"5 Frames and a Page"

"5 Frames and a Page"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.MD

When the lockdowns started in Manila last year one of the things that I noticed was that I did not post anything on My Story, a feature on Facebook that allows users to post more content that is only available for 24 hours. I did not see the need for this until I realized that aside from the usual promotions and build up of an online presence it can be used to lighten one's day. 

The Lockdowns were not good mentally. People felt more alone as some were forced into isolation or some would have to deal with their whole family constantly in one place without enough space for privacy except through their phone screens. 

I think it was a month into the lockdown or Enhanced Community Quarantine as it was called in the Philippines that I decided posting quotes from my favorite  author Sir Terry Pratchett. At first because it was funny then as time went on it was to honor the man whose beautiful words and thought provoking humor inspired me to write. 

The quotes would be followed by a series of photos that I would love to visit in the future. My physical body maybe bound by 4 walls but my mind was free to roam where ever it wanted to. I posted Beaches , Castles , Nice Houses and Japanese sites. 

I found that in a day I would have shared a quote of my favorite author and shared places that people could focus on rather than what they were experiencing at the moment. Sure as a Doctor I could post Covid19 stats or how the economy is failing or how the myriad mistakes that happened in handling this whole pandemic had led to our archipelago being the country with the most number of cases in Asia( not counting China). People were already bombarded with those. People might not want to know about them. People had to focus on things that could heal their minds. 

And so I posted. At first someone asked me why I liked posting about beaches so much and I answered that I don't really but the images mean that I can be in that place at least for a second and not in the place where I am now. I am fascinated by Castles though , both Western and Japanese and those are places that I want to visit as well. 

As time  went on I thought that I would be inspired to write more but it was like time was running and I was stuck in place. I started posting pictures of interesting places in the hopes that it would also spark me to start writing again but it was not really easy and there are times that the things I wrote felt forced and unnatural. 

So it was at 6am every day I would ready my quote , load the pictures that I wanted and also post something Magic:The Gathering related on a Facebook page that I created and maintained. I might not have wrote anything else but I felt that I was making a difference to someone somewhere. Maybe they saw the quote and laughed or thought about it. They might have seen the pictures and wanted to be there too. Read about the card I wrote about and wanted to play with that. These thoughts helped me mentally throughout the lockdown and I was hoping that they helped the  people who saw what I shared. 5 frames and Page at a time.