Onward!

(Read Clowder Chapter 3 first before reading this entry, click the cover on the right to do so)

Click the cover to read Clowder Chapter 3!

Hey kids! If you’re reading this now and you have internet access, you can search on Youtube this song by Peter Tchaikovsky, Seasons, Barcarolle (June) Opus 37b, This is the same chords you see on the first page of the book. You can play it while you read or re-read the chapter for a more pleasurable reading experience. This is also the same for the last previous chapters. On the first book you can play Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. On the second chapter the on page 1 and 2 . And on page 9 Chopin ‘s Waltz in A minor. I felt like I just gave you some cheat codes! Enjoy!

Some of the readers of Clowder find the imagery and story essence a bit dark, disturbing at the most. I hope this issue gives you a bit of a breather if you have been reading and you feel it’s going completely insane. That, in the midst of all that darkness, light awaits. I have to say much like my other works of fiction, all of them has been a transportation of therapy for me. Having to experience these events as a child gives you a bit of a heavy feeling. But in making these books, I have begun to feel better every chapter I finish. So far. So good.

Yes, as a kid, I totally got it wrong when I started killing cats for fun. Sometimes innocence can destroy you.  It wasn’t until my mother caught me killing an innocent kitten that I got enlightened about life. Yes, death is beautiful and so is life. To be alive is beautiful, we must all cherish life. Especially the innocent life, the ones who can’t take car of themselves. It is difficult but not impossible. To love is endless. One can love a person and a creature truly, both existing in the same time. Co-existence is the key.

I share these lessons for they were the things I would’ve loved learning from school. Of course they teach these kinds of lessons in school; Don’t kill, do inflict pain, don’t be cruel to animals. But I hope there was some kind of way we could also learn and interact with them. Not just by looking at pictures in books. But having to learn how to properly co-exist with animals for me is something that should be taught more. Even just the simple rule of not hurting someone or not bullying someone should be a topic in classroom discussions at a very young age.

I don’t want to be a hypocrite, I confess I still eat meat. Though the lesser evil would be having to take care of other beings or creatures  that need care or at least company. Someone to scratch their heads and pet them and not treating them as beings without life. It’s safe to say that I learned the hard way. And it’s not easy to have that on your record growing up. But as I said earlier, it is only difficult to co-exist, it is not impossible.  

Marius Black

Manila

November 14, 2014