Alive!

People have always compared life to many things, a taxi meter, a grindstone, a bicycle. Well to me life has always been a poker game, be it texas hold ‘em or just plain straight poker. It never really mattered whether you were holding good cards but rather it mattered on how well you held them. With the surprising boom of random poker games, I feel that I can somehow tell each persons character with the way they “call”, “check”, “ante up”, “fold” or “bluff”. There has to be some kind of way of telling a persons fortune through poker. (“that’s right”, you heard it here first) .

Life as we know it is unfolding before our very eyes, every step, every breath, there is a certain reaction that opens up. Living alone, I have learned to live my life. I chose to walk every single day to work because I want to experience life. From people chattering up each other about the days important presentation, to memos they disagree on, to a man struggling to find something to keep him dry from the rainy season (Yes everyone, even here in makati, life isn’t always pleasant to us all). When discussions about poverty arise at the drinking table, I find myself constantly pointing fingers at the government. Condemning them for the bad shape our country has transformed into. “better education”, “better welfare”, “ more opportunities” are only a few of the phrases I howl as I take a sip of my san mig light. I am suddenly stopped by a voice saying “but what the hell have you done to help??” .. was this God calling out? It was the duo of B&C, Brain and Conscience.

With that in mind I have then turned my attention to giving a little something back. Most of the time I always ready 20 Pesos for the kid selling sampaguitas and telling him to keep the flower but instead him screaming “boss kelangan kitang bigyan ng isa” and me retaliating with “hey kid, it’s a green light, your gonna hurt yourself”. I guess he didn’t listen to me because as usual I reactively preferred to communicate to the boy in English. Or that time when I was roaring to go home but had to grab a cab because rain was so bad, I hated the fact that they didn’t want to offer me service. I literally screamed at the top of my lungs in the rain “You HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”, decided to walk home in the rain and give my 40 bucks to the first needy person I came across. I handed 40 bucks of my hard earned cash to this guy somewhere between makati cinema square and McDonalds. He was scratching his head probably thinking “This guys drenched wet, and he’s handing me 40 bucks? Wohoo!! Life is good!” The rain didn’t even matter anymore as he bestowed to me a look of shock and satisfaction.

Im not saying that life can be experienced only through the needy, I have undertaken helping old people cross the busy streets of Makati, to sharing an umbrella with someone who just needed to get across. They always turn to me and say “thank you, your such a nice foreigner” or “salamat, ingat ka sa Pilipinas” They are usually stomped everytime I turn to them and say “I’m local!”

To me, part of why I choose to continually walk to work everyday is to experience what only people on ground can, LIFE! Life is so beautiful because there are people who do random and untainted acts of kindness. I never wanted anything in return except their effort to move a muscle and offer their smile to me, that I believe is the only thing that makes me want to keep walking.

Life is good, be thankful you have better.

-j