Accents
Let kindness overflow
Somewhere, somehow, sometimes the milk of human kindness overflows to douse the cynicism in our souls. Be it in the macro or micro sphere of our individual lives -- public or private, political or personal, massive or minuscule -- the warring positive and negative forces reach crashing point, when lo and behold, one heaven sent appears to make sense of our world. A kind soul comes to the rescue before we get overwhelmed.
Of late, our second-hand car has attracted more helping hands than anything I could think of during these senior citizens' homecoming to Inang Bayan. Rudy and I expected a restful retreat in the homeland after the hectic stay with our daughters in America, but our decrepit conveyance does not deliver. Unlike the pizza man. (Did I hear a knock at the door? Crisp and warm bite it's gonna be. Gosh, I've mixed up my metaphors.)
Oh, well, the vehicle was most uncooperative to its feeble driver. And it chooses to conk out in the most unlikely places. Take the recent case at the Benigno Aquino diversion road. Picture two oldsters, heaving and puffing, trying hard to push the car. Too bad, the gasoline station where we could ask for assistance was still several meters away. As I sighed helplessly looking around, I saw a fellow by his window. I supposed he was having a monarch-of-all survey of his surroundings that early morning. Before I knew it, he was beside us, pushing the car out of the flow of traffic. Heaven-sent, as I've said earlier. Just one of the many nameless, kind souls who appear at the most distressful moments.
Then there's the Tanza incident. Who was it who told us that in Tanza lurk some of the most troublesome characters? I disagree. When our car stalled in that district, the "troublesome" tambays readily gathered around to help. Hope springs eternal in the human heart, the optimistic bit we often hear uttered in solace. And I say, so too does the fount of goodness. Never discount goodness, I'd like to be repetitive.
Let me recount another car incident in the U.S. of A. involving three Mexicans. My daughter Randy's SUV refused to budge at Kroger's parking lot no matter how much she and her husband David tried some fix-up. It was past office hours and we were there for some groceries. The Mexicans were parked a few cars from us. They came to see what's wrong, and having the expertise and the tools, they got the car going. Randy offered to pay but they replied "No, it's just a little help." I couldn't forget what the eldest of the three said: "My mother told me to help when I see folks needing help."
Because Rudy carries a cane to maintain balance, it warms the heart to see another in the line gesturing, "After you, Sir. " It is especially nice to see this in kids giving way to the old and disabled, instead of pushing the insensitive "Me first" no matter what.
We are frequenters of drugstores for our maintenance medicines, and it is so disgusting to find counterpersons placing us last in their priority list when they see us holding on to our senior citizen's card. Some of them must find it extra work, yes, bothersome to be listing down the medicines in the senior citizen's booklet. But not Allan of the Molo Mercury Drugstore whom we knew only by his nameplate. Allan dispatches with ease and patience our needs for prescription medicines. Nameless others like him have touched and enriched our lives by their being considerate and understanding.
If you think the world has gone cynical (which I can't help thinking so whenever drivers throw traffic rules to the winds), witness how kind gestures flourish to even up the scales: security guards holding the doors wide open and moving the check-in table to make ample passage for senior citizens, younger people you never knew offering to lift bags from beleaguered hands, and many others -- strangers but brothers and sisters in the family of man -- whose compassionate acts make for a gentler, kinder, saner world as borne by the latest demonstrations of concern for the Guimaras fisher folks.
For humanity to survive, nay, thrive, let kindness overflow.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)