DANGEROUS ENCOUNTERS: Surviving the Unexpected

This is more or less a chronicle of unpleasant events that I’ve experienced in my life that really scared the living daylights out of me.

Sweet Talk


I was just casually walking home and darkness had started to set in, and as soon as I reached a shady part on the sidewalk under a star apple tree in front of the elementary school, somebody stopped me. He was a big guy, probably in his late 20s and he somehow asked me in a kind and seemingly harmless way if I knew where a certain person he was looking for lived. I didn’t know if he was really honest about his inquiry or if he was merely namedropping somebody so he can ask me a question. Without any thought of a looming danger, I politely answered the guy that I didn’t know the person he was asking me about. He nodded his head, somehow resigned to the fact that I really didn’t have the answer to his question. Then he said, “Do you want candy?”


An Idle Mind Is the Devil’s Workshop

Then one tragic night, he started slashing and attacking his family with a sharp bolo (more like a machete). His wife was pinned under the bed with a slashed throat and a ripped stomach, gut and all coming out in a very disturbing sight. She met her tragic end before the night is over. His son was able to jump off the window with a minor cut on his finger, while his two other daughters were head-shaved as the sharp bolo scraped the top portion of the skull, cutting the hair in zigzagged fashion everytime the bolo landed on the top of the head. They were able to jump out of the house too. One of the girls had her nose slit in half as the sharp bolo painfully bore a deep wound across her face.


When All Else Fails… Run!

I ran quickly, still with a pail-full of water on one hand, limping my way to our house. I could hear the footsteps behind me as if I was being pursued by whoever is causing the commotion. In my head, I pictured a deranged guy chasing people with a sharp bolo and just hacking everyone in the way.

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The Pale Blue Dot

Let's continue our journey of immersing ourselves in an existence that is not bounded by space. Let's zoom into the limitless expanse of the universe. What do you see? Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, the Milky Way? Is there ever an end to this infinite vastness of space? Zoom further into space even more. What do you see now?

Yeah, you see the cosmos. But something else caught your attention. There's this pale blue dot, that somehow you just can't take your eyes away from.

Why does that pale blue dot look so special to you? Huh?

Hardly visible and almost just a speck of dust in that vast universe, is your place--the one you call home, your planet Earth. That's where all the drama of your mortality takes place. That's your stage. That's where you maltreat people, cheat on others, party all night long, degrade yourself morally, rot your life away. That's where your stakes are--your possessions, your wealth, your wrongdoings. That's where your precious world is all contained in, in that one pale blue dot.

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