The loss of belief is a frightful thing. To put confidence into something with absolute certainty, &then cease to believe, is an almost insufferable ordeal. For the wholeness of my life I counted on the common sense of our country. Sure the pendulum might swing to the right, but I always presumed it would always swing back to the left – in fullness of time finding its way to the moderate, Filipino, middle. That indigenous faith is gone. I now see the deep-rooted madness in not just Filipinos, but in all human beings. A madness based on our inclination to believe in whatever fiction best comforts us. (Or infuriates us.) I can only suppose we’re wired this way because life, the world, reality, is simply too much. In the face of immense uncertainty, we desolately seek some ground to stand on, even if that ground does not actually exist. We live, we love, we fight, &die protecting our sandcastles. No, not even. The idea of sandcastles. The dream of sandcastles. All while an actual wave approaches.