Brothers & Sisters of the Travelling Pants (a.k.a. Summer Workshop on Writing & Creative Living)

The third day of the six-day "Writing and Loving It: Summer Workshop on Creative Living" ended at 2 p.m. today with the boys (Rudolf, Rex and Milo) and gurlz (Nina and Babeth) inspired by a story-telling session with Mila D. Aguilar, poet, essayist, filmmaker, Web designer and professing servant of God and country.

To me, she remains the Mila who wrote such deeply moving poems as "A Comrade is as Precious as a Rice Seedling" and "Why Cage Pigeons?"

Mila, who lives not too far from the current workshop venue of Kiss the Cook Gourmet at 65 Maginhawa street, UP Village, Quezon City, informed the 12-year-old participant Milo that their names (Mila and Milo) mean "grace" in the Slavic languages of Eastern Europe.

Milo, who has been ribbed since Day One that his nickname may have been derived from an energy drink that is the color of his skin and which might explain his high energy level, grinned widely on learning another new thing today.

The workshop participants put into practice some interviewing techniques they had just learned this morning. By tomorrow, they will be able to write on the spot a full-length personality profile of Mila based on the sharing she did while she dug into a dessert of truffette and sipped a cup of cappuccino.

From my own notes, I found Mila's advice to young writers:

"If you're a writer or an artist, you have to have roots. Your roots are where you were born. There is no such thing as an international writer or artist. Every writer has a nation.... The thing he/she writes about, the thing he/she paints about is the culture of the nation. So you have to love your nation and express the soul of the nation. If you can do that, you can become a great writer; if you cannot, you'll be nowhere. Dostoyevsky was like that--he thoroughly knew his Russian culture, he expressed that culture in his works. So did Goethe. Shakespeare was like that, too. You must grasp your culture to become a great writer, a great artist.

"Your culture was not formed in and of itself. Somebody created it. It's a creation of Whom? Who created the nations? God creates not only individuals but nations. A nation exists for a purpose, God's purpose. You have to grasp God's purpose for the nation. There is a 'trialectical' relationship between the individual, the nation and God, and once you grasp that relationship, you'll become not only a great writer, a great artist, but an immortal one."

Like any true cultural worker, Mila espouses many causes, among them, organic farming, particularly shifting from miracle rice and the like which are
"hurting us and making us sick"; adoption of solar, hydroelectric and geothermal energy; Bangon Pilipinas, a political party put up for God and country, and so on.

Tomorrow, Thursday, our fourth day, the kids report back to the venue to write about their afternoon with Mila.

May there be more moments of grace in the next leg of "Writing and Loving It: Summer Workshop on Creative Living" scheduled May 2-7 at Daisy Langenegger's Green Daisy at 20 Maginhawa st., UP Village, Quezon City. Workshop fee of P4,000 covers snacks and lunch, writing and art materials, certificate of participation and encounters with other moments divine. Text or call the facilitator Babeth at 0916-242-1637 to reserve or confirm a slot.

Top photo shows Rex quizzing resource person Mila Aguilar. Lower photo shows the first workshop participants with Ms. Aguilar (seated center). From left are Nina Victoria Araos and Babeth Lolarga while standing (same order) are: Rudolf, Rex and Milo.