OpinionsRiverrunLittle things mean a lot

Little things mean a lot

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As we say it happens only in fiction — or more exactly in metafiction, in magic realism where, sorry, Gabriel Garcia Marquez was the crown prince not the king, Borges was the king though that may only be opinion.

We mean the rain that won’t stop, didn’t seem to have any intention of going away. A rain that seemed to want to fall forever, that’s a page or two from One Hundred Years of Solitude if I remember right!

It was unsettling. Ian Casocot pretty much said so in facebook.

It’s not just psychological either. The evil weather wrought real physical damage. It hurt me personally since it prevented my daughter from taking a trip to Cebu for a most vital, all-important job interview. That weather broke her heart, the sight of which in turn broke mine. No, that wasn’t little. That was big.

Before I forget — I do believe the name of my column needs a bit of explanation. The word is an invention of James Joyce, the Irish novelist who coined it in his novel Finnegans Wake, believe methe most difficult book to read in all literature, along with the Tao Te Ching of ancient China, and the Sefer Yetzirah of ancient Israel. James Joyce, I think jokingly, said he meant his novel to be not understood but enjoyed like music. My literature teacher at Silliman, the late National Artist Edith L. Tiempo once told us that she couldn’t read beyond the first page of Finnegans Wake. Well, the word ‘riverrun’ is on the very first page of the book. In fact it is the first word in the book which is 600 pages long.

I mean the name of my column to suggest the process of flow. ‘Stream of consciousness’ as the literary term puts it to signify the idea that writing is as much spontaneous flow as careful construction. It also suggests for me the idea of ancientness, the idea that writing is an ancient, ancient thing.

Finally it may be that I mean to coax our endangered planet to a memory, lest it forget, of its ancientness. As Holy Writ puts it, “The earth abides forever.”

Or: “I love everything that flows” went Henry Miller in his unforgettable book.

Now for a little thing or two that means a lot.

Perhaps the most omnipresent pedestrian sight in our midst is the sight of pedestrians waiting for a pedicab or tricycle ride. Since I belong to this category I feel I can speak with some authority. A thing that near disgusts me is when you patiently wait for a ride and a latecomer joins the ride waiters and chooses a spot to your left, meaning that new arrival will likely beat you to the ride unless of course the tricycle driver won’t take the cheat.

The thing is done so matter-of-factly that people who should take offense bafflingly do not. I’ve always wondered about this. Maybe that’s why Dumaguete is called ‘the city of gentle people’.

There ought to be a law. People ought to be more pleasant, more civilized.

Let’s take a look in turn at the drivers.

I understand that our tricycle drivers are properly taught road rules and courtesies at tricycle drivers’ seminars.

I think a basic thing that a tricycle driver must realize is that it is incumbent upon him to give decent service to passengers. Sure he provides transportation but what should equally be clear is that the populace sacrifices peace and quiet, endures the noise and crowding that tricycles inflict on the city. Therefore arrogance and rudeness on the part of tricycle drivers is most unbecoming.

The good news is we can do better.

The bad news is that we are Third World. The hard-pressed breadwinners like the tricycle drivers are simply not inclined to be nice. It’s a hard world. We eat the daily bread of bitterness and humiliation while the unconscionable go on with their own rain of greed.

_______________________________

Author’s email: [email protected]

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