Is the Philippines in our soul? Fabled Zamboanga and how the name alone captured someone ‘s imagination

Is the Philippines in our souls?It should be, if we are Filipinos, or have lived there long enough.

But suppose we are not from these exotic tropical islands with names exotic enough to fire our imaginations if not our wanderlustings?

Island names like Camiguin or “Come Again,” or even Bohol, Siquijor or Zamboanga of the “Note Vayas” song fame, which says

Don’t you go, don’t you go far from Zamboanga
Where you may forget your darling far away
Don’t you go, don’t you go
For if you leave me
How can I, without you, stay?

So If you were a Spanish soldier assigned in the far Zamboanga garrison of Fort del Pilar in the 16th century , your señorita would certainly implore you to stay put, be by her side and not stray far from Zamboanga into the faraway islands like the Jolo or Tawi Tawi morolands where hostilities can take you faraway from her, maybe forever.

Then that song and that señorita would be enough reason for you to dream of coming back home to Zamboanga and why not?

But suppose you were Charles Doss, American with address at Box B – 32823, Florence, AZ. 85232, a federal penitentiary where you’ve spent several years, waiting on death row?

And Some of those years are spent in solitary confinement, awaiting appeals, where you began to write that

There is an island in the Philippines,
or perhaps it is a province,
called Zamboanga.
I know nothing but its name,
do not wish to know more.
It is pronounced with four syllables,
Zam bo AHNG ah,
and the sound to my ears is beautiful.

I don’t know why it calls me so.
But I shall sojourn there one day,
and when I do I shall not be gray and old.
I shall be lean and hard, laughing and gay,
Filled with hope for the whole human race.
We should all have a Zamboanga,
lush, exotic, and beckoning,
Anchored brightly in the Philippines
of our soul.

These words of Charles Doss are recorded in the blog of one Theresa Evangeline who had been in contact with death row inmate Doss.

One morning Theresa felt that “surely we all have stories inside of us, waiting to be told. Some of them need to be told, some of them will never be told and some are still waiting their turn.

Theresa further says that

“eventually, Charles Doss won a reprieve of sorts, his death sentence was commuted, and
he returned to the main prison population, serving out the remaining years of his life. I’m sorry to say, my correspondence with him did not last that entire time. My life moved in onew directions and our correspondence trailed off until it was no longer.

In the last sentence of his last letter he wrote: “Good luck, my dear. I hope life is good to you,” and then signed it, “Best love, Charles.”

Even from inside those prison walls he knew that Love is the answer.”

So, why did I decide to write about Charles today? While looking at the stats for my blog at http://www.bcbpohio.com this morning, I noticed that an unusual visitor arrived, at almost the exact same time
I got out of bed: 4:36. This visitor was from Zamboanga, Philippines.”

From the above story told one may conclude that a country or an island in a country, especially one that with a name like Zamboanga could actually have a way of ingraining itself inside one’s mind, to eventually work itself towards one’s soul simply because the place exists, and secondly that the place may conjures an image that far exceeds reality itself.

So was the mind of Charles Doss imagining some tropical island which he had not even seen and calling it “Love” even if he had no real reason to equate” love” with “island?”

Or are these two words, “love” and “island” synonymous?

I believe that it is only the soul, and not even the intellect but the imagination that can make the jump between “love” as feeling and “island” as imagination.

And here is where the possibility that the Philippines, as soul, can exist. In the imagination of its people.

So far, so good. The next question then is: how imaginative are we as a people?

And the answer is “as imaginative as the songs we sing, or the tales we tell. Or even the jokes we create or the movies we make. Not to mention the books that we write.”

So, is the Philippines in our soul? You betcha.

But it helps us to be poets first, like Charles Doss. And even more poignantly if we were, like him, in a solitary cement and steel cell, waiting for a death sentence but not allowing it to destroy our inner most self, that which we call “soul” and that which is our most dignified atom or molecule which is the one most directly mapped element of ourself to our Creator.

Is it possible that Charles Doss caught a glimpse of the faith of the Filipinos, island peoples, living in places with nice sounding names called Zamboanga

Could be. Could be.

http://www.bcbpohio.com