Wednesday, October 24, 2007

STORIES BEYOND YOUR DREAMS

When we were kids, my brother Manong Dovic would entertain my brother Ingko Dodong with stories that he concocted on his own, which he collectively called “Stories Beyond Your Dreams”.

Usually after eating, my brothers would have their story session, with Manong telling the story complete with actions, gestures, dialogue and sound effects. My brother Dodong would listen, laugh, ask questions, add comments, and I would just be listening in.

Everyday we would hear about the story of the 5th Earth, the adventures of Magic Star and his counterpart in a parallel world Black Star, Magic Sun, Black Shadow, Speedy Boy, Cokeman (character inspired by Ingko), Sprite Girl (character made for me), and a lot of other characters, which were as exciting, vivid and complicated as Marvel’s X-men (X-men came to our TV sets – and our conciousness -- way way later. Yes, I’m telling you my brothers are geniuses!).

Those moments are special because it bonded us together. It gave us something to talk and be excited about. Come to think of it now, it helped us realize the power of words and effective communication. But more than that, it helped us hone our imagination and believe in stuff dreams are made of.

My brother Dovic is a lawyer now, and we still have our talks at the dinner table which would last long into the wee hours of the morning. We don’t talk about children’s stories, but we still believe in the power of stories and of dreams.

I just launched a site where I could post my own stories "Stories and Dreams". I dedicated it to my brothers Manong Dovic, Ingko Dodong, and sister Bam, for sharing with me wonderful childhood memories.

please check out http://readmes.blogspot.com Thanks

1 comment:

Kaliwat ni Karyapa said...

as Einstein put it, "Imagination is better than knowledge!"

our imagination lifted us to greater (surreal)worlds and got us back to the real world full of hopes, dreams, and power to make things better, greater...

thanks for this post, mandie. you moved me to tears. we shared a wonderful childhood and remembering scenes from it, makes me smile.

i love you.