I believe we also foster courage when we pursue things bigger than ourselves. A passion to get lost in — the arts, a vocation, and for many people I know, a cause. As you lend more of yourself in one, you see, then get rid, of the superfluous, the excesses. A life pared down to essentials is a fertile ground for courage.

– “How to be brave”

Dear Meg: Advice on life, love, and the struggle

This book is a collection of advice columns written by a psychologist and fellow activist named “Meg,” and published under the title “Dear Meg: in progressive new magazine Pinoy Weekly (dot org) and in a Facebook Page bearing the column’s name.

Judging from its reception in social media, it is popular among what could be inferred as its target audience — leftist activists and socially-conscious Filipinos in the Philippines and in the diaspora who can read English and enjoy regular internet connection, or those belonging to the middle classes in short. It has a small but loyal fan base that seems to always read and share the columns, which admirable given that these do not come our regularly.

…

“Dear Meg” is in demand largely because of the emergence, also brought about in various ways by people’s movements in the country, of a new generation of politically-committed and socially-concerned Filipinos, many of whom were and are still being politicized through social media and starting out as “woke.” Living in an increasingly dark and desperate time, their enlightenment and growing ranks are themselves a source of hope for the nation — a hope that must still be nurtured, strengthened, and organized in a general sense.

– From the Introduction by Teo S. Marasigan

Publication Year: 2022
Language: English, Filipino
Format: Print
Pages: 197+
Size: 5.5” x 8”
Selling Price: Php 449. Order from https://shopee.ph/gantala_press.

The six best Filipino books of 2022