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BY PETER SOLIS NERY
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September Project aftermath
THE WORLD did not end because I didn’t find a boyfriend by the end of September last year. Heck, I still don’t have a boyfriend now, and the world keeps on spinning. Which brings me to this column’s philosophy: Life is short, so let’s try to have fun; and if we can make art out of our lives, let’s do it. Because art inspires; or, at least, teaches us how to be human.
I like that my life plays out in the public eye since I started writing for the newspapers in September 2000. I really believe that I had the most singular opportunity to exploit the newspapers, and make myself a showbiz kind of celebrity in the Ilonggo newspaper industry in the first decade of the millennium.
I mean, sure, we got excellent news reporters, and fearless op-ed writers, in Iloilo and the whole Western Visayas, but they never attained my fabulous notoriety and celebrity status. I’m kinda one of a kind, and I don’t think you’ll see another like me anytime soon. Oh, sure, there were copycats; but they all fell by the wayside because, well, they were never as brilliant as I, and their lives were never as enchanted like mine.
I understand superstardom. I know very well how, for example, my own celebrity gets in the way of my getting laid. Although, in a way, that actually saves me from myself.
I know what I’m capable of as a sexual being. I’m a crazy person when I’m on a sex binge. Abroad, where nobody recognizes me, I’m a wild animal when I’m in heat. But in the Philippines, I don’t cut flowers from my own backyard.
And that, I think, feeds my celebrity status. At least in Iloilo and the Western Visayas where I have some name recall and facial recognition, I’m not some loose cougar ready to pounce on the next lunch meat. I mean, seriously go around Iloilo City, and ask any sex scandal or sex story about me, and you will never get anything.
Or, go around my home town. This early I will tell you, whatever you hear, if it is, at all, a sex scandal, is outrightly a boldface lie, or a wild fabrication. I tell you, and I tell you once again, you will never get a thing…right!
Of course, I give people reason to speculate, and say things they don’t really know. I mean, isn’t that my job as a celebrity – toengage people’s imagination and curiosity? To make their humdrum lives a little more interesting? To give them a chance to think that they are better off, and better than I?
So yeah, I hang out with the handsomest young boys in my town. I have a penthouse frequented by the sexiest boys and girls. I take these beautiful teenagers and young adults to lunches, dinners, late-night burgers; sometimes one by one; sometimes, in twos or threes; and sometimes, like the whole harem is on a picnic.
Why do these gorgeous hormonal kids flock to me? Ah, ah, because I recite poetry to the moon and the stars, and the night air and the awkward boy’s crooked smile? Because I’m an engaging Scheherazade, the most amusing night and bedtime storyteller in town? Or maybe because I know where to touch a man, or a woman, so he/she will be loyal to you? I don’t know. Ask the Pied Piper of Hamelin!
When I was married, these same kids adored me because my husband and I were great models of how extremely successful gay individuals can become a power couple. When my husband died, these kids idolized how I carried on as a model, a paragon, of great strength, success, and vitality. I showed them how to survive grief, and how to live more fully, and in the moment, every freaking moment. They greatly admired my go-getter attitude in The September Project, and how I just rolled with the punches when I didn’t find a boyfriend in my online search.
I think that’s the purpose of celebrity: to inspire others to become better versions of themselves. I’m pretty good at that. After the no-boyfriend finale of The September Project last year, I’ve doubled my efforts as the poster boy of regular and routine HIV testing. I’ve also started working as an online mentor and life coach. And I’ve done many other things that I might discuss in this column if you continue to read me.
Meanwhile, I’ve done a lot of traveling alone, reflecting on my life and the changing world. I’ve also done small trips taking with me an assistant and/or someone young that I just fancy who would be okay giving me space if I met someone more interesting on the road. So far, I’ve had great and enjoyable trips. And so far, no one has been complaining. Because I actually have so much love to give, and more than enough to share. The September Project was just an experiment, a learning process; but I am the greater lesson to be learned!/PN
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