Truth Is

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Other

STRANGER THAN FICTION
BY Jeneen R. Garcia
published in November 2001

This is the first installment of my first-ever column, published in FLIP, Sun.Star's youth section. In college, my friends would compile the strange-funny stories of my life to entertain themselves (it's such a high, laughing about the misfortunes and misadventures of other people :P), so I decided to write about them myself to entertain more people.

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You need only read the papers to get what I’m saying.

Sept. 11 Survivor Dies in Plane Crash was on yesterday’s front page. This woman who worked in the WTC missed being crushed under the rubble, but fate made sure she was on the plane that crashed into a Queens neighborhood. Just as strange is the guy who didn’t make it to that plane because his little sister got lost coming back from the bathroom at the airport.

Even the local news can be full of surprises. I remember the news on a woman and a true-blue parlor queen who decided to get married. Not too shocking, once you get used to the existence of male lesbians (talk about identity crisis!).

Philippine politics alone makes Ripley’s Believe It Or Not pale in comparison. “I lied.” is one of those things you never thought you’d find in the headlines. But there it was, out of the mouth of a senator, no less. Or what about the impeachment trial that managed to displace soap operas in viewer ratings? What sitcom has topped the “’J’ as in ‘goat’, Your Honor” line?

Sometimes real life is the stuff horror movies are made of. Like Nida Blanca getting stabbed 13 times in a deserted car park. Like the World Trade towers collapsing live on TV. Like Erap and George W. Bush ascending to presidency.

Whoever invented the phrase “the plain truth” was obviously lying. Nothing is ever plain about the truth, nothing simple about reality.

I’ve been on this planet nearly 22 years and I’ve had my fair share of weirdness. I have a friend who was bitten by a dog six times on three different occasions when he was a kid and who still adores puppies. My boss doesn’t text but gets a “Can you be my textmate?” message (or worse) on his phone at least once a day. I’m the only person I know who, despite the customary warnings, has actually been hit by a falling coconut—and lived to tell the tale. And mind you, I was dancing the Macarena, too, when it happened.

Whether from the news or from the neighbors, we all have strange, true stories to tell. There’s one taking place behind us every minute. All it takes is a twist of the head to see it unfold.

This space, therefore, I dedicate to what strange realities come my way. Not the kind you read in trivia books—though there might be a smattering of those—but the ironic, sometimes sad, often idiotic, perhaps seemingly ordinary, but always mind-boggling, smile-cracking, home-grown kind of truth.

The whole, strange truth and nothing but. So help me God.