All rise for Mr. Francisco Arcellana, having the spotlight as the litfili author of the week.

His works are mind-boggling, because his works are giving you reality but somehow his styles are still giving me that feel of fiction.

I'd like to point out two things on his first text, "The Mats". In this story, it shows again a Filipino trait of having the tradition on bringing home a pasalubong whenever they go someplace else far away from their beloved homes. When we take notice of the word PA-SALUBONG, it literally means to meet with. Pasalubong is a type of gesture for us filipinos to let the people know that they are remembered along the trip. You can find pasalubongs everywhere in this country because it already is a tradition,at the same time a trademark for us. You can find pasalubong kiosks in a mall, along the road or even at gas stations.

You can find evidences that Filipinos are fond of bringing and receiving pasalubong in advertisements. Such as print ads, tv commercials and billboards. But why is it that pasalubong has ben with us for so long and that we still keep the tradition alive? What is it that we get with pasalubong? It simply shows how thoughtful Filipinos can be. Which brings me to the next poit that i'd like to expound with the text.

Filipinos are evidently known to be thoughtful that even when a loved one has passed away, they don’t forget, and they still value that person as if their spirit still lives on them. In the story, the father brought home a pasalubong to every member of his family, even the ones who are gone already. This act brought up the conflict in the story, they all got surprised that the father still brought pasalubongs to the family members who are not with them anymore which made the father angry. I can see the father's stand in his situation, I mean his standing point is that if the people you love and cared about is gone, that doesn't mean you have to forget about them. It is your own personal choice, a freewill to do so.

But also, you just have to move on with your life and not bear the ache that you have with what you had with those people. You have to learn to make a balancing act in life in order to grow and to step forward. You can't be stuck in the same place all your life. However, when a person moves on, that doesn't mean they have to forget about what happened. A person can never forget, whether you like it or not, it will stay with you forever. It has already made its mark in your life. But every misery, mistake and pain in life is a blessing because it helps a person to be strong and it makes a person grow. So there should be no regrets in life, only lessons.

The second story is "Divide by two", where i've took notice of the so-called hiya factor among filipinos. . Filipinos have this certain trait that they are afraid to be embarrassed. The conflict in this story is the argument between two couples who are neighbors. But I think the deeper conflict in the story was the said hiya factor. For the Filipinos, shame is very important to them, pride and dignity stands in the way because of that hiya factor. They are very conscious with what other people might say. They care about what other people think on them, they care about keeping their face with pride. They care too much, that they are having a hard time trying to be frank and straight-forward. They tend to sugar-coat things which are very unlikely with Western civilization. I think by having that kind of trait as a Filipino can lead to communication conflicts, which for later brings more conflict with relationships between two or three or more people involved.