MANILA, Philippines - When love month comes every year, I am moved to read novels about love.
I also read the lifestyle sections of newspapers, searching for articles inspired by love. Because I really love reading, I look for book reviews in these broadsheets for a book that would catch my attention.
Some of the book reviews I have read include A Walk to Remember, Twilight, Fallen, The Vampire Diaries, etc. and other books by foreign authors. A few days ago, (and since it was February) I thought I would read a book that is truly Filipino at heart.
Let’s talk about Ricky Lee’s magnificent creation: Para Kay B.
Lee is famous for his screenplays including Himala, Brutal, Karnal, Relasyon, and Moral. From all these creations, he has won more than 50 trophies and awards including one from Urian. In 2009 Ricky Lee changed his readers’ insights proving the fact that he was not only for scriptwriting but also for novel writing.
In Para Kay B., he writes five love stories about five young ladies, namely, Irene, Sandra, Erica, Ester, and Bessie. The story focuses on how they strive to be the “one†in this theory about love: “May quota ang pag-ibig. Sa bawat limang umiibig isa lang ang magiging maligaya.†(There is a quota in love. For every five people who love, only one will be happy.) This theory drove me to finish the novel and I realized that it really touched my emotions, spirit, and my whole being.
The book recounts that love neither has diversity nor barrier, nor does it choose on whom it will perch. Only love can connect every string of life, every turn of time, and every joy each human achieves, so that it could complete people’s connection with one another. Aside from these, Para Kay B also tackles a few issues in society that affect the love between two people, such as politics, homosexuality, incest and social status.
These issues added excitement to my reading and that’s why I savored Ricky Lee’s novel. He does not only write good prose but he also delivers meaningful messages in his craft.
From the five stories of Para Kay B, I learned not only five lessons but six.
Like Irene and her story, I’ve experienced how to love in spite of my being naïve. I felt from her story how loyal and hopeful her love was. Albeit her waiting continue to pass, she is not tempted to focus her attention on other men except Jordan. The story reminded me of a few years back when I was in elementary, when my heart started to beat a little faster for a cute little girl at school. I also learned from the story how my efforts, my hopes, and my loyalty to the one I love could disappear just because of a one-night stand. Her story taught me to be patient and to continue to love my past in spite of the fact that the past takes away everything I value.
A valuable memory of her past recounts Sandra’s story. Though Sandra and Lupe’s love is forbidden, though their love is against the law of God and society, and though their love is a huge, catastrophic risk, they love each other without considering the blood and flesh they acquired came from the two persons they both owe their lives to. From their story I learned about the infinity of love. That it is a newborn butterfly eager to sip nectar from every flower it sees. That whatever connection I have to the one I love, whether in the past, in the present or in the future, it would not be a barrier to love and to be loved in return.
If you are in love, would you believe that there is an islet in the archipelago where no one knows how to love and be loved? Probably your answer would be no, but in Para Kay B, the opposite would be true. Erica, the third protagonist, comes from this place. I was like Erica once. I was once there to find love. I even tried to look for love in every corner of my room, in every part of our house, and in every building of the school where I was studying. Learning to love without knowing how to feel it was as difficult as writing this essay without reading Para Kay B. In Erica’s story, I saw the stupefied form of love and in the end it said that a numb person would also learn how to love someone. Aside from that, I also saw from her story that if I didn’t have any experience in how to love, once I felt the beat of my heart for someone else, I would be better than those who attained thousands of experiences than mine.
Experience from the past also connected Ester and Sarah from the fourth story. In their story, I learned the insignificance of gender in loving. Ester’s story showed me that love does not have limitations. Ester’s story implies loving as courage. I didn’t need to be confused or a coward even though love has a lot of do’s and don’ts.
In the fifth story of Bessie and Lucas, I saw myself in Lucas. Like me, Lucas is a writer who is starting on his career to reach his dreams. While Bessie is a lady that I don’t want to meet ever in my life. She is easy-to-get, a worthless hag. From this story, I learned that dreams are possible to be achieved with love as inspiration. Even if I were orphaned and there was no one to guide me, no one to care for me, no one to show how I was loved and accepted in the family, love would complete every piece of the puzzle and show me the whole image. The story says that love should not be given limitations on any aspects — that love has no standards or prerequisites. Love doesn’t choose status or position in the society.
By the end of the novel, I proved to myself that love has no quota. Love is perennial; it doesn’t have to choose a particular time or situation even if I have felt it before, even if I felt it in the present, or even if I would fall in love in the future. Love doesn’t choose whether blood or flesh bind me and my love. Love doesn’t choose the most stupefied persons in the center of the universe to fall in love for someone. Love doesn’t choose any specific gender to be felt. Love doesn’t choose whether I’m at the top, middle, or bottom.
Most of all there is no love without dreams and there are no dreams without love.
In my experience of reading Para Kay B twice, in loving the letters, the paragraphs, the pages, I know I would read the novel several more times.
THIS WEEK’S WINNER
Thomas John C. Tenedero, 21, is a sophomore taking up BS Agricultural Economics at UP Los Baños. “I love to write short stories, poems and essays. My passion for writing started when I was 10 years old when I saw a pocketbook in my father’s kalakals in our junkshop.†He wants to teach literature at UP when he finishes his degree.