Reading Activity No. 13
Finding Meaning in Everything
Jess Cruz was in his early forty's, and a professor of literature in one of the schools at the university belt. He was much loved by the English majors of the 1970's. He used to rent a flat at the second floor of a building at the back of the malls and theaters. His place was filled with books. They were everywhere from the library to the living room to the kitchen, even on the floors. His bright students were privileged to get invited to check test papers at his house and partake of mango melba, a specialty dessert of wine-baked ripened mango flesh wet with syrup and topped with ice cream. The really bright ones got invited to dinner and a night of storytelling and listening to classical music.
The young coeds never failed to giggle each time he told the class, "These reading assignments are not meant to harass you. The purpose is to let you discover the aesthetic pleasure that these books have to offer, which you will let me gauge by the book reviews that you will write afterwards. You will be graded according to the merits of your writing. And nothing, no, nothing, not even a promise of unimaginable pleasures can persuade me to change your grades after I have given them…"
He was tall and looked Chinese, with rosy white complexion, and cool, gentle voice like that of Joe Mari Chan's. He took his master's at the Ateneo and wrote a few masterpieces of the short story genre. At the university along Morayta, he conducted short story writing workshops and taught "The Novel," "The Short Story," "World Literature," and "Philippine Literature."
One of his students, Susan, wrote a first prizewinning essay entitled "The Luminous Symbol," which was all about him, his passion for literature and how this passion for the written word was absorbed like a second skin by those who became his students. The essay was published by Focus Magazine. Susan was one of those who got lured by this passion. She was one of the elite ones who understood exactly what Prof. Cruz meant when he said that an individual must seek to live intensely every moment. How? By seeking to find meaning in everything.
"Many people are so dense. They can't immediately pick up insinuations, suggestions, and subtleties. As students of literature, you must train your senses and your mind to be sensitive, to read between the lines, to interpret symbols."
He whet their sensitivity by reading them poems and stories rich in metaphors. One of his students' favorites was a haiku by a Greek poetess, Sappho, who lived in the years B.C. (Before Christ), which goes:
Mother, I cannot mind my wheel / My fingers ache / My lips are dry
Oh, if you feel the pain I feel / But oh, whoever felt as I!
This short piece usually took the English 4 (the first prerequisite subject for those wanting to major in Literature) class an entire hour's session to unravel. Not after all the humor and sarcasm and loss of wit, would the professor finally lead them to the path of understanding. Slowly, gently, the neophytes would discover for themselves that this haiku was not a complaint of physical fatigue but in truth, was a joyous and proud declaration of a young woman who was falling in love for the first time.
It had been 20 long years since Susan last saw the beloved professor. She may never see him again, but his passion continued to be her redemption. Only in literature can one decipher and discern life's meaning.