Duty Done

It happens every first working day of the year. Being a dutiful citizen of our town, I  pay our realty tax along with some  citizens from other barangays.  There was a time when there was a long wait before you are served but today that has changed. Even the offices inside were renovated and the tax collectors on every window have their names in front of their cubicles.  It took me all of twenty minutes and I am done. I was so surprised though that land tax has increased by about 60%. It’s a good thing I brought some extra cash with me. I asked the cashier who processed my payment how much additional cash I have to pay and he said it depends on the area and location of the property. I noticed that they added the words cor.lot (corner lot) on the receipt. Does that mean that we have to pay extra for a corner lot like ours?

I am impressed with all the changes I saw at the Municipal Hall.  Most of the offices have been renovated, airy and seem wider. The ladies’ rest room is air-conditioned and smells so fresh and clean. When the government is working for you, you feel happy and proud.

Ours is a first class town, an entry point to the lovely province of Rizal and I am proud of it.

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Words And Music

Funny how music can turn you into being happy and contented  or it may ruin your day because it makes you remember an event in your past tied up to the music. Most of the time though, it brings that funny smile on your face and you sing along and you wish  you could go back to the times when life was simple and uncomplicated.

Let go.

How often do we here these two words that somehow seem so easy to say but hard to do? Music teaches us how…sometimes.  How often do we associate some particular lyrics of a song to the long-ago days that we are so fond of reminiscing? Oh, the world of growing older – always, always remembering. My youngest brother and I love to talk of the days when we were young kids in the province. The four of us  (my three brothers and I) are all in our fifties now. We don’t always say how time flies because it always does.  The years in-between mattered though, the years when we could be together with just a phone call.  It’s quite hard now to be together with miles of distance around us.  Just a few days ago, my youngest brother and I talked about what life was like in our old house in the province, how Mom’s eyes  would light up when she and dad would dance together to the tune of  some waltz music that until now would make me remember those days every time I hear it. Such a pity I have two left feet so I never learned.

Music.

They’re playing 70’s and a smattering of 60’s music now, some soulful tunes like Two For The Road  and Vincent.  There is a story behind that song, I told my son while he was busy playing some games on his cellphone. Then we both talk of the Beatles, the times when he was in grade school and we would watch a test run by a local TV station by showing movies and concerts of the Beatles. I think it’s the only old group that he could clearly associate with.

Music is the language of the soul.

Where words fail, music  speaks – Hans Christian Andersen

 

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