It was last night that I saw a gist of, maybe, the cruelty of life. I was walking inside this "Park and Ride", a public place where public utility vehicles usually park theirs and noticed this guy, standing; he's around 25 years old and was looking steadily at something. When I came to cross this person and looked what he was looking, I saw what he was staring at. It was a menu. He was standing in front of a little, cheap (just an adjective) public restaurant. I said to myself; "This guy must really be hungry." As I go to ride a bus going home, passing through more little restaurants, I noticed that the same guy was now in front of me. He was looking around for more restaurants, on their menu. I also looked on their menu. They were all offering food that’s really inexpensive. As I continue to observe him, I noticed that he just passed the restaurant where a meal costs around 45php (less than a dollar) and still looked for other place to eat. For a restaurant offering food with that cheap amount, did he not consider it where he can sit and eat? Maybe yes, or maybe not. Maybe he was being thrifty because of the economic crisis we have right now. From that point, I came to realize how lucky I am. I can buy my food that can cost around 150php (3 dollars), go shopping whenever I wanted, etc. How about that guy? Does he still have some money where he can buy a new pair of jeans? Shoes? shirts?
I was thinking of many possibilities. Maybe, his family was not that wealthy, or something disastrous happened to them that made them less fortunate, or maybe they were bankrupt because of something. Maybe, his parents are unemployed, and do not have any plans in searching for one, or he was just lazy studying during his school days that he never finished his studies, or I don’t know. After realizing this, I asked myself, is he just a victim of fate? Or it is just his fault why he is in that condition? I don’t know.
I also had some unfortunate event that I will never forget. At first, I thought it was someone else’s fault. I pointed the blame on others. I always do. I cried a lot and hate a lot of people. As I grew older, when I looked back from those times, I also thought that it was also my fault why it happened to me. I tried to fixed things up and I did, we all did. After that, I reached a sound mind and a sound heart. I was really happy.
The thing is, it’s inevitable. That bad fate we can get from living in this world. Whenever we experience something like this, the first instinct is to blame it to something or someone. We always say, “You have a bad luck.” Is that really the reason why we experience these kinds of things? Do we really have to point our fingers to our fate? That we’re destined to be in that position? Only a part of it is true. We decide for ourselves and these decisions affect others. It is our will that put us all in our position, and no one else, nothing else. Let us all try to think first of the effect of our action before we do it. We are not entitled to do something that can hurt others, that’s a natural law. And if we are a victim of some really bad circumstances, do we have to remain on that position? Or we can stand up and try to make it a little better?
We may all encounter some bad fate as we go on with our lives. But our will to work on these things make us live a better, fulfilling life.
