Vincent’s Starry Night Sky

One night, as I was on my way home, I looked at the night sky for the stars. It seemed like that I missed these heavenly fireflies because of the continuous and heavy rainfall the past few days. With excitement, my heart cheered and I smiled by myself. One person came into my mind who I had given credit for my artistic fascination of the stars… Vincent Van Gogh. One of his night sky-inspired paintings, the “Starry Night” was really amazing. Even though this painting was made during Van Gogh’s sanitarium days, modern art enthusiasts would say that these days were few of those honing days in the history of art. This Van Gogh masterpiece has risen to the peak of artistic achievements that although he only sold one painting in his lifetime, the fame of his works after his death was very viral that they inspired and continuously inspiring painters of different generations. 

 And for me, he even made the sky his canvas. 

Van Gogh was a broken hearted lad, a hot-tempered drunkard, an untidy artist, a “yellow” person, admirer of wheat fields, a semi-mad person who resembles the “House” TV Series main character Hugh Laurie, a post-impressionist artist, a lover of heavenly bodies. In whatever descriptions the world may give him, he is one of those artists from the past that I believe that had evidently shaped the modern world and even made fans of today educated of the difference between sanity and insanity. That decisions should be thought twice or trice before doing something that would do bad, like Van Gogh cutting a portion of his right ear, or doing the right thing, like also him doing his art masterpieces. 

Don McLean's song "Starry Starry Night", I mean "Vincent", is still being played on radios today. This music still links people, links me to the artistic and crazy past of Vincent Van Gogh in his lifetime in Europe in the mid-1800’s. This links me to the beauty of the stars. And because there are countless ways of not forgetting the images of his outstanding starry-artwork, night skies will always be here, behind cloudy skies or in the other side hiding in the sunshine...and a happy and content Vincent will be singing along with us, celebrating the gifts he had received for himself... also the gifts he had given the world.

PINASULOY...PINALAGO... PINATUBO!

I was in my first year in high school when I learned about this volcano.  Learned about it because of the “white Christmas-like” atmosphere that surprised me after waking up in that historical day of June, 1991.  Mt. Pinatubo was once declared as a dormant volcano, meaning dead, inactive and something that is not to be feared of because it can be considered harmless.  Preluded by numerous Luzon earthquakes in the year 1990, Mt. Pinatubo just exploded like a pretty girlfriend experiencing a mood swing.  The surrounding provinces of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga were devastated when mixture of water and phyroclastic materials furiously flowed towards the said provinces’ towns and villages that led to millions worth of damages and lost of lives.  It can also be remembered that aside from our heroes’ effort, this is one reason why the American military base in Subic, Zambales and Clark Field, Pampanga, left. 

Mt. Pinatubo largely became part of the Earth’s meteorological history for it changed its rapidly warming weather.  Because of the tons of volcanic ashes it threw into the Earth’s atmosphere, it blocked the Sun’s heat from entering our planet and eventually cooled it down.  It is such a nice fact to know that after this “suddenly awakened giant” did something horrible to most Filipinos, it would do something great for all the people on this wonderful planet.

In May 2010, I had the opportunity to experience the new image of Pinatubo.  After  almost two hours of bus-travel from Manila to the province of Tarlac, the 45-minute 4x4 vehicle ride and the 20-minute (maybe it was 30 for me…)trek with the combination of sweat and drizzle water, we finally reached to the famous volcano’s mouth and was amazed with its wondrous beauty!  You can compare the majestic scenery to the landscape background used in the “Lord of the Rings” movie which was entirely shot in New Zealand, but because Pinatubo is sort of the “local” brand, instead of snow covering the caps of surrounding mountains, ashes and other volcanic residues completed the place’s “Middle Earth” look that would really make you feel that you’re not in the Philippines.  Even made more mesmerizing, the view was completed by the turquoise-colored crater lake that gave me the shivers upon witnessing its view from the top.


This crater-lake, now called Lake Pinatubo, was used to be a hot spot in the Province of Zambales after the famous volcano’s eruption in the 1991.  But subsequent rainfall cooled and diluted the lake, lowering the temperature and making it safe to be dove in during the early 2000’s.  Even if we were made aware of its unimaginable depth, we jump into the boat in our life vests unhesitant.  With boats designed like the ones in Burnhum Park in Baguio City, those boats in Pinatubo were almost unsinkable.  With the combination of good boats, the best guides and smiling-faced paddlers, truly, the enjoyment of crossing Lake Pinatubo from end to end was on its highest level.

The experience in Pinatubo, feeling the Earth’s heat passing thru tiny air holes in its lakebed was some sort of us communicating with Mother Earth.  I guess it was telling us that good things come in sometimes small, sometimes big packaging... but in Pinatubo’s case, the packaging was quite violent.  But if you’re going to look at it now, you will truly say that even though God sometimes permits inevitable things to happen, He really knows what to do and really could give bigger things in return in His time.  Just like Pinatubo, it waited for a long long time, now it is in its ultimate level of giving mankind the most majestic experience of its splendor.