IT is easy to read something that may or may not be there when witnessing human interaction. Body language, that’s what they call it.

When Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim, dark, gleaming shades and all, went up that stage last Wednesday to join a beaming Speaker Joe de Venecia while everyone was waiting for the arrival of President Arroyo for the Pantal bridge groundbreaking, the world, nay, the crowd, practically stood still.

When the first smile broke from his lips as the House Speaker approached and pulled him by the hand, gripping it momentarily, while raising a free hand to wave to the people as though saying, “All’s well here folks, see here now!”, it was something akin to an Israeli soldier amiably tapping a Hezbollah warrior, and the crowd reacted appropriately – with wild applause and some subdued hoots.

Peace is ever welcome. Truce, or even just the smallest hint of it, is always a cause for celebration. Nobody really wants war, especially among men who stay in the same land, talk the same language and move in practically the same circle – politics. If they get into it at all, that is do battle with each other, one can be sure there remains even just a tiny chance, but chance nevertheless, for a reconciliation, if not forgiveness.

And yet, how true it is through all times that ambition has always been the father of intrigues and consequently, of hostilities. Anything, or anyone, that shows any hint of depriving or blocking another from attaining his vision – or obsession – or maintaining his precious “comfort zone,” virtually opens itself or himself to any of a variety of often unreasonable and unexpected obstacles, if not childish catcalls.

We are not saying such is the actual case between De Venecia and Lim whose political squabble, by now, is well known to many in the city and throughout the province. But if Wednesday’s little incident on a public stage was any indication, and the people’s ecstatic reaction at seeing the two together was any mass and spontaneous judgment on how they want their leaders’ relations to be, there’s hope that some political miracle could yet be worked out for a happy ending.