#ThePSN, The Controversialist

WHAT I like most about being 50 is that I can actually start not taking myself too seriously.

(As if I ever did! Haha.)

But more than that, I can actually begin to hear, and see, what people call me at my back.

(Or in my face, if they dared. Haha.)

*

People have called me egotistical.

I tell them, Move on.

Everybody is egotistical these days.

Even the f*cking lavandera is egotistical.

Just look at Facebook, and all other social media platforms.

It’s all me, me, me.

*

Most writers that are worth reading these days are also about I-me-and-myself.

Of course, I realize that they borrowed greatly from the style that I started, and made fashionable since the beginning of the new century.

In this newspaper alone, you will see how self-important our writers are.

Like theirs is that only opinion that mattered.

Either that, or they aren’t really sure if they mattered.

So they qualify their positions with “in my humble opinion”.

*

Me? I’m shameless.

I write what I like and make no excuses for it.

And I don’t give a damn if you like it or not.

I’d still stick it up to you.

And after almost two decades into this I-me-and-myself business in the newspaper, the style has become my brand.

And I have gone so big that people hardly call me Peter Solis Nery anymore.

They now call me PSN.

And hardcore fans address me with the article ‘the” as in #ThePSN.

*

Look, I say what I want.

I share my ideas.

And it becomes a movement.

I masterminded The Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014.

It was a slow-moving revolution.

But people are seriously talking about it now.

The Revolution never died because I knew what I was talking about.

And what I proposed was actually what the Hiligaynon language needed.

*

With older writers in Hiligaynon dying, younger writers are now looking up to me as the preeminent Hiligaynon writer and mentor.

Of course, it helps that I have created The Peter Solis Nery Foundation for Hiligaynon Literature and the Arts, Inc. in 2012.

It’s still a pretty young literary foundation.

But it’s there.

And it’s visible.

It cannot be ignored.

*

I’ve also embraced the cause of HIV and AIDS screening.

Being a nurse, a health worker, and a widowed gay man, who is unafraid and unashamed of his sexuality.

I became the poster boy of regular and routine HIV testing since 2015.

So, yeah. I’m a controversialist.

But I’m changing the world little by little.

I’m doing something.

Unlike my critics who do nothing, but only criticize and demonize me.

I say, Just keep doing what you do best.

*

Because every time people try to put me down, I come back seven times stronger.

I’m a controversialist, yes.

And I’m a revolutionary that way.

You try to put me down as a literary writer, I’ll wage another literary revolution.

*

So, yeah. Last year, several malicious writers in Iloilo decided to prevent my entry into the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art (Literature volume).

I really didn’t care.

(Duh! I live in the United States, and am least likely to promote the expensive and non-inclusive, or politically-biased, encyclopedia.)

Until the conspiracy to obliterate my great contribution to Hiligaynon literature and Ilonggo Art was brought to my attention.

*

I didn’t want to waste my energy dignifying the slight.

I know I’m good.

(I want to say great, but I try to be modest, too!)

People who have read me know that I’m great.

My fan base is swelling.

More people are discovering my works, which are becoming quintessential 21^stcentury literature (at least for these first two decades).

Even the people jealous and envious of me are growing in numbers.

(What can I say? Satan recruits little devils against me, too!)

*

Granted, that these envious people are in the position to shut me down.

I mean, they’re largely in the academia, and they want to control the discussion by also sitting in such offices as the NCCA, and other such government agencies.

Or in workshops and panels that what to exclude my works.

Do I care?

Of course, not.

If you haven’t noticed, the world has changed a lot since the first iPhone was launched.

Everybody is now a star on Facebook.

Everybody is a celebrity in social media.

*

Those who had no balls before are now so brave and fearless in social media.

Will I let myself lose by default?

Definitely not.

In a way, I invented self-celebrity.

Didn’t you call me egotistical a while ago?

So yeah. You ain’t heard everything from me yet.

*

I’m waging another war.

Read my column next Wednesday.

At fifty, I’m just starting.

You ain’t really seen anything yet.

I know this game so well.

After all, I’m Peter Solis Nery. #ThePSN.

And I am…

The controversialist! (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)