All I Can Handle

  Click to enlarge This was one of the gemstones I found at Yuchenco museum the last time I visited it. This used to be the paper money under US occupation when paper money was convertible into gold and silver.  Paper money was basically a certificate for gold and silver deposited into the state's coffers.  I don't know how they were able to deceive the people into accepting paper as money but even during the 1950s, paper money still had reminders written on it that it was legal tender, a clear indication that people back then still knew that there was something funny about using paper as money. Today, I am hearing more people getting interested in gold as money. Is a gold standard comeback looming? Lettering on the paper bill: TREASURY CERTIFICATE BY AUTHORITY OF AN ACT OF THE PHILIPPINE LEGISTATURE APPROVED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 13, 1922 THIS CERTIFIES THAT THERE HAS BEEN DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS TWO PESOS PAYABLE TO THE B...

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately about spirituality almost everyday. Five years since I translated Le Petit Prince, I am belatedly realizing that the story of The Little Prince could have been about spirituality all along. One thing that I heard from a recent podcast that stood out for me was how stars are portals and that is where we all came from. And where does the little prince live? On an asteroid! When the little prince arrives on earth, he is greeted by a snake. He tells the snake that he wonders whether the stars are placed as guides so that one day we can come home again. Lately, whenever I am feeling tired, weary, and lonely, I find myself thinking that I'd like to go home... One of the remarkable things that struck me from the story of The Little Prince was how the little prince had to die in order for him to go back to his planet and his rose. This is how a lot of NDE experiencers talk about death by the way, a homecoming.  When my aunt died, I felt ups...