as calcified and uncreative as mummies (i understand these things because i have experienced them...)

yes, it has made me like working to see that writing is not a performance but a generosity.

hi guys,
first off, please pray for DJ, bridgette's sis, who's having complications from her pregnancy. how is she doing now?

ok, now to the subject of my email. you guys are a special group of people in the family. whether you would like to participate or not, i have deemed you a group worthy of "naming" via this email.

you may wonder why so grand an intro. as you know, in our family there's been a growing sub-group of those who refuse to do the med school thing. or you are still on the edge of embarking on your journey. each of you i've been emailing separately over a few years about the same tablang issues - doing what you love and being who you really are vs. doing what family wants us to do. or it's been a subtext.

personally, i had been on the brink of re-applying to med school and all that. i have decided (as some of you know) to say, yes, FUCK med school !!! hell no, I won't go!!! no way!!! no more brainwashing !!! ha ha!

of course, not bashing our relatives who have supported us in many ways - or not - who are medical professionals. but the point is, i think we ought to have a strong a presence in the family.

anyway, i got this idea that it would be great to get together with you, my brilliant literary, artistic, liberal cousins once a year, or every other in some inspiring destination. and, if one of us cannot afford it, that we'd sponsor someone on our trip. i will be going to paris (my 3rd time) to celebrate my newfound freedom, and to write. it'd be great for my 4th time to be with you guys. or we could go to spain like barcelona, or even the philippines... m.jopie and i had an amazing time in bohol a couple years ago, and i'd LOVE to go back.

also, i thought of experimenting with a blog where we can post on to update the others. you can find it an example at my blog, http://minan.blogspot.com. you can write as bizarrely as i tend to at times or just update on your life... whatever you want. i found you can have many people contribute to one blog, for free through my site provider blogspot, a really nice feature.

tell me what you think of that! i hope you will think that's a great idea. we don't have to do anything about it right now, just something to think about. i know that when i go away to places with friends who live and think as intensely as i know all of you do, it motivates me more to live more and love more.

if there's anyone else who you think should be included, let me know.

finally, let me know what you guys are up to! please reply all on the email - or post it here.