Origin
Sunday, August 19, 2007
“Hay, salamat Lord, at nakarating kami ng maluwalhati!”
- Old Man Cabbie, who sang praise songs throughout last night’s ride home
Hallelujah!
Besides katas, whose crispylicious, juicylicious quality gets me all hot and bothered, two other Filipino words I love are luwalhati and dalamhati. La Belly Labella told us of their etymology back in freshman year, and I haven’t gotten over it. If I remember correctly, the root word for both is ati, a tribal term that refers to the juices stored in our livers (hence the word atay, by the by). And ati is some really bad shit, pretty much the liquid manifestation of all things negative. Thus, the more ati we have, the sadder we are. Dalamhati, which we know as “extreme sorrow,” is the bringing of the ati wherever we go (dala + ati), while luwalhati, which we know as “extreme joy,” is the vomiting of the ati from our system (luwa + ati). Happiness, then, is a matter of how much negativity our bodies allow or reject. Tadaaaaa.
+++
My uncle has moved back into the house as of late, so I am no longer alone on the second floor. It’s been a comforting change. Any energy left in this house used to tucker out by 8 PM, when my grandparents go to bed, so I often go home to a dead zone each night. Now that my uncle’s in the other room, contributing extra sound with his Xbox and DVDs, I feel less alone. Almost like having a big brother around, even though we don’t talk much or do whatever else it is that siblings do.
When I got home last night and heard a bit of movie dialogue from his room, I decided to knock on his door, not exactly sure of why I was doing so, but nonetheless pleased that I was going to see another conscious being on the second floor at that hour. He opened the door a crack, pissed.
“Uh, wala lang,” I said, and smiled like a moron.
He shut the door. I headed for my own room, warm from human contact.
posted by marguerite @ 6:51 PM
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