What If For Just One Day…

This Sunday morning, I woke up earlier than expected because something in my body clock tells me that there’s a pickup game going on 8.30am and I have to dress up now. But, like I said, I woke up an hour early so I got up, walked half-awake to the living room and switched on the TV.

As I was channel surfing, I happen to stop for a while at NatGeo as they were showing this short documentary about a piece on some annual celebration in Vietnam. It was called Love Market in the Clouds

Imagine a place where – for one day a year – rules of marriage, fidelity and society are thrown out the window. Imagine a place where married couples are free to seek out old lovers with no consequences. What would you do? This mesmerizing concept is explored in Love Market In the Clouds, a documentary set in the rugged hills of Northern Vietnam, where a festival sanctioning illicit passion is a reality. Seen through the eyes of a pair of modern Vietnamese newlyweds, this vivid journey of discovery takes viewers into the rural landscape of Vietnam’s Hmong people to find out why its legendary Love Market offers a respite from toil and the promise of love.

[Program excerpt from moni-media.net]

It’s one of the documentaries of NatGeo’s TrueAsean(?)  series that they’re running this month and it was kinda cool. So I watched a bit. Then a bit turned into more until it was already past 8.30am and I need to get my arse down to play with the guys now.

As I do more research on this documentary (see, I can’t find it YET on wikipedia), the thought of having one day in a year.. just for a day, when you can throw all your notions about the sanctity of marriage and just tread on the what-ifs and inner desires without consequences, what would you do on that day?

This got me to thinking.. really? There’s a place in the world that let you do this kind of thing?

In this documentary, the celebration is tied up with this tradition (or thinking) about making this one-day event filled with good energy. Vibrant energy. Energy enough to give the tribe a good harvest for the year. The universal energy called love. And what better way to do this than to let everyone do whatever their heart desires.

Sad thing is, I wasn’t able to watch the whole show. But with just half of it, I’m pretty much intrigued with this Love Market.

I use to listen to an audio program about this guy, David DeAngelo, a dating guru, who speaks about how to help men with dating women. Wait, let me rephrase that, help men with low self-esteem date hot-hot-hot-hotttt-definitely-a-ten women. In this program, he dissects the nature of men and women, where as women wants to be pursued and men has to do the “hunting”. That’s how nature designed these two sexes.

If you think like this, you’ll say to yourself that men (and women) are truly designed to have sexual relationship with more than one partner. That’s just how we humans are.

But bundle in reason and accountability, and you now have a different ball game. Yes, reason and accountability. What makes us human can also kill us.

So, where does this lead us to now?

It just tells me that I don’t have to look forward to a day like this. Because for me (and I’m pretty sure half the world would also agree), this is pretty much a 24/7 thing. We always have a chance to do this, to go out there and pursue our inner desires, to get a glimpse of the what-ifs in our lives and live the way we want to. No law can prevent you from doing what you want when you want to. Nothing can, and no one can tell you what you can’t do.

It all boils down to just one thing.. your decision. You choose the life you want to live. That’s it, jack. Plain and simple.

And for me, it’ll always lead me back to one path. Into the arms of my loving wife.