We are All

                              (photo: inquirer.net)

“You spent everything?” the wife asked the partner as they embarked the public utility van. “You seem to be like that one-day millionaire!” she hissed as the van started to depart from the gate of a department store.The husband was quiet. He was probably savoring the time when he was in control with the amount he received from being a construction worker. Whatever happens he was the king during that time. He could play the scenes on his head: the time when he bought that shirt and he was not afraid that he could not pay the exact amount… He could reminisce the exhilaration of that moment when he could feel the money in his pocket and that he could buy anything he wanted.

According to the latest SWS survey, 47% of the 10.9 million families tagged themselves as poor. These are the members of our society where they have hand-to-mouth existence and they work daily to earn a living. These families have students sent to public schools and are being exposed to the difficulties of life. There are those who will survive the difficulties but there are lots who will surrender to their fate.

There are times when we will receive messages from our phones and through the internet from young people who ask for gifts. We tell them that gifts are not supposed to be asked. But these young ones see this time of the year as opportunities for them to have something they wish they have. They oftentimes make is as a joke yet there are those who are lucky enough to get what they want.

These are also opportunities for the predators to thrive on the preys.

With the onslaught of typhoon Vinta, there are people who are displaced from their homes. Most of them are informal settlers who live on the riverbanks or near the sea. Imagine the time when they tried to save their meager belongings to be brought to the evacuation center. Picture the elderly who could not walk without assistance and the small babies crying and wondering what on earth is happening?

These are scenarios that we could not deny. We suffer with them even if we are being protected with the sturdy houses and iron roofing we own. We feel their discomfort as they lie on the cold floor with nothing but those cheap blankets we grimace at inside stores in the bargain boxes. We are also hungry as the stomach of the children crave for solid food and not the half-cooked sardines they received as relief goods.

There are those of us who worry about their relationships. We sometimes fail to go out of the emotional cages that we built forgetting that there are people who need us. Yes, our emotions are important but they are being gifted to us by God not just for ourselves but to be extended to others. We are responsible for our own happiness and we are also born to be generous making such happiness pervasive.

There are those of us who worry about what clothes to wear. But among us, there are those who do not even have clothes. We often worry about what food to prepare on the eve of the 24^th, yet there are people who do not have anything to eat this moment. Our Christmas embellishments are sometimes more expensive that the food some of the children are eating…

There will be storms to face. We could be brave and strong if we face them together.