M A E L S T R O M

(Thought-Random)

        Ever heard of the word, maelstrom? Well, I remember it to be one of the vocabulary items I once introduced to my English classes which triggered a good hour's worth of animated discussion.  But let me tell you more about it.  The word came in diverse definitions: -a powerful circular current of water usually the result of conflicting tides;  -a whirlpool violently sucking in objects within a given radius, -a violent, turbulent situation; -a restless, disordered, tumultuous state of affairs.  Pick one of them and that would be a maelstrom!

        In usage, one could go The country was caught in a maelstrom of war.  Or  She was a maelstrom of churning emotions. From Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan, we have In an instant, the ape-man became the center of a biting maelstrom of horror.  And from Moby Dick goes So close did the monster come to the hull when suddenly going down in a maelstrom, he wholly disappeared from view.


        Well, it happens in life that times, you wake up to a lovely morning heralding a phenomenon of a day.   The family's toddler comes up to you to give you a good morning hug, tight... and a kiss, resounding!  A quick glance at your computer's inbox gives you a string of short linguistic shorts ranging from  friendly outbursts like Hi, top of the morning to you! to  more clandestine-sounding whisper-like clips like Lunch or Dinner? Same time same place?.... A quick listening to your phone messages informs  you that you got that new job interview you so hoped for at 9 today....that  the amount of 5 thousand bucks  you questioned your bank on being deducted from your account was rectified to be a deposit instead.... that your online professor did give you that A you so worked very hard for!

        Other times  however, you come to the end of the day like a sudden thunderstorm simply drenched you in your new H&M outfit.  You failed to convince the group at that afternoon meeting of the significance of your proposal.  They opted for that of that guy, your colleague, but whom you so much disliked.   You offended the office receptionist  with a comment you meant to be a compliment as you passed her by on your way out. And you wonder just how that came to be.   You  just rammed the side of your car as you drove into the garage. For this, you have no excuse.  But put all these together and man,  these don't constitute a maelstrom yet.

        Some experiential examples I can pick up from those old classes  might come close to this maelstrom concept.  One, for example,  told us about his having two girl friends, - both he was seriously in love with.  In five months time after graduation, both wanted him to present their marriage plans to their respective families, both of whom were acquaintances of his own.  The problem was that he didn't want to get married yet. He so wanted to take on that job offer in Europe where an uncle lived. This uncle, on the other hand, categorically wanted him married before he moved in to Europe to ensure his emotional stability while at work.  Or so he thought.  I never got to know  how he got out of that - until just recently.

       Another told us of how he had gambled away his tuition through his school-years.  In five months, graduation time, he was supposed to hand in to his parents evidence of having finished a university course.  They had trusted him with handling his own finances - after they put in his hands the money.  What kinda complicated matters is that, at a point where  he ran out of money for his use, he mortgaged their family house.  As expected, the bank then was collecting.  Then his dad was diagnosed with  a life-threatening disease.  The parents were optimistic about their son though.  After graduation, he was going to get a good job and as is common in Asian families, he was expected to tide the family into a much better life. Wow!  Again, I never got to know how he fared until, too, just recently.

        Students, my dear friends, are sometimes identified as  young, carefree, unmindful of responsibility - well, some of them! A lot of them I had known to admire for various reasons.. a lot of them to have touched my life in various ways...   But none of them to have experienced the maelstrom that I am in now. ... as far as I know. There have been fictional depictions of the Maelstrom by Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Vernes who describe it as a gigantic circular vortex that reaches the bottom of the ocean.  The real world itself time and again gets into diverse maelstroms in life's day-to-day existence.  Now you might want to ask what's this about mine?  Well, I could talk about it, why not.  But a bit of warning because  should I begin to tell you,  I would be  triggering in your imagination the violence of  an earthquake the likes of  a seven point seven at the richter scale, - a signal five weather report of a hurricane ,  -and a volcanic eruption  the horrific magnitude of a Mount Vesuvius activity... - all  in simultaneous occurrence!  So I'm  thinking I'd rather not.  I only  pray I get out of this soon.  I  do fervently hope so.  I really hope I will.  No, no, I know I will.  I should!!!

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