The Books We Read
It’s not the tragedies we suffered, not the movies we loved, not the association of different communities that made us who or what we are today. It’s the books we read that shaped our minds, honed our hearts and charted our future.
In the late 60’s I read the following:
The Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunanby Teodoro Agoncillo
Struggle for National Democracy by Jose Maria Sison
Quotations, On Contradiction andSelected Military Writings by Mao Tse-Tung
How the books changed me:
I learned how Bonifacio’s revolution was thwarted. I joined a nationalist student organization
I saw firsthand the poverty of the masses by going to the slums and poor urban communities and countryside peasantry.
I ran away from home and quit college to be a full time underground political activist. I married a comrade.
In the 70’s I read the following:
The Cinderella Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independenceby Colette Dowling
The Assertive Woman by Nancy Austin and Stanlee Phelps
The New Executive Woman by Marcille Williams
How the books changed me:
I left my first husband because he refused to take me with him to the countryside like he used to. He said it was for my safety. I remarried.
When my second husband saw what I was reading, he commented, “Really?! You need assertiveness?!” He was being sarcastic.
I joined and committed to the unorganized, disunited, exploited working class I fought to uplift.
In the 80’s I studied the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. If the order of the books were reversed, if I had the studied the Bible first, I would not have left my first husband.
“A wife is bound as long as her husband is alive. But if her husband should fall asleep in death, she is free to be married to whomever she wants, only in the Lord. But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is; and I certainly think I also have God’s spirit.” (1 Corinthians 7:39-40)
Paul says he’s got God’s spirit in saying so. Jehovah’s spirit can’t be wrong. I was never again as happy as I was with my first husband.
See also:Kabataang Makabayan (KM), In Hindsight The Song Perfect Matches REBEL Paperback Writer - Book 2
In the late 60’s I read the following:
The Revolt of the Masses: The Story of Bonifacio and the Katipunanby Teodoro Agoncillo
Struggle for National Democracy by Jose Maria Sison
Quotations, On Contradiction andSelected Military Writings by Mao Tse-Tung
How the books changed me:
I learned how Bonifacio’s revolution was thwarted. I joined a nationalist student organization
I saw firsthand the poverty of the masses by going to the slums and poor urban communities and countryside peasantry.
I ran away from home and quit college to be a full time underground political activist. I married a comrade.
In the 70’s I read the following:
The Cinderella Complex: Women’s Hidden Fear of Independenceby Colette Dowling
The Assertive Woman by Nancy Austin and Stanlee Phelps
The New Executive Woman by Marcille Williams
How the books changed me:
I left my first husband because he refused to take me with him to the countryside like he used to. He said it was for my safety. I remarried.
When my second husband saw what I was reading, he commented, “Really?! You need assertiveness?!” He was being sarcastic.
I joined and committed to the unorganized, disunited, exploited working class I fought to uplift.
In the 80’s I studied the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. If the order of the books were reversed, if I had the studied the Bible first, I would not have left my first husband.
“A wife is bound as long as her husband is alive. But if her husband should fall asleep in death, she is free to be married to whomever she wants, only in the Lord. But in my opinion, she is happier if she remains as she is; and I certainly think I also have God’s spirit.” (1 Corinthians 7:39-40)
Paul says he’s got God’s spirit in saying so. Jehovah’s spirit can’t be wrong. I was never again as happy as I was with my first husband.
See also:Kabataang Makabayan (KM), In Hindsight The Song Perfect Matches REBEL Paperback Writer - Book 2
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