Neenah Hilario – “Dance, Dance On Little Girl!”

My daughter Neenah Bonafe Reynoso Hilario has turned out to be a dancer I never imagined (image announcement above, from her Facebook page). I memorized that song long ago, “Dance On Little Girl,” recorded by Canadian-American Paul Anka,singer & composer. He happens to be the favorite of Neenah’s mother Ampy, who is my wife.

Dance, dance on little girl
In the arms of someone new
As you dance, as you twirl
My heart dances with you.

Our daughter Neenah is getting married today, Saturday, 29 May 2021, and because of Covid restrictions, very few family and friends were invited – not that otherwise we would have had a grand wedding! Ha, ha. Know that I am an Ilocano, from Sanchez, Asingan, Pangasinan; my wife, Amparo “Ampy” Medina Reynoso, a Tagala, was born in Nueva Ecija where her mother Remedioscame from – Ampy’s father Gabrielwas from Tayabas. Neither poor nor rich.

The groom is Jerome Cajacinto, a classmate of Neenah since high school at the Cahbriba Alternative School in Los Baños, Laguna. Cahbriba was founded by Pilar Habito, wife of former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary General Cielito F Habito. The Cahbriba concept was based on Harvard psychologist professor Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) – while Mr Habito was busy earning his PhD at Harvard, Ms Pilar was busy learning her MI.

Here are Gardner’s intelligences, 9 in all (earlier, I wrote about them, "The House Of Smarts. 1, Here's Inventing The iSchool Of Smarts!" 03 September 2018, House of Smarts, blogspot.com):

 ArtSmarts (Visual-Spatial Intelligence)
 BodySmarts (Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence)
 LifeSmarts (Existential Intelligence)
 MusicSmarts (Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence)
 NatureSmarts (Naturalistic Intelligence)
 NumberSmarts (Logical-Mathematical Intelligence)
 PeopleSmarts (Interpersonal Intelligence)
 SelfSmarts (Intrapersonal Intelligence)
 WordSmarts (Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence).

Mine is Word Smarts,#9. Neenah and Jerome are into teaching others their own Body Smarts, coaching others to dance, make all those movements. I can see that they are happy.

Multiple intelligences is what people have, not just 1 simple IQ. So I will not be surprised if Neenah’s and Jerome’s children will develop talents that differ from each other just as their parents learned in high school.

Know that Ampy and I have had 13 children (I have the list elsewhere so I don’t forget!)

So, what legacy or inheritance can be expected from a father like me? Not wealth – I own neither a car nor mansion – I don’t even have half a million in the bank or elsewhere. Nonetheless, today, I know I am a happy WFH, blogging every single day, in agriculture, inspiring leaders and farmers and journalists.

I confess that my married life has not been ideal mostly because I had not been paying much attention to the duties of a husband and father, mostly to my duties as writer and editor and book publisher. I love my work – but that has been at the expense of my family life, although I never noticed it. I hope Jerome and Neenah will behave more lovingly to each other, and to the members of their eventual family!@517