Looking For Blue Skies January 30, 2009
Posted by Alexander Sawit in Stuff in General.add a comment
By Alex Sawit
30 January 2009
In Samurai X: The Motion Picture (the movie version of the hit anime series that I used to watch when it was airing a decade ago) there’s a moment early in the story when the hero befriends a kind-hearted samurai who would, through a twist of fate, later become his mortal enemy. In this peaceful beginning, however, the two speak with warm familiarity as only two warriors can relate to each other. As they talk about how fleeting life is, the other samurai then recites a haiku that strikes a chord in the hero’s heart.
He said:
“The bluest sky
Is infinitely high
And crystal clear.”
The poem struck a chord in me, too. If you’ve ever really looked up and gazed at the clear blue sky, you might also understand it the same way I did.
Try it. Wait for a calm, cold morning when you can feel the chill of the air bracing on your skin and awakening your senses, when the sky above is wide open and faint clouds delicately whisper across in white, when the sunlight is so soft that it ever so gently makes the colors glow around you. Then look up. If everything is right, that’s when the sky is at its most dazzlingly beautiful – a blue so deep and so vividly pure that it pierces you and quiets your soul.
You need not be a samurai to understand it. But as a martial artist, I like to believe that this sentiment is what defines the heart of a warrior – the quiet heart.
To be calm in the heat of battle… to see clearly and not be blinded by rage in the face of your enemy… to feel compassion for those whose hatred seeks to destroy you… that’s the quiet heart as I understand it.
All the martial artists whom I most respect and admire in this world have this heart. I see it in my longtime friend, Rico M., a truly decent human being who is both my senior colleague and chief instructor of our school. I see it in our headmaster and teacher, Master Y., a Korean gentleman whose good nature and old-fashioned modesty belie how terrifyingly efficient he can be in action when life and death hang in the balance.
And then there is me. I know what it is like to have such a heart. But I also know what it is like to lose it. You see although the quiet heart is a state of being, it is also a continuing path. One can therefore diverge from it.
The thing is I used to be an active martial artist who trained regularly with my colleagues before I opened Cyrano in 2004. Four years. I hadn’t really thought about how long it had been until only a few weeks ago, when our small family of black belts got together for a special lunch to celebrate the beginning of the New Year and catch up with each other. But seeing everyone again only made me realize what I’d done, what I’d given up in order to commit myself to something else.
The truth is I have no regrets about the choice I made. I love this wine shop of ours and I love the Cyrano friends I have met and dedicated myself to during these last few years. I know I made the right choice.
And yet…
One way or another, if I have to do it one step at a time, I need to find those blue skies again.
Cyrano New Year 2009 January 8, 2009
Posted by Alexander Sawit in News & Events.add a comment
By Sam Alapan
05 January 2009
[EDITOR’S NOTE: It seems like it is becoming a tradition for a certain bunch of Cyrano friends to spend the night of New Year’s Eve at their favorite wine shop (it also seems like it's becoming a tradition for me to stay away from this happy establishment on this very night in favor of staying home and catching a lot of sleep). So I thought it only fitting to ask Sam, just as I did last year, to write about the New Year’s celebration at Cyrano for our blog. Might as well make this a tradition too, right Sam? –Alex Sawit]
Work and other extra-curricular activities gobbled up my schedule and distracted me from my regular visits to Cyrano. The extra-long weekend was a well-deserved vacation – probably too long for some people, right Alex? Nevertheless, it gave me time to inject some red in my veins.
Our soft-speaking angry madman and Cyrano friend, Sam
The New Year celebrations may just have started a bit too early for me, though. A good friend of mine and her husband returned to the Philippines after a very long absence. The holidays are like that, I suppose: meeting old friends and family, sharing stories that would either embarrass the storyteller or make the ones hearing them laugh out loud. It was a good thing that the couple I was with were wine lovers and Cyrano, as always, was a good recommendation.
After a few hours talking about the new Filipino sound hitting the airwaves over two good bottles of Pinot, Mae and Glenn Lanoza had become new Cyrano friends. I know there’s an official list out there that someone’s keeping and the roster of names just keeps on growing.
However, other people popped-out of the woodwork as the real New Year’s celebration began. I was in good company with Janet, Pat, Cris and Joco as we met an hour or two after the fireworks. I was hoping to get a good view of the display coming from in and around the city from my condo, being in the 17th floor, but the drizzle was a party-pooper. On the other hand, it wasn’t really the kind of celebration I was looking out for.
The start of the year wouldn’t be without stories on how the year went, most of them a few months old and some are just like the firecracker you lit that didn’t go off and then explodes without you noticing it. I’m speaking rather vaguely, right, Cris? But Janet will always be the main event, I guess it goes with the territory and the fact that her fiery and passionate take on life cannot be missed.
The rest of us, Pat, Joco and I included were just revelers on one side, watching the fireworks – no, let me rephrase that, the interesting discussion on New Year’s Day. I know in some part of the city, many people are celebrating as well, maybe louder than our own get together but among friends this is the kind I would hope for.
My good friend, Mae, corrected herself after meeting some of the Cyrano friends. Quaint was rather a shallow adjective to describe Cyrano, and she soon discovered how intimate people can get within the narrow walls. Of course, it helped when she learned how close she and Cris were related.
It’s always hard to describe what kind of people go to Cyrano, some don’t necessarily have anything in common with each other. And saying that we’re all wine lovers doesn’t really cut it after all. But in all the years (and they’ve just been a few) I’ve managed to find people who are open to express themselves without fear of judgement. Just the kind of people who I want to spend the first day of the year.
I missed them all in the last few months I was away. It’s easy to find wine and everything that goes with it, but good company will be hard to find. At least I know where to find them on New Year’s Eve and every evening thereafter.
