Thursday, December 08, 2005
modern day samaritansever had a good deed present itself right in front of you and all of a sudden you feel uneasy and hesitant? you end up letting the good deed pass and what could have been a heavenly indulgence becomes another chunk of conscience on your back. the other day, i was walking around in Robinson's Galleria when i saw this man who was reaching into his pocket. as he removed his hand, a P20 bill slipped out and i felt the exact same way i've just described. i didn't know whether i should call the attention of the man and give him back his twenty-peso bill. now, you may think "it's just twenty bucks." but what if he needed that to catch the MRT to get home to his family? yeah, there's that chunk-o-conscience i was talking about.
i ended up walking right past the twenty-peso bill. i tried making comfort out of it thinking that maybe the person who'd end up picking it up would put it to good use.
this is a piece of paper that was posted on the wall outside our house. apparently, some guy parked there and got towed. this may be going a bit to the extremes, but he made sure that no one else would experience the 'injustice' that had befallen him [well, there WASN'T any Tow-away Zone sign. but then again, who parks on street corners anyway?] i guess this would be the way this guy's conscience would clear up. it's a different situation from the P20 bill adventure, but it's still essentially similar.
this guy made me think. the next time something like that happens again, none of us should feel hesitant or uneasy. what's there to lose anyway?
why do we feel humiliated and ashamed to actually do something good? the problem is, everybody's too busy following the trends that people make up so we've forgotten the little things that used to matter and that should matter no matter how small they are. it's always the easy way or the way everyone takes. these days, doing things the right way is just
not cool. you'll be surprised to what extent people go to these days just to be
cool. i'm not gonna be a hypocrite, i know all this because i'm one of those people, hopelessly caught up in a society where what other people think matters more than it should. we're victims of our own crime. the least i can do, i guess, is to do the little things the right way. to give people back their P20 bills. to never run a redlight even though it's 2am and there are no cars in sight. to never leave garbage in smug little areas for concealing [ever notice that Filipinos loooove to hide things they no longer want? bus tickets in the seat handles. gum lodged on the escalator handrails. tissue papers and old water bottles under carseats. it's just weird and very unhygienic]
the adventure ended at 6:46 PM
