Publisher's Note

Publisher’s Note
It was 22 years ago when I arrived in Canada and chose Calgary, Alberta to be my home. Leaving my family and friends behind, it was a new adventure for me to be in a new country without knowing anyone. That was the time I looked for a Filipino community paper and never found any, [...]
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Erwinism: The Great Escape

By Erwin D Maramat

Ray Kurzweil conceptualized the runaway singularity of artificial intelligence leaving humans in the dust, obviously he hasn’t met my wife. My wife is a walking Google; she virtually knows everything, to that end, I put up all my books for donation. One of the major reasons why I got married is to virtually escape the nagging of my mom, only to find out that it’s a trap—Admiral Akbar did say that in Star Wars—the only difference is that with my mom, I can lock myself in my room, but with my wife, I can’t even lock myself in my pillow. She’s a black hole, not even light can escape.

Just recently, I had a chat with Doru Rain, whom the book “Escape the Rain” by Darryl Robbins is about. He recounted his escape from political oppression in search of a better life, in the process he had to leave his wife and child behind and be reunited years after. It got me thinking; people will go to great lengths just to realize the life that they could just dream about. The life that some us take for granted. He could have been stuck there forever, but he chose to run toward the light.

Going back to my wife, while I was comfortably nestled in my couch, she asked, “How can you open new doors in your life, if you refuse to give up your old ways?” I was flabbergasted, not because of her remark but the beauty of truth in it. I will pretend that she didn’t rip that off from a post on Facebook, but it does make a lot of sense. I have to run away far from my complacency. I have to revolt against the tyranny of my idleness.

Relatively, Steven Altman, a friend of mine who is an amazing goalie and a promising behavioral therapist shared the same wisdom when he said, “The way we feel and think sometimes can hold us back. Old fears and habits do not lead to new opportunities they instead lead to repetitive cycles. New action; new thoughts; new results.” People love getting stuck in a rut, because it’s comfortable but you know where there is permanent comfort, so while we’re here we ought to break old habits by escaping our old selves. Sometimes we surround our hearts with walls that the shadows steal the light: good things that are meant to happen, or meant for us ends up with somebody else.

There is utterly no point in burning candles at both ends if for the sole purpose of just remaining where we are. Take a look at some miserable guys at the mall shopping with their wives, they are lounged in a chair waiting for the nightmare to be over whereas, they could help those lovely ladies find the perfect scent or bathe their eyes with the colors of their lovely dresses. The whole point is by often remaining where we are we miss out on many things. Disclaimer: Ladies don’t get carried away.

Author Daniel J Boorstin said, “Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.” There are times that people blame the harshness of life for their circumstance, but they sometimes don’t take into account that they have the power to liberate themselves and open avenues that they never knew existed. This is more than just a concept from starry-eyed visionaries; think of your dinner tonight, think of a recipe that you have not tried and you are very much willing to cook. Isn’t that your goal, so much that you end up picking up ingredients and whipping up that exact meal? This is the message that Earl Nightingale was trying to get across in his 19-minute video. Feel free to watch the video on YouTube. Find a need so desperately that you end up finding a way. Necessity is not just the mother of invention; she also nags the inventor to get creative.

I ended up filing for a divorce. I can’t stand being married to my fears. (I know you just gulped there.) I’ll elope with my wife and make a great escape.

Erwinism: “People cannot expect the doorway to get taller if they won’t fit just because they feel comfortable walking tall, and they end up reviling the door whose only fault is that it’s too inanimate to offer them common sense.”

Erwinism: The Great Escape

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