Well, I'm back. Three long months of not having to write here made me homesick. It's just too mushy that I had to begin with an article looking like a lovesick girl. Well, I have to admit, I am though. Oh well, one bell curve passes... lemme get onto the next.

People fall in and out of romantic love like a roller coaster. This kind of love creates a statistcal bell curve graph out of our lives, and we willingly jump into the graph's roller coaster cart, risking all it takes to get that ticket to one of life's fancy rides. The line to it seems endless, yet we feign patience (which would eventually turn into frustration, or worse, exasperation, if our own demands and expectations are not met). The moment we get our own ticket to ride, our cart starts to trace the bell curve graph of love. Various bell graph shapes begin to infest our emotions, and each of them has its story to tell.

Bellgraph One. aka the Normal Lovebell. X-axis is for the love level, Y-axis is for the duration (in weeks). You start a little higher than zero from the X-axis, termed as "love potential". A brief plateau (the getting-to-know stage), then love slowly rises at, say, week 20. You get the "love high", experience it at its fullest... peak at it, and you barely notice the gradual downslope. Around week 95, you start moping. The ride ends at week 116.

Bellgraph Two. This looks similar to the normal lovebell above. The love potential is a must so you always start a lil higher than zero x-axis. But in here, you notice how abruptly you peak at love as the initial rise is too steep(you peak at love around week 50, while the above graph peaks at week 70). Compared to the normal love bell, your "high times" are rather cut short as the love level slowly falls at week 52 or so...

Bellgraph Three. Those who love too much crashes down painfully. You fall for someone;smitten by him/her, your love-o-meter almost exceeds its maximum. Good job in maintaining that peak level for quite a number of weeks, but as the song goes, some good things really never lasts. Too much isn't so good after all, as your cart nosedives.

Bellgraph Four. aka, the Fling-fling graph. Notice that love potential is almost zero. There's an almost absent getting-to-know stage, a steep initial rise, and the love level doesnt even reach 10. It still peaks, even plateaus, but it crashes, similar to the graph above. An absent slope in the latter stage of the relationship depicts an abrupt loss of interest, either, in one or both parties.

Bellgraph Five. aka Trauma Graph. Also similar to the first love graph, but this time, the love level barely hits 20. An example of "traumatized" lovers, who, in their respective pasts, regretted "lovin-too-much", and eventually settled to love a whole lot lesser. It's sad that they are too reluctant in allowing themselves to love at their fullest.

Bellgraph Six. aka Camel's Hump. Your cart roller coasts the love graph in a funny way. This one's actually for those who STRONGLY believe that love is lovelier the second time around. Notice that the second "hump" has its peak way higher, almost reaching its maximum, than the first "hump".






Bellgraph Seven. aka Fringe-o-love. If the above graph's cart roller coasts in a funny way, well, the fringe-o-love coasts like crazy. This, on the other hand, is for those who STRONGLY believe that love is lovelier the X times around. They've had an epiphany that he/she IS the ONE, and so, they bring back the fire after X number of threats to the relationship. These are the admirable martyrs who enjoy the roller coaster ride of an inverted cow's breast.

Bellgraph Eight. This is for the career-driven people. Or for those who have something else that drives them real mad, leaving love, second to that one thing they love most. Notice how slowly their love levels rise, although it does reach a high of 30. The sad part is that the peak of their love jumps into the relationship's fall, perhaps because of the overly long period of time before love became at its highest. Too much isn't always so good.

There are tons more of love graphs that can depict the romantic relationships we've all been in. That's how unique love is. It could be that, because of this fact, there is a long line to the ticket booth of love... there's always a new ride after another.

Funny, we see how impossibly long the line to the ticket booth is, spend all our mustered efforts to convince ourselves that we can endure the long wait, when we often end up regretting that we even dreamt of chancing upon that tempting love cart. Well, that's what generally happens. It's just so disheartening to realize that there was one day in our lives that we had to wake up telling ourselves how love made our lives miserable, when we just mooned over and fancied ourselves in that cart a day before that.

Why not try to look at love in its intended light? We make mistakes, but we do learn from them, don't we? Well, don't we? We create a series of normal- and funny-looking bell curve graphs in our hearts, experience our highest and lowest times, and then mope around and blame life's unpredictability. We have to remember that the almighty "change" often wins over "constancy" in this game called life.

Well here's somethin to console the heartbroken people like me:

Lovealoompas (these are love scientists living in Tibet, perhaps beside the Dalai Lama) believed that these bell curves are the predecessors of the modern day electrocardiogram (ecg) readings.

If you get to experience this "erratic" trail (romantically erratic that is), it means you're normal, that you're breathing, and your heart's beating... you're alive. Regretting it all happened means that you resent any form of bell curve in your life giving you an ecg diagram which looks something like this: Yep, a flatline. Medically speaking, you're dead.

So which one would you rather have?

One of the greatest heroes in history that showed exemplary valor never fought on a typical battlefield.

His greatness was embodied by the legacy he so willingly passed onto his children --- the struggle for truth, godliness and education; in spite of a society that substantiates the notion that poverty robs you off the luxury of these three.

Our hero, as typical heroes are, was not born with a silver spoon. He grew up tending animals in a land that was not their own. As a child, his playtime was incorporated at work, and he faced society’s threat that a farmer’s son barely had the chance to get a good education.

His battleground was society’s discriminating environment. He armed himself with humility, shielded the purity of his intent with constancy. His determination was his spear, his hard work, his sword. He remained patient in the midst of toil. He eluded gunshots with his uncompromising principle, and remained steadfast in the battlefield through his faith in God.

I’ve seen his face distraught many times. Even heroes can fall, and they fall hard. These are the times that strengthened his armor, times that sharpened his spear. Though imperfect, his unwavering audacity allowed him to get up on his knees and fight once more.

He gets out of the battlefield tattered. His ashen face fails to conceal his eyes that glimmer with glory. He appears wounded, yet his entire state speaks of healing and of hope instead of failure.

He may not be such a perfect hero, but his valiance is just too remarkable to remain unseen. I hope I can live up to the kind of hero he is, if not for the people around me, at least for my children. Just the way he was, and still is, for us.

Happy Hero’s Day, Dad.

Got an email from him today which, I believe, completed my day.

It read, "I've always thanked God for this day, the day you were born, and secondly, for the day that we've met."

Of all the blessings I've received from Him, he's the one that melts my heart the most.

Thanks, Tatch. I hate you sometimes, but I always end up loving you back. I hate you!