Late Nights, Road Trips and Blood Letting

Right after work I found myself stuck in a motionless LRT where it was announced that their operation is on code yellow.

Code yellow?

To be honest I do not know what it means, and that was just the start of our merry



night of bloodletting...

...It was almost 30 minutes of torture. The train was so crowded and I'm really getting clustrophobic (pls. check the spelling), and not to mention the smell, (anyone who's ever ride the LRT would agree with me with this conclusion: the train smells like the meat compartment of a houshold refrigerator).

Well anywas after that skirmish ended I'm happy to announce that I survived the



endeavor.I was surprised by the sight of Laix sitting at a bench on the CS walkway.

Well anyways he was there with Jem and Chit waiting for Jeanie. So I joined them and in no time she's out



and off we go to our destination...

...It took us a while to catch a ride but nevertheless we were able get one. The ride was cool, we got to share two hawaian hotdog sandwiches that I bought earlier at Smokey's. With a couple of twist and turns



from Quiapo to España to Blumentrit to Quezon Avenue, I suppose it would be safe to suppose that the ride was going smoothly,except for the loud cucauphony (spellcheck please) of cheesy mid-90s ballads, which was then replaced by silly slow rock, and then to our surprise we were able to hear the latter half of Dashboard Confessional's Vindicated, but to our disappointment the driver switched the station to Yes FM and gave us more than the BFAD's recomended dose of novelty songs.

As though circumstances were playing with our sanity a traffic jam started to unfold by the time our ride reached Banaue Avenue the congestion lasted from there up to Delta, and during that period we distracted



ourselves with silly idle chit chat about anything basically...

...I believe we were talking about cartoons when we arrived at QC City Hall, which indicates that our trip is already half way through. Going back to the novelty songs I couldn't believe that there were so many artist (if ever they could be called artists) doing that crap nowadays, and come to think of it, the whole idea of it makes one not help but wonder why our country's in too deep on the madhouse in a sociological persdpective that it, since the current rise of such songs indicate that such regression of intellect



has proliferated the mainstream niche of popular culture, it seems as though (that 's if ever Darwin was right on evolution) our minds have ceased to evolve and has merely began to pride itself in shallow decadence.

On a footnote though I must say that those twentysomething novelty shmucks are nowher near the league of Yoyoy, Max Surban, Chonco Brothers, Tatlong Pinoy, Vincent Dafalong, Miñong and Porkchop Duo who's multiplex cassettes are still mainstays on the karaoke players that are strategically placed on 'for the



boys' tables at , family gatherings.Well anyways after a longstanding battle of endurance with the Beep Beep Beeps, Kwek Kweks and Eddie Gil's Carmelita we finnaly arrive at our destination...

...we arrived just in time and we were greeted with jolly questionaires asking us



this silly yes or no questions like:

"Nakikipag-relasyon ka ba sa iyong ka-uri?



Yes () No ()"

"Ikaw ba ay nakipag-talik sa isang bayarang



babae o lalaki? Yes () No ()"

"Ikaw ba ay may nakakahawang sakit tulad ng



gonorhea, syphilis, herpes at HIV? Yes () No ()"

Too bad that we're very much in a hurry but that questions that we're answering very entertaining.

Laix wrote a "maybe" on some of the questionaires and accidentally answered 'yes' on an AIDS question while I answered yes to a question pertaining to being



pregnant...

...So on goes the qualification round for us potential blood donors (by the way the reason that we're giving our blood is that Jeanie's friend Gera, has recently gotten a blood transfussion, because she got sick



with dengue and the blood that she used on the transfussion must be replenished on the



hospital's blood bank.)...

...Sad to say I was rejected I was underweight, so was Jem because she presently has a cold, so are Jeanie and Chit (though they were able to make it to the semi-finals of the testing) because they are



both anemic, to sum it up it was only Laix who got qualified to giving his blood...

...Laix saves the day. And it was an amazing thing that Jeanie decided to call him up for



that, since she wasa already having second thoughts about asking Laix to come there...

...Later that night we were given a meal of encimada (spellcheck please) and cherry coke



which made us all burb our hearts out and made me and Laix fart ourselves silly later



that night. As we went home I also got to talk to Jeanie on the phone later, that



night and she told me that I was being quite much of a jerk during our stay there in the



hospital, and I must say that I'm really very sory for being so insensitve.

So to end why is this whole blood donation escapade have to be told in light of our



professed faith?

Please read the following:



6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:

8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:

9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;

10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.



Hebrews 9:6-28



What does this mean?



Well I cannot expound on the absoluteness of the scripture pertaining to this but I could



say that our faith is based on the shedding of Christ's blood on calvary which made the



remission of sins possible for our salvation, Catholics call this the Eucharist, but true enough it was the blood that was transfuesed to Gera that spared her from the further complications of her Dengue.

Jeanie once said that a person's exterior absces (spellcheck) would be removed if they'd donate their blood so that their circulatory system would be replenished.I remember also that blood is part of our



circulatory system it is what carries oxygen and essential minerals, nutrients and hemoglobin in order for our body function, if it stops it would mean hemorage.

So how does one relate this to our faith?

Well basically our faith is based on the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and physically speaking blood is what gives life and we've all found eternal life and a life that's worth living when we accepted God's gift of



salvation through placing our faith in Christ and if it weren't for the blood of Christ we wouldn't be there collectively giving our effort to give our blood, because our friendship is based on our unique newfound relationship with God and without the shedding of God's blood it would never



have been possible.

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