Does anyone can comprehend how a Filipino uses common sense;
inano mo na ‘yung ano? Kwan yan! Baka ma
ano, umaano? You can actually watch Wally Bayola on his character on the Eatbulaga’s Kalye Serye, Lolo Nidora,
impersonating Babalu; nang-aano ka e ha! Or
in some extent, a Pinoy, when asked by someone, where are you? On the way na! How famous a place called “on the
way”, someone should make it as the national historic place. Gary Granada
described this phenomena on his song Balon “Ang
tao ay mahirap unawain, sinasagot nila ang ‘di mo tinatanong” (Humans are
difficult to explain, for they answer what don’t being asked). Questions are
opiate of man’s curiosity – to be filled by nothing but a move, a touch, a
step, or even a taste. It’s an old clothe we always wear.
I remember watching a gag show on a local TV, they put an elesi on a public road with a sign “Wag hipuin” (Do not touch), out of 20
people who passed by, 15 persons touched the thing. I am not surprised, look at
the most popular motto on the country “Bawal
Umihi Dito Multa 500” and yet anyone can still catch smells on it. Sino nga naman ang willing magbayad ng 500
no! We can see the incomprehensible side of a Filipino on the incident of
killing Pamana, a Philippine monkey-eating eagle, how I wish the killer to have
a facebook account, I will request him to have a status reading: what’s on your
mind?
There are a lot to question about, from the very basic
what’s your name? – to what is the reason of human existence? When I was in
elementary, my teacher always tells us that the most difficult questions starts
from why, but later as years goes by I realized, not really, because no one can
tell the difference between why did it
goes down, from what is the reason of
its falling. The answer would be same.
On one of a fable by Gilda Cordero-Fernando “The Magic
Circle”, a fairy god mother stated the very purpose of every creature on earth
until there came a cockroach trembling “how about me, what is my purpose?”,
then the fairy god mother answer, “Ang
ipis ay salamin ng kababuyan ng tao”. People are like ipis too, they don’t really know the reason why.
But something is accurate: we cannot question the power of
questions. Isaac Newton discovered the mystery of gravity by questioning the
fall of an apple from a tree. So here comes a line: thousands of people watched
the apple falling, but only Isaac asked why. No one can argue about; you can
destroy Rome by a asking a question. A famous line from an existentialist
philosopher Albert Camus goes like this “The only philosophical question is
suicide”; basically you can’t ask a person committed suicide why. There this
commercial on TV, para saan ka gumigising?
Honestly sometimes I think wala naman
talaga tayong choice. Despite, life should be the reason to continue
living, it’s just saying like there’s should be no other reason to love but
love. One might say why should we live when in the end we will all die, para mo na rin namang sinabing bakit pa
iibig kung masasaktan din naman?
Questions are in many times, the manifestation of choices.
On an old saying “hindi mo kayang
mamangka nang sabay sa dalawang ilog”, or similar to Robert Frost’s poem
The Road Not Taken: Two roads diverge in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not
travel both. Questions therefore, in humanist concept, are what make us human
e.g. the free will.
Questions are sometimes famous last words too, from Simon
Bolivar’s “how will I ever get out of
this labyrinth?” Franz Kafka’s “kill me, or you are a murderer?” to the famous “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?” of Jesus Christ. Karl
Marx had a conclusive last word “last
words are for fools who haven’t said enough”.
Last month, I posted in facebook. It is all about the
optimist, the pessimist, and the rational arguing about a glass filled with
water half the volume of the glass. What can be the argument of these people?
The optimist says the glass is half filled, the pessimist says the glass is
half empty. To put a little plot twist, I include the rational saying the glass
is too big for the water’s volume. I thought that’s all, that’s the real twist,
until someone comments on the post: and the opportunist drinks the water while
the people are busy arguing about it. Isn’t it funny enough, that we can see
different views and perceptions by a glass of water? Now we know how to know a
person, ask him about the glass!
Anyone can destroy
Rome by asking a question.
I once watched a beautiful movie Apocalypto, a historical
movie of the Mayan civilization, directed by Mel Gibson. On the movie, an elder
told a story I will never forget for the rest of my life. The story is all
about a man sitting in the forest drenched with deep sadness, and then the
animals give him all he wants, the abilities, and the secrets of the earth. In
the end, the owl said to the other animals, "Now the Man knows much, he'll
be able to do many things. Suddenly I am afraid." The deer said, "The
Man has all that he needs. Now his sadness will stop." But the owl
replied, "No. I saw a hole in the Man, deep like a hunger he will never
fill. It is what makes him sad and what makes him want. He will go on taking
and taking, until one day the World will say, 'I am no more and I have nothing
left to give’.
At first I don’t believe that Bong Revilla would steal the
wealth of the people because he is already rich, but my activist aunt told me “greedy people will never be satisfied on
what they have”.
The questions, is the hole to the man, it’s an intellectual greed,
the infinite search, in fact – the infinite need to search.
The idea of the title came from Gilda Cordero-Fernando’s
Jamming On An Old Saya
For more creative works from him, visit his personal blog https://sites.google.com/site/rommelfabrosbonus/
Naaaays Kuya (Y) Galing Mo Talaga.
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