Time Capsule - This One's For You Mac

Time Capsule – This One’s for you Mac

It’s Feb 14 and I suppose as expected by some, this entry would tackle one of the most profound mysteries of the world -love. But I am not really a big fan of Valentines Day. The world – well at least the so-called civilized part anyway- has a way of ruining the best days of the year through commercialization. Gone are the days when a simple picnic by the brook would suffice to celebrate life, love, existence, togetherness, possibilities. In a world that has slowly gone aberrant one’s depth of commitment is now associated by the number of carats of the ring or the $ value of the gift. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned love?

But hey before I proceed with my litany, this log is way off the big V.

It is about an event that happened on Valentine’s day a few years back.

Thw year was 2001. We buried a time capsule on a Valentine’s Day. In Dole Philippines School, where I taught science for 2 years, Valentine’s Day coincides with Teacher’s Appreciation Day. At that time I organized a time capsule burial activity with my freshman advisory class. I was all set to go back to the Corporate world and wouldn’t be able to see my kids go through high school. But I made a pact with them that in 3 years time (on their senior year) I would go back on that same date to dig up the treasure together.

Time capsule burial is something that has always fascinated me. In the absence of a time machine, it is a way of connecting the past and the future. There is that inevitable challenge of fulfilling a promise to unearth the treasure. It is about a commitment that no matter what, your future self will have to make the journey full circle.

My fascination harks back to the “Blood Brothers” episode of MacGyver, which I first saw on my second year in high school.

For a young naïve, promdi kid studying in Philippine Science High, hundreds of miles away from the family, it meant dealing all alone with the culture shock, homesickness, bullies, and adolescence angst. I had literally no one to turn to. (Picture yourself in your high school years, dealing with all these stuff, all alone. That was how tough it was) And so it probably made sense that my father figure during those tumultuous years was a fictional character by the name of MacGyver.

Such probably was his impact that the first course I took in college was Applied Physics, Mac’s Field of Expertise. When I shifted to Chemical Engineering I even used Mac’s byline as rationalization- exploring other fields. (This he mentioned to his professor in the episode “Hell Week”, one of the best episodes) On hindsight, I did seem to have inherited MacGyver’s curse with the ladies as well – occasionally linked but emotionally inaccessible.

Anyway, this “Blood Brothers” episode was perhaps the best in the series. It was in this episode that viewers went back in time to discover the root cause of the central “flaw” in Mac’s character- his strong distaste for guns.

This was also the episode where Mac had a taste of the sublime and came back to fulfill a pact he made as a kid – to unearth the time capsule he buried with his buddies.

Of course MacGyver at first had a hard time convincing his buddies. Somehow his friends have “matured” already and never saw the beauty of fulfilling the promise.

*****

Fast forward to the year 2004. I was already based in Manila as an EHS Engineer. It had been three years since I left the academe. But I did recall the pact I had with my students. It was a pact that I had to keep no matter what the odds were.

And so on Valentines day of 2004 exactly 3 years after, after wrestling with my boss to grant me a leave, canceling a blind date, and draining my savings for the plane fare (I had to cut down on my gimmick expenses just to set aside the amount) I went back to Mindanao to fulfill the promise.

It seemed pretty stupid to go through all the trouble just to dig up what arguably was a worthless piece of junk. But as I looked at the treasure we unearthed, I felt an inner sense of joy, peace and fulfillment. I had a connection with my old idealistic self. It was like going back in time.

What I did was probably foolish and impractical. But for me it had been a life statement.

It was my way of expressing that I haven’t succumbed to the banalities of life.

It was a message to my kids that promises are meant to be kept.

More importantly, it was also my way of saying - Hey Mac, Thanks. This one’s for you.