To Cavaliers, Colleagues and Friends,
You can park for free. Enjoy the materials of this Library and if you have the urge to do so on this platform, send your legacy ideas and share with us the Wisdom, Agility, Grace and Ardor behind your latest stance on issues of the day. Send in those awesome comments and wry jokes and be a part of the evolving world – real or virtual, open yet definitive, creative but respectful of history and truth.
(Note: See the Q & A Section on the protocol to do this).
WAGA (not to be confused with MAGA, the world promoted by someone with orange-colored hair), who is a real warm-blooded human like us, just transitioned recently and inevitably. After a long and anxious wait that he pretended not to mind, he’s now an octogenarian! (To WAGA – Happy
Birthday, my dear friend!)
WAGA is Navy Captain Winston Atilano Godinez Arpon, or Arfs for short, whose
illustrious career was cut short by EDSA People Power Revolt in 1986. By choice,
if I may clarify. But that is another story.
Truth to tell, from Fort del Pilar to the Navy to Mindanao and on, our career paths would either cross, run parallel or get disrupted by circumstances. I dare say that he sailed in my wake – succeeding me in Navy intelligence positions up to Mindanao’s SouthCom when I left for my attaché assignment in Tehran, Iran. Before I knew it, Arfs
was posted to Washington DC, making good use of special skills underpinning his wit, amity, grace and ardor in global settings of diplomacy.
Between us, I am aware of his singular disappointment – he was not able to follow me in my graduate studies. As it happened, I did not have an alternate in my 2-year IMET grant to study law and diplomacy in The Fletcher School of Tufts University in Boston. I came to know later that it would be the first and last time the grant would be given to an
allied country. But deserving as he was, Arfs was sent for graduate studies at the USN Postgraduate school in Monterey, California.
EDSA 1986 was the equivalent of our signal – proceed independently to port. Arfs stayed in America to pursue other dreams. I elected to stick it out with my naval career. For both of us, and as they say, the rest is history.
But, hey, there is more for us than just watching birds and smelling flowers in the garden. Arfs, alias WAGA, now that he is a freshly-minted octogenarian, is a certified expert gardener who keeps an eye on the virtual world. As he plans to do, when free from Vicky’s chores, the eLibrary shall be launched in October.
I have been assured that I don’t have to be that tech-savvy to access it. In-house assistance. Simply access the link: www.waga55.net.
I am also assured that help will be available with its administrators or protocols, or responses to your queries in the Q&A Section. Otherwise, there’s always the option at your fingertips – seek help from your kids or grandkids if you must (pro bono but subject, of course, to a bucket or a gallon of something!).
Given how far we have already gone on our earthly journey, the days ahead will indeed be blessings and moments for a sortie into the Internet and conversation with old friends. From the profound to the corny, be updated through this innovative enterprise. Be connected with the world, real or otherwise, from a comfortable nook at home.
See you in Cyberspace!
AQM
October 2, 2022
