There’s a lot to write about, but I’ll save it in order to make room for something light and fun.

Last week’s (radio) episode of This American Life was entitled “Mistakes Were Made.” Basically it was about people who apologize without really apologizing at all. For those of you unfamiliar with TAL (you can check the podcast out on iTunes), basically what they do is choose a theme and then tell stories that are somehow about that theme.

So, in this particular episode, host Ira Glass began by reading an aplogy sent by Congressman Geoff Davis (R-KY) to Presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) after the former made remarks in a press conference recently about the latter saying, “that boy doesn’t need to have his finger on the button.” In the letter, Congressman Davis seems to be sincerely apologetic, and though it’s a formal lettter, wants to clearly and personally convey this to Senator Obama. After reading the letter, Glass contrasted it with recent “apologies” given by Senator Obama and his rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) ,concerning statements about supposedly bitter Americans clinging to guns and religion and incorrect reccollections about supposed sniper fire, respectively.

After walking his audience through this brief but timely introduction, Glass then introduced the two acts of the program. Act One was the majority of the show and was primarily about the early days of Cryonics. It was devestating, heartbreaking, and extremely interesting all at the same time. Act Two was much shorter by comparison, but is the one that really struck me.

This act was about a poem entitled This Is Just To Say by William Carlos Williams. The text of this poem is below:

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

I won’t do a lot of literary analysis here, but you can probalby see rather easily how this poem fit in with the theme of the show. Evidently, elementary school teachers use this poem regularly to help teach poetry to their students and often have them write a version of their own. In fact, a lot of people do this. If you google “this is just to say parody,” you can find all kinds of them. In fact, TAL had many of it regular contributers offer some of their own.

Well, this sounded great to me. I’m always on the lookout for writing exercises that are really different from what I’m used to and that can help challenge my creative impulses (and, if I’m honest, procrastinate working on what I need to be doing). So, I decided to give it a shot and share it with you. Below you’ll find some of my own variations. Enjoy!

——————–

This is Just to Say

1.
Today
Is the day
I said I
Would have it done

Of course
It’s not
Surprise
Surprise!

But it
Will be
Soon
I promise

2.
I told
Your secret
To everyone
Oops

I guess
That means
I can’t
Be trusted

But what
You don’t know
Can’t
Hurt you

3.
“I love you”
Meant “I want you”
“Trust me”
Meant “Take me”

But you know
What they say
“It takes two
To tango”

So why
Do you
Ignore
Me now

4.
I’m not
What you want
I’m not
What I could be

So?
You just
Need to
Get over it

How can I
Be anything
Other than
Me

5.
I didn’t
Do it
‘Cause I didn’t
Want to

It is
Really
Just that
Simple

Why not
Just
Accept
It

6.
I deleted
Your show
So I could
TiVo mine

I just
Couldn’t
Live
Without it

Yours was
Pretty
Crappy
Anyway

Plus they’ll
Probably
Rerun it
Again soon

7.
I know
I told you
I would
Have it done

But you
Know me well
How I like
To put things off

So you
Should have known
It would be
A little late

8.
We’ve made
A few deals
In our
Time together

If you
Do this
Then I’ll
Do that

Of course
I fail
Even though
You don’t

But that’s
To be
Expected
Right?

9.
I am
The one
Who swiped
Your change

I was
Thirsty
And bought
A Coke

This was
Not the
First time
Either

Sorry
But I
Couldn’t
Resist

10.
I know
I’ve been
Distant
And rude

But you
Have been
Driving me
Crazy

So selfish
So needy
So passive
Aggressive

You can’t
Really blame
Me then
Can you

But I’m
Sorry
If I hurt
Your feelings

You really
Shouldn’t
Be so
Sensitive

——————–

Now, why don’t you give it a shot?

We’re at the new island now, and we’re a little over halfway through our trip. So, they were gracious enough to plan into our hectic schedule a day to kinda relax and take it easy. I say that to give you fair warning that this post may seem cush and trivial when considered against everything else we’ve been doing. That’s because it is. However, it’s also needed and part of what makes a Compassion vision trip so effective, but I won’t get into all that now.

I woke up this morning and went to the lobby area (it’s not really inside, so I don’t know if it is actually a lobby) so I could use the internet. I grabbed some breakfast, bought an hour worth of wi-fi from the front desk and then called Liza on Skype (which rules, by the way; free plug for Skype). I also was able to post about yesterday, though I didn’t quite finish it before we left, but it should be finished by now.

We then went to Nice’s church (she’s one of the LDP’s that might be with us this summer). It was the 61st anniversary of the church. This means that it was founded in 1947 soon after the Japanese had been occupying the Philippines during WWII. So, the service was really centered around that, and they had pulled out all the stops. There was a lot of singing and a lot of dancing. However, it wasn’t really what I had expected. It was pretty modernized, a nice church building, a sound system, a live band, a screen and a projector. But it was still really cool to just see the people worshipping there and to hear how proud and joyful they are. And I mean really joyful. I won’t get off on a tangent here (even though I could), but I’ll just say that one of the things that has made it difficult for me to find a church lately is that people seem to have anything but joy at a lot of churches I visit or else it seems to be completely contrived (yes, I’m being judmental by saying that, I guess, but that’s not really the point). Anyway… before the service started there was a little boy running around the front just playing with a balloon. He would even run up onstage sometimes if his balloon got away from him and ended up there. I leaned over and asked Taylor what he thought would happen if a little boy was running around the stage playing before one of the services at our churches. We decided some uber-important dude, would get onto him or chide his mother for not making him stop.

After the church they had prepared food and drinks for people to hang around and spend time together to celebrate the church’s anniversary. Of course we immediate found ourselves with plates full of stuff. I sampled everthing and some of it was pretty good, like the banana chips and banana bread. However, there was also some kind of tamale thing, and it wasn’t so hot. They also gave us bottles of some red drink that they called red tea. It tasted like Kool Aid. I was hot so I drank all of mine. Later we found out they had made it. Supposedly the water had been boiled, but the bottle may have been cleaned out with who know’s what. A waiting game ensued to see if anyone would show symptoms of some horrible stomach illness. We didn’t, but it did make us feel like a bunch of pansies, like, “oh, I’m sorry. I can’t have what you prepared for me. I’m American. Our stomachs are weak. We really only eat processed foods.”

After “fellowshipping” for awhile, we hopped on our vans and came back to the hotel (Actually, to be perfectly honest, it’s more like a resort. No, it is a resort). We changed and caught a boat across to another island to a beach (I can hear your groans now). We ate lunch there and spent the afternoon engaging in various activities. I’ll spare you the details of the $10 hour-long massages by the water that had a little Filipino lady bending Graham like a pretzel or the snorkeling outing to an outlying coral reef where a sea serpent was spotted.

So, after our afternoon of nothing important, we came back to the resort, changed again, and went to a “cultural dinner.” That phrase can mean anything so we didn’t know what to expect. The dinner was good. The hotel catered it. But here’s the deal… evidently we’re the first (or possibly the second, depending on who you ask) Compassion advocate group to visit Davao City. That’s because the island we’re on (Mindalau) is known for its criminal and terrorist activity (though it’s nowhere near us). So, whenever the Filipino Compassion office suggests that groups come here, the American office in Colorado Springs says “no.” But for some reason they let us come. Hmm… Anyway, the Compassion LDP graduates and alumni association were so excited for us to be here (and for our coming to hopefully open doors for other groups to visit in the future) that they planned the whole evening for us. There was worship and singing and dancing and all kinds of fun.

One singing group consisted of four cousins who were all former Compassion children. They were amazing. Very personable and incredible singers as well as performers.

The last dance the group performed was with these two long bamboo poles on the ground that two people would slap together on every third beat. The dancers would dance in between the poles avoiding the slaps. After they were done, of course, they wanted us to join in. I was the second to give it a try, and I have to say that I didn’t do that bad.

At the end of the night, though, came the culmination of everything. The balut challenge.

Let me give some history here. There’s a show on the travel channel called Strange Foods or something like that. Basically, this guy goes around to different places and tastes of the local cuisine, no matter how bizarre it might be. Taylor saw an episode before we left where this dude was in the Philippines and ate some kind of cooked baby duck out of an egg.

On the first day we were here we asked the Filipinos about it. They lit up and said that this food had been featured on Fear Factor as well and that it really was a common delicacy around here. So, we’ve been talking about trying it all week, like really trying to gas each other up. So, Nice contacted her sister here in Davao and had her prepare two dozen of the things. Not everyone tried it and not everyone finished it, but it was great fun for all, Filipino and American alike.

Below is a video of the experience intercut with Pattie’s explanation of just what it is. Some of the audio sucks, and some settings got jacked on the camera so parts might be a little grainy, but you’ll get the idea.

And that’s that. We see our last project tomorrow, and we’ve still got a ton of filming to do. Pray for us.

Signing off.

I’m writing this from my iPhone just because I can. If you don’t have an iPhone, don’t worry about it. It’s really not a big deal. But if you do have one, you know that actually it is kinda a big deal.