Writing Workshop with CAMH (Session 1)

I signed up for a writing workshop through CAMH and we had our first session yesterday. It was great to be able to write and reflect, as well as hear other people's reflections. There were about ten participants, plus two facilitators. The following are the prompts, plus my responses.

I wonder who would I be now had my parents found job opportunities in the Philippines, instead of uprooting our lives to move thousands of kilometres from home to come to Canada? How did my mom cope with the loneliness, having left me as her 5 year old son, to take care of three Canadian children?

I wonder if I’d still be alive, gainfully employed if I lived in the Philippines during President Duterte’s regime of war, terror, extrajudicial violence, and chaos? Or will I have been just one of the thousands of his victims. Had my parents not made the decision to immigrate to Canada 25 years ago, I wonder if I’d still be in a position today to send money back home to help pay for my niece’s and nephew’s university tuition fees or pay for my grandma’s hospital bills? I wonder, what is my responsibility to the country of my birth, now that I am comfortable here in Canada? Do I have the energy and resources to help build livable and equitable communities in both countries?

Poetry is a fertile soil where Jose thrives. The above quote reminded me of C.E. Gatchalian when he wrote in his memoir Double Melancholy: Art, Beauty and the Making of a Brown Queer Man, "He had joy for what was offered, but what was offered didn't define him. It remained firmly objects that didn't threaten his subjective integrity. It was the same look he has when he's in bed with me, like he's objectifying and collecting. The exchange is on his terms; I'm willing to be collected."