Allow Me to Digress

I looked around for a perfect place to sit, somewhere inconspicuous.  Somewhere with less people around too, hoping it would be a bit quiet, despite the blaring sound of the radio.  I was going to eat alone again. There was an scheduled 12 hour power interruption for some maintenance in the city where I live in (for now), and I had to eat out to escape the heat.

Among the things in my bag were a book, a pen, a notebook (or probably  post-its), and of course my cellphone. I was all set. I found a place near the entrance. I was eating in Jollibee by the way. Kala mo kung san no? Hehehe I haven’t eaten in fastfoods for quite some time now since I watched "Super Size Me." 

I had my French fries on the table and I kept myself busy while waiting for the rest of the food to be served. (2 pcs chicken joy, spaghetti, hamburger, konti pa yan a. Joke!)  It turned out that my carefully chosen spot was not the best spot afterall. I was engrossed with my cellphone (when suddenly there was knocking on the glass window.  I tried to ignore it for a moment but the knocking persisted so I looked up and saw a dirty ragged boy around 10 years old perhaps, smiling widely at me (surprisingly, not with that pitiful look) with his cupped hands stretched towards me, begging for food.  A second after I looked up he scurried inside and then told me,  "Ate, akin na lang yung fries."

Everyone in my vicinity had his eyes on me.  The boy had a mischievous smile, I noticed, and it was as if he was playing a game with me. He didn’t even look nervous or scared that the security guard might see him and drive him away (where was the security guard?).  It seemed like he had done this a lot of times.  Before I had a chance to think on whether I should give the partly eaten small bag of fries or not, he reached out to touch it and said. "’Te, akin na lang ha?"  The obvious best choice was the one I took - I gobbled up all the fries so that he wouldn’t have anything to ask for.  hehehe… of course I gave the fries away.  Not because I was kind and generous but because he already touched it.  When I handed him the fries, I was sure it wasn’t a happy and grateful look he gave me - it was more of a "naisahan kita" look - how do you say that in English?  (It sounds much better in Filipino na lang hahaha… excuse.)

This post had been lying here in my blog as a draft for quite some time now, and I just think it would be such a waste if I wouldn’t publish it.  I don’t know how to end this post.  I was disturbed for a while after that incident. Many thoughts followed.  About pity, poverty etc. Of how lucky I am, how selfish I am, how indifferent and numbed I can be, and then rationalizing that I wouldn’t be alleviating poverty of this country through alms.  Yeah, poor reasoning.  Sometimes that reason would be challenged by thinking that giving alms would make a difference in the day of a sad young beggar.  I can help in better ways.  I pushed away those thoughts, just like how I dismiss thoughts that enter my mind whenever a beggar would knock on the car window.  But that’s about it.  I don’t have the heart of a Mother Teresa.  As I finished my food, I did remember a child sitting behind me singing "sa Jollibee, dito ang saya!"  Jollibee can make you happy.  Who wasn’t excited about going to Jollibee or Mcdo as a little kid?  If only life were as simple as that.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 17th, 2006 at 10:43 pm and is filed under Anything about Anything, Edibles and Other Related Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.