I’m paid to enjoy my work at MB
riting for Manila Bulletin is almost as good as a paid vacation. I write four times a week (three times in the daily, every Sunday in Panorama) and consider it an exercise in discipline, freedom, journalistic curiosity, the whole happy expression of faith in democracy, and professional ethics topped off with a sweetener called salary.
After 11 years doing what I do, I wish I could do more, when in my heart—as in every respectable senior citizen’s—the hidden desire is to do less! Fortunately or unfortunately, the bosses have given me enough leeway to write as I write, and their understanding (or tolerance) has consequently encouraged me in a different direction: photography, the results of which I show off to friends and family every Panorama Sunday.
Ever since my daughter gave me that little black box (to be replaced later by a red one, frosted like fingernail polish) called a camera, I have been lugging it as my favorite toy, warning my human subjects that they are but props in the bigger picture of a landscape or photogenic event. They don’t seem to mind, thank you, not even when I warn them that my status is plainly that of an amateur photographer. (What I don’t take is selfies.)
Still, there’s plenty of time to learn new tricks. In the meantime, as students often ask, what keeps a columnist going? I have two standard replies. One, read, read, read. Two, be curious and ask questions. I might add a third if it weren’t so funny. Three, be yourself but you don’t have to preach or be angry and bellyache all the time.
When Don Emilio Yap pulled me out of retirement after my editor-in-chief chores at another newspaper, I did not know it then but I know enough today to thank him when I pray at bedtime: Writing on a computer according to the discipline of the deadline with no need to travel to the newsroom every day, your car stuck in traffic and your bottom glued to a swivel chair, is the gladdest thing to happen to a writer. Because this freedom gives you the time to read, read, read, at home or in a place far from home; it allows your body to wander in real space (yes, it’s called taking a trip) and your mind to meander in imagined or remembered space (yes, it’s called wishful thinking, or daydreaming, or sipping tea).
So why haven’t I written another book? The answer is that I’m having such a great time doing nothing more stressful than observing, reading, commenting, sharing fresh new stories, watching BBC docus and mysteries, and indulging in the things that the daily, hourly grind of journalism prevented me from doing in my younger years. At MB, I’m having fun working—no time limit and no guilt!
Editor’s Note: Jullie Y. Daza writes the column “Medium Rare” every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, as well as in the Philippine Panorama every Sunday.