Chemo, Chindogu and Creativity!

A few things I thought I’d share:

1) A few weeks back, I wrote about my Significant Other and her bout with breast cancer. To update you, she has already gone through three chemo sessions with just one more to go. Anticipating a hard time, she breezed through her first two but last week she went through the wringer so to speak. The third one last week was quite vicious. In the process, she has lost her hair, but also some unwanted weight. She is in high spirits and I am very sure she will live up to the statistics that says, given the stage when the cancer was discovered, she will overcome! I am so proud to see how she surrendered gracefully to losing her long locks.

To most women (and men, I suppose), involuntary loss of hair is not welcome. I still remember when her tears rolled down her cheeks in the salon as her hair was shaved. She had it done since clumps of it were already falling anyway. After a few days of some getting used to, she asked me to set up my lights and take her picture in the studio. This is what she looks like these days. I call her “my chemo babe”.



My Chemo Babe Lydia! Nice title for a song, di ba?

2) What’s a Chindogu?

One of the crazy assignments I give my creativity class in Ateneo is to create a chindogu. A what??? Ok, OK! It’s an invention that is almost useful !! If you wanna know the rules that define it, please look up the Ten Rules of Chindogu at http://www.chindogu.com/chindogu/tenents.html. I trust that the pictures below with the captions should explain the spirit of the assignment.

I had 3 judges who sat through the kids’ presentations in total delight. Needless to say, it was one of the liveliest class sessions for the semester.



For added privacy when lined up in a row of urinals in a public toilet!



Simply leave on seat to make sure no one gets it when you have to leave for a while!



Now, you don’t have to hold kleenex when you watch your favorite tearjerkers!

Visit http://www.info.com.ph/~chinwong/Teaching%20creativity.html and read the review written by last sem’s judge and fellow teacher Chin Wong of the Communications Department !

3) My creativity class is about to end. I feel sad that such fun sessions will be no more—until the next class. Meanwhile, here’s a picture of my students dressed for “an ordinary day”!



The assignment was about abundance. We make any day special. We don’t have to wait for special days to dress special.

As you can see, it’s not your regular class! Ha ha !

4) I start my 24th run of TAPPING THE CREATIVE UNIVERSE on Monday, March 1. I am as usual, excited to meet new people and learn more about the the many blockages that plague our human condition. And of course, there is the path to redemption that the participants “walk through” in a fun yet challenging manner. I learn as I teach! I am thankful how much everything is tilted in my favor since I get such a high out of it!

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