What’s an X-link?

As I went around different blogs I came across a term that I still don’t understand. X-link.

I don’t know what that means. Is it a verb? Is it a noun? Is it something else altogether that when uttered means everything and nothing at the same time? I guess this is what Fr. Ferriols said in his book Pambungad sa Metapisika (Introduction to Metaphysics). I don’t actually recall the exact topic but it was about saying something that actually meant something or referred to some thing. Saying “Pikre” or “Kafli” meant nothing to me or the listener. It was a momentary disruption of the atmosphere and nothing more.

Deviating from my quest in finding what an X-link is or what it means to X-link I recall earlier times. I was in the classroom at 730AM T-TH SECA. My class was Ph102 Sec. G located at the SEC A Building 1st floor near the entrance from Batibot. It was on that fateful day when we discussed “pikre” or “kafli” and other meaningless words that I learned something new. I learned how to say “I’m sorry I don’t know.” It was recitation time and I had not read a thing. I was called to recite on that chapter containing those two words. I remembered them because they meant nothing at all. And that was what I recited on, nothing at all.

The old man seated behind the teacher’s desk grew impatient and angry. In Filipino he screamed at me to stop taking snippets from the book that meant nothing at all and say something substantial. He said that it would have been better if I admitted that I didn’t know. I would have saved him, myself and the rest of the class from hearing my weak attempts at trying to get through recitation. 

The man was almost 80 years of age then (80 or more even)! I thought that it would only be downhill for him. Yet at that time I was witness to a great upheaval. The wrinkled skin suddenly revealed an eruption of veins. What used to be deep valleys and small hills were now peppered with mountain ranges of vein. The voice box that nary made anything more than a whisper suddenly resonated. The eyes that veiled the world from him became sharp once more. I was witnessing a man’s rebirth, even for those few moments. A vitality that I had never before seen manifested itself.

It was an exuberance I knew that would not last. An explosion of youth that showed me how advanced in age he was.

Looking back I know that it was not entirely bad to exhibit hubris at that time. It taught me many things most important of all was to know when to say “I don’t know.”