It was a rush hour on a Friday afternoon. I received a message on my mobile phone that the information I had been dying to know for days had already been emailed to me. I cannot wait to be home so my son and I dropped by the nearest computer café in front of the West Visayas State University.
We must have stayed there for over an hour because when we decided to leave it was already dark. My son wanted to take something hot before we finally go home so we walked to the refreshment parlor about 50 meters from the café.
There were little pools of water on the sidewalk so there must have been a drizzle of sort while we were inside. We have not walked farther when we saw a group of high school boys from the university clustered around something as they cheered. There was excitement in the air that my son held me back to walk behind him. However, we have to move aside as another group of teen-age boys from the Iloilo National High School ran past us. Still inching our way forward, curious about it, we heard one of the university boys cheer, “Strong! Sipa!(kick!)” We thought it was a rumble of some gangs but on closer look, it was not.
Amidst them was a badjao, a beggar lying on the pavement. I can’t tell if he fainted or if he was asleep but I saw one lean boy kick his left arm and it went flying from the pavement to his torso. Two of the three boys from the national high school reached the circle ahead of the others and one tried to talk to them to stop. They stopped… but they left in a noisy, jovial mood.
When they left, one of the boys felt for the pulse of the badjao and nodded to his companions. Two of them lifted him and moved him near the wall where the pavement was dry while the last to arrive placed a plastic bag with pan-de-sal beside him.
My son clicked his tongue at their brusqueness but I said a little prayer blessing the kind boys. Really, it doesn’t matter much where you are stationed in life, what matters is how big your heart is towards the small people around. Whatever happened to those university boys to have acted that condemnable way was something I cannot imagine; but, whatever drove those other boys to help that beggar made them very commendable.
Indeed, heartless acts make a person so small that they do not deserve to be given attention whereas little acts of kindness bring in more blessings to a soul.
We must have stayed there for over an hour because when we decided to leave it was already dark. My son wanted to take something hot before we finally go home so we walked to the refreshment parlor about 50 meters from the café.
There were little pools of water on the sidewalk so there must have been a drizzle of sort while we were inside. We have not walked farther when we saw a group of high school boys from the university clustered around something as they cheered. There was excitement in the air that my son held me back to walk behind him. However, we have to move aside as another group of teen-age boys from the Iloilo National High School ran past us. Still inching our way forward, curious about it, we heard one of the university boys cheer, “Strong! Sipa!(kick!)” We thought it was a rumble of some gangs but on closer look, it was not.
Amidst them was a badjao, a beggar lying on the pavement. I can’t tell if he fainted or if he was asleep but I saw one lean boy kick his left arm and it went flying from the pavement to his torso. Two of the three boys from the national high school reached the circle ahead of the others and one tried to talk to them to stop. They stopped… but they left in a noisy, jovial mood.
When they left, one of the boys felt for the pulse of the badjao and nodded to his companions. Two of them lifted him and moved him near the wall where the pavement was dry while the last to arrive placed a plastic bag with pan-de-sal beside him.
My son clicked his tongue at their brusqueness but I said a little prayer blessing the kind boys. Really, it doesn’t matter much where you are stationed in life, what matters is how big your heart is towards the small people around. Whatever happened to those university boys to have acted that condemnable way was something I cannot imagine; but, whatever drove those other boys to help that beggar made them very commendable.
Indeed, heartless acts make a person so small that they do not deserve to be given attention whereas little acts of kindness bring in more blessings to a soul.
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