The Ocean of My Being

Salamun 'alaykum. I am back again! This is my nth attempt to revive this blog. I hope this time I can stick to my plan and maybe post an entry once a month at the very least. Not very ambitious, but still no promises here. Oh, well.  Anyway, as my comeback entry, I'm posting on this blog the speech I read during the Philippine PEN 2017 Congress -- PEN at 60: Reaffirming the Writer's Commitment to Truth and Freedom , held at the University of Santo Tomas on November 21-22, 2017, where, together with Dr. Maimona Magayoong, Prof. Sorhaila Latip-Yusoph, and Prof. German Gervacio , I sat on the Literary Session named Tales from the War Zone: Voices of Marawi . Here's the full text of my speech: It was an ordinary, sunny MSU afternoon. I was at my office waiting for my students to submit their final requirements as that day was the deadline and, while waiting, I was listening to the songs from the musical, Grease , and I was reading random stuff on Twitter. I came