Emptybox

Why did i call my blog Emptybox?

You are probably asking the same question too.

A philosopher once said that man is a "tabula rasa", meaning "an empty slate".

Before paper was invented, ancient people leave carvings/ markings/ writings on rocks. The ancient people told their tales on cave walls or large smooth surfaces. Now in our time, we call that vandalism. They told stories about their lives; how they hunted for foods; how they had fun; how they started a family; and how they interacted with their environment. They put into writing the things that they wanted to remember as time goes by. The rocks are the forefathers of our diaries, a prehistoric blog where they kept their memories. As mentioned by Dr. Holly Pittman, director of the university's center for ancient studies and organizer of the symposium, observed, writing "arose out of the need to store information and transmit information outside of human memory and over time and over space."

As time goes by, they learned that they cannot always bring with them their stories since they are fixed on the surfaces of the rocks. They probably learned this when they have to move to another place and they cannot bring with them the rock along with their blogs. So they probably thought of cutting of their blogs from the large rocks giving rise to their own tablets/ slates. Their stories are now portable like our modern tablets today. Take note, their tablets contains stories already.

Then another dilemma came into their way. They sometimes do not have the rocks around them to write on when they travel. So they sorted this out by bringing along with them an empty slate of rock, the “tabula rasa”

Now, we no longer have to use a “tabula rasa” to keep our stories and tales.

Back when I was still at kindergarten, I have this hobby, sort of, of collecting things. I remember that every after class, I would go to our neighbor’s front yard and collect stones from their gardens. I was so obsess of collecting different kind of stones. My favorites were the multi-colored ones. I kept these stones in a little box my mom gave me. When I fill up one box, she would then give me another empty box to fill up. As I grew up, my stone collection also grew from hundreds to thousands.

Then came the time when I no longer have time to collect stones. I started spending my after school hour with other children leaving me less time to collect stones. Until I finally stop collecting stones. (But I still collect stones when I go to new places… a memorabilia…)

Few more years came and my scope of interest also grew wider. At the age 8, when I was on third grade, I started collecting trading cards and marbles. I kept my trading card collection in an old gift box, and I kept the marbles in an empty Skippy® bottle.

An empty box waiting to be filled with things.

When I entered high school, I began collecting old Philippine Peso coins. It was hard collection coins back then because I have limited resources. I collect only those I find in our house hidden in drawers and cabinets. One time, I showed my collection to my childhood friend. He was fascinated with my collection. A week later he gave me some old coins he found from their house. One coin was not a Philippine Peso, but has the word “Peso” at the back. I was not familiar with the other currencies back then. I made a research on the different currencies around the world. I found out that that coin was a Chilean Peso. This gave me the idea of collecting money from other countries. By the time I was in my sophomore years, my collection grew to 18 different currencies. Before I graduated high school, I gave my collection to a close friend. It was boxed in a small cardboard box and wrapped in old newspapers.

I grew sentimental during my high school years. I began collecting memorabilia, collecting anything from small paper clips to old posters. I kept anything that has sentimental value to me. I hoarded things; Things that are not usually collected; Things that are junk to other but were treasures for me. My collection/ hoarded things piled up filling up almost my whole room. What used to be an empty room became a box of junks. My hoarding grew unhealthy. There were molds growing in my room, cockroaches sleeping with me and useless junks took most of my space.

As I entered college life, my hoarding became worse; so bad that I even collected plastic candy wrappers. But before I graduated college, I was able to get a grip of myself. I was able to unlearn my obsessions and compulsions. I am no longer a hoarder nor too much sentimental of a person.

I am now again a “tabula rasa”, an empty slate, an empty box; waiting to be filled with stories and tales of good and bad, happy and sad, pure genius and genuine stupidity. . .

That is the story behind the Emptybox.

sanglei915@gmail.com

sanglei_alm@yahoo.com.ph