Sheep with a Star on Its Back

This is a secret. I just finished Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase last Thursday night while waiting for a music festival to begin outside a bar in Katipunan. Jap kids arrived in a pack when I was pacing through the last pages, and I was secretly looking at their ears. Do you get anything while she’s wiping hers?

Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like if I knew more languages and I’m a translator instead, or what if I’m in advertising. I love looking at ads, but I’m afraid of the marks  I could be making. What if I’m asked to find a sheep with a star on its back? I’m not sure I dig that.

It’s strange how there’s no time in mountains, no? No distance too. You say after dinner or when the fog settles or past the sheep pasture. Even watches are useless. You just have to do what you can.

There’s this one sad thing I’ve been thinking about: what if you find what you want too early; how do you spend the rest of your life? Somewhere, there’s this place called the Dolphin Hotel where an old sheep professor locks himself in. He found what he was looking for, but it left.

Sometimes, it is too late when we find it. And we realize, somehow, there was a guide. Only we were not ready to understand. Once, there was a Rat and a sheep with a star on its back who lived far out in the mountains where there is no time.