Raymond G

Dear,


I  wonder how it feels like putting your name in Twitter's search query and read all those harsh remarks about you. Does it still hurt?  Do you still get upset when people you don't know tell something about your expanding girth, your flamboyant attitude, your blatant denial of your sexuality? Or have you become calloused to the world always turning against you?  

There's no denial that once,  I  too was fond of reading those comments under your name. I smirked when  people try to compare you to a walking closet, or a clumsy elephant, or some woman who just recently made her pregnancy a fodder for public amusement. I  look forward to people expressing their disgust at the way you live, or tweet about some small things to make it more  trivial. In  fact, the only reason  why you caught my attention lately is because of the comic relief you give. You're a class clown to peons like me, but lately I've learned that there's a limit to one's capacity to make fun of someone.



We  know  how superficial showbiz is.  Today you're a darling  but tomorrow you're everyone's rag doll.  Even a tragic death by a rising star may catapult  that poor fellow to the heights of fame, posthumously. A  celebrity, no matter how nice his intentions will be hated by someone - for shallow reasons such as not  being sexy enough, or for being too beautiful or merely because he or she is too popular - and glaring.  That is why the ones who endure the business are the loud gay people - who's not a threat to anyone  or the legends - with real talents who spent ages steadily climbing their way up.

I  may  not  know your life off-screen or the real reasons behind people's derision. Perhaps they are trying to compare you with your more prominent twin - whose manly appeal had launched a score of  high-rating soap operas in the Kapuso Network. Maybe they're trying to pit you against your older sister, whose controversial marriage breathed new life into her once-sagging career.  Of course you're not married to a Turkish mafia, but just the same, its fun to see things that way.

To tell you honestly dear, I'm not a fan of your family. I may never will. Seldom do I like celebrities and the ones I do have more meaningful lives off-screen. But reading your social network's timeline, I get this impression that you're successful in your own way. I see that you're a local socialite whose penchant for the high life is often cast badly by everyone. You may become a skillful talent manager someday, a career your mother is already pursuing. But given your aloofness and this perceived pretension I see when you're on stage,  I still doubt where you're heading.  

Yet behind the often misunderstood face you portray in public, I sense that you're a good person. Someone, who gets upset when people call you fat, or when strangers sneer at you when they spot you at a party.  I see that behind the image is a struggling person trying to find his place and acceptance in a cutthroat world where you chose to plant your roots.

My dear, I maybe an outsider to your world but as a fellow human who understands rejection, you taught me a good lesson today.

"ang panget ni baklang Raymond Gutierrez. Y not lamutakin mu mga scarf mu panget!"

We should  look at ourselves before we say bad things to a person and in times we cannot say anything nice to a  stranger, it is best to shut our mouth and divert our attention elsewhere.

Sad  how good manners and kindness seem to come hardly these days.