Reunion as re-gathering [with Dr Alma Trinidad]

REUNION AS RE-GATHERING. There is a word in Ilokano that comes to me as we celebrate our reunion in Happy Valley: kammayet. Or kayyamet. It is one-ing, or oneing, that happy process of becoming one, with our souls commingling, twining, intertwining. Today, I drove for miles to another county to meet up with Dr Alma M. Ouanesisouk Trinidad, a leading activist academic based in Portland. I have known of her work long before our first meeting, with Dr Julius Soria (+), a former colleague, supplying all the details. And then in August, at the bedside of this dear friend, we met up, and there, we honored his life, this friend who the became the mediator of our meeting up. Together we have grieved because of our common loss, and now, we vowed to continue to work for causes grander than ourselves. I can only thank Dr Alma, my ading, for rekindling that sense of commitment that we have to sustain. It is hard work, this. But alongside others--in this grand scheme of things we call kammayet/kayyamet--something could be done. Or so it seems. HAPPY VALLEY, OR, 23 Dec 2016. [Photo credit: A. O. Trinidad]