Sometimes life does imitate art

Over a month ago I was in Siquijor to take a break and take stock of my life after I had lost my job. Coincidentally, a few weeks before I went there I saw a film called A Good Year, about a driven, ruthless London banker who was suspended from his job while he was in France attending to his late uncle's estate. While in his uncle's vineyard he is reminded of life lessons his uncle taught him growing up and he also meets a girl who teaches him about love and how life is more important than money, etcetera.

In one scene, the protagonist and his love interest have their first date around a pool that's surrounded by trees and lights and candles. Just a few clicks from where I stayed in Siquijor there was also a large natural pool which the locals had set up with tables and food booths for the town fiesta and I was struck by how similar the movie and the Siquijor set-up looked (the banderitas and the terrible picture taken with my phone camera notwithstanding). And there was a band too but instead of French songs, the Siquijor band played, of all things, jazz music. That scene was actually my favorite part of the movie because I was charmed by the set design and so it was a bit uncanny to find something similar in Siquijor.

That night in the pool, engulfed in the heady aroma of beer and roasting meat, surrounded by cheerful locals and listening to good music, was one of the happiest I've ever been in a long time.

Before I went on that trip I resolved that I would open myself to anything and everything. I also added a self-imposed rule: I would talk less and listen more. I would not edit what people said (either in reality or in my head) the way I'd gotten used to--only listening for information that I needed to do my work, not caring to hear the rest of what people had to say.

And so I listened. How was it that only a month ago I wouldn't have cared? I suppose that, like the Russell Crowe character in the movie, I too had lost that part of myself that was good in the course of trying to be the best at what I do.

I can't say I'm out of the woods yet but I do hope that like the character, and in the tradition of feel-good movies, I will also find salvation in the end.