I spoke these words last night, during our get-together session with high school friends. I wanted to write it down just so I wouldn't forget, but always remember.
The bad things usually are the flip side of the good things. This is obvious, but until you think about it, it wouldn't occur to you. Marco was asking Clarence about his (Marco's) habit of drinking Coke. Last night, he ordered Coke zero -- not just one, not two, but four cans. He said this is his only vice: drinking two bottles of 2-litre Coke zero per day, every day. Clarence (M.D., UP School of Medicine; 3rd-year resident, general surgery, PGH) said, yea, it's okay, nothing will happen to you.
But later I asked him, is it really okay to drink that much Coke zero every day. He replied, in those quantities, there will be effects. Maybe not now, but someday, those will come, we just don't know what exactly.
I said, it's always in your "hilig", it is always where you dedicate your life, where it meets the end. For instance, if you like driving, chances are you will die of a road accident. If you like drinking Coke, chances are your future diseases can be traced to drinking Coke.
But I my teacher in moral philosophy, Dr. Ramon C. Reyes, already mentioned this in class a long time ago. I want to talk about a related concept that I was able to articulate last night in the course of the conversation.
Everybody was thinking aloud their thoughts about the reason why the Philippines is so very poor and lags the rest of its neighbors in terms of economic development. They said several things, but I have mostly forgotten about them, mostly because I was concentrating on my own reason.
I said that this is the flip side of the what is the best in Filipinos. Alone among the peoples of the world, Filipinos insist on taking care of their families, wherever they are, and however distant the relationship. They take care of grand-nephews, of 3rd cousins or 4th cousins related only by marriage or clan or barangay, and think about their family constantly. In short, if you are a Filipino and you have relatives of whatever degree of consanguinity or affinity, you will never be short of help.
I said, the flip side of this is that people do not think of anybody else when making a decision. Will it affect my family? If yes, then I will do it, if not, then I will not. But as to the rest of the community? No matter.
This is the price we have to pay for being loving to our families. There is no thought to the collective good of the larger community, only the self-interest of those related by blood or marriage.
Like the Resurrection, which was made possible only by the Passion and Death, our loving concern for our families is made possible only by our malign neglect of everyone else.
It is from the best in us that flows the worst in us.
