The Law

The Law

I solemnly watched the sunset. I leaned heavily on a weather-battered rock beside the lake. There was silence. The stillness of the lake absorbed my thoughts into the depths of unfathomable silence. Ah! Such moment creeps into the flesh.

There are moments like this when the urge to ponder is too great to resist. Such moments reveal the hidden desires of the heart. For within the confines of unfathomable silence, everything hidden is revealed. The bare naked truth is revealed.

I have long denied the desire to go home. But silence prevailed. Over me. And now, it is already written: I am longing to go home.

Yes, moments like this are nostalgic. The air seems to absorb the warmness of those memories. And the crimson sky in the horizon overlords the unfathomable silence. In my mind, I could hear my thoughts flowing vibrantly like the stream. I could see the purple mountain ranges. I could see the verdant valleys. I could feel the coolness of the rivers. Ah! I could go deeper into the vastness of silence.

Finally, after years of wandering in this strange land I finally long to see the familiar mountains. The mountains where I’ve spent the joys of my childhood. The wildness of those days.

So here I am trying to establish coherence on my thoughts. Striving to squeeze some sense on my gibberish. Because sometimes it doesn’t make sense to write these things. Sometimes it is just better to feel the nostalgia. To feel the peculiar feeling brewing inside you. Or feel the peculiar sensation of the rubbing of sinews of your muscles under your skin.

Well, I guess I am going emotional already. It's just good sometimes to release the fervent desires. And a wanderer like me could not be blamed for that. Even in the early times of my great grandfathers, adventurers always strive to come home. To sit by the fire and share the story of their wanderings. And I, Uto Lumbayaw, flesh and bones of my great grandfathers, is no exemption.

Well, maybe because I am feeling now that my adventure in this faraway land is already over. I am thinking that the purpose of my stay in this faraway land is already finished. For I have already mastered domestication.

Yes, I have mastered domestication. And domestication has never mastered me. That’s the most important thing I have achieved in this wandering. They may call me a savage because of my different ways. But then, they should not forget that I am of the wild. The wild gave birth to me. And because of that, my ways are different. They must not wonder why I’ve chosen this kind of life. Because it is my nature. The nature of the wild. Of young rebellious soul.

It is because of my insolence that I came to know the workings of the world. With my wanderings, I have learned that it is still the primeval law that governs all the things. Kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten. Survival of the fittest. Yes, it is still the law. There is no difference even if the settings are different. In the corridors of hustling business districts down to the chaotic slums, the law is still the same. And that is to kill or be killed. Eat or be eaten.

Tooth for a tooth. Eye for an eye. And that is life. Because that is the law.