Friday, September 02, 2005
what's it all about?i always thought that when i got older, at least a bit older, things would be so much clearer. i was an arrogant little thirteen year-old prick. i told myself i knew the meaning of life and i knew what love was and that i was the greatest person in the world. this led me to believing that the world wasn't big enough for me, that i was too good for anything in existence. which then led me to believe that i must have been created for a higher purpose, a bigger, larger-than-life destiny.
i'm seventeen now, and truth be told, i don't know anything from anything. i'm still groping around for walls in the dark, constantly tripping. and tripping. and falling. and hurting myself. it took me four years of the awkward pubescent transition stage to humble myself. and the process still isn't completed. i still believe somehow [though not as intensely] that God has a bigger plan for me than i have for myself. i'm just not ready for it. almost the same arrogant prick. but at least i've learned to look at it differently.
experiences that disappoint and upset you only make you realize how much of a human being you actually are. humans make mistakes. humans are tempted. humans aren't perfect. and no matter how amazing you think you are, stop it. think. this is the truth. there will always be someone better than you. being "the best" is very subjective. and through this principle, i've learned to accept things as the way they are.
wha..? a storm? in the US? hmmm.there are more adventages to living in a [sorry for the term] third-world country than people notice. we Filipinos don't have TiVo, nor creative advertising, nor un-bumpy roads, nor honest politicians [who does?], nor good road traffic, nor highly-intelligent people, nor original ideas, nor an abundance of serious and talented actors and actresses, nor nor nor nor nor. nor lots of things. but one thing that we do have that i believe will never be in the racial characteristic of [ahem] certain countries is
resilience.re·sil·ience (rĭ-zĭl'yəns) n.
The ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortunea certain country, after its independence, has almost never had so much as a single bullet from another, invading, hostile country hit its good ol' soil. and in such events, when such "terrorism" and "acts of direct threat and war" are inflicted upon them, it's always gotta be one big teleserye with multiple seasons and a dozen other spin-off teleseryes.
the Philippines has never been in calm since... uh... ever. but are we a peaceful people? do you think that with the millions suffering, the thousands dying, and the very few money-hungry miser-mongrels that grow more powerful everyday that we, Filipinos, are experiencing peace? we are. for the little part of it all, we are. and that's a good thing. peace is not the absolute absence of war and of any sort of hostility. for at what time in humankind's history ahs that ever happened? peace is being able to live happily and in harmony amidst all the chaos around. and it's clearly safe to say that the Filipinos are a happy people.
put another certain [ahem] country in the situation the Philippines is facing. place 90% of their people under the marginalized line. that's millions and millions of mouths to feed. give them hundreds or thousands of corrupt politicians and millions of potential ones. give them a place in the top 10 most dangerous terrorist countries in the world. give them a spot in the top 5 most polluted countries in their region of the world. give them a crappy/stupid/[insert mean and negative adjective here] justice and political system. give them foreign debt that will find their great great great great great great grandchildren still paying for it. give it all to them!!!! and let's see what'll happen.
geez. you give them a natural calamity and people start looting all the stores, start killing each other, start raping each other, start going completely nuts.
but i'm not saying we shouldn't feel sorry. i do feel sorry. and what happened is a tragedy and i do pray for the people affected by it.
but my point is, with us Filipinos,
when shit goes down, we keep our cool. i mean come on. on weekends, megamall is jampacked.
and another billion pesos goes unaccounted for in unpaid taxes. you see little kids without homes on the streets playing around, doing somersaults.
while their mom or dad is in one corner inhaling rugby and looking through a dumpster for food. inday rushes all the way home in navotas from her tindera job at divisoria just to be able to watch Encantadia or Darna.
even if tomorrow, they have to face the likelihood of getting raided by unjust cops who end up looting their fake goods.
resilience. one bad thing about it though, is that it swings both ways. it is our very resilience that makes us lazy, apathetic, and stoic. weird. i started writing this a few minutes ago thinking i could write a good ending to this 'resilience' piece. but half-way through, i realized that it isn't really something we should be too proud of. it is both good and bad. but to what extent in both ways? is it the type of resilience that we just keep on getting up after each hit and keep hitting them high and hitting them low? or is it the type of resilience wherein we go, "[nonchalant tone] oh look. they're rallying against the president. again. oh look, the anti-riot task force just started throwing tear gas. oh look, one of the rallyists is getting all intense. oh look, they shot him...... anyway, nakakagutom 'to ah. bili tayong dyalibi."
i'm sorry. i mixed up this topic. hahaha. oh well. at least we know, that when a meteor's coming, or Godzilla's attacking, we Filipinos will still all be in megamall, eating jollibee.
the adventure ended at 7:59 PM
