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| "When a fool meets a fool, who's the better fool?" |
One day a mouse was quietly playing with his thumb when all of a sudden he heard a knock on his door. It was his friend elephant. Elephant was crying. He asked his friend why.
"Oh, my friend mouse, I just lost my home and don't have any place to shelter myself. Will it be alright if I put my trunk inside your house?"
Mouse seeing a friend in need, said, "Sure, you're welcome to put your long nose inside my house." So elephant slid his long trunk inside the mouse's little home.
After a while, Elephant said, "My friend mouse, it looks like my head is getting wet because of the foggy air. Will it be alright if I put my head inside your house?" The mouse, seeing a friend in need, answered, "Sure, it's alright."
After a few minutes, Elephant said, "My friend mouse, I'm beginning to feel the chill of the foggy air. Will it be alright if I slide my body inside your home?" Although Mouse has hesitations, He still sees a friend in need. So again, he agreed to let his friend cramp its huge body inside the mouse's home.
As the day's past, Elephant now lives with Mouse inside his tiny home. Elephant, being a social creature later on bragged to everyone in the animal kingdom how nice Mouse is as a friend. As a result, Tiger came over and asked for shelter as well. It didn't stop there, next it was Lion with Lioness and their pride, Hyena and the pack, Stork, Zebra, Crocodile and even Crane. To cut the long story short, everyone in the animal kingdom started living inside Mouse's little home.
One day, when all the animals started fighting over scarcity of food, they decided to hold a meeting. They concluded that the place where they are staying is too small for them and one of them has to move out. So everyone voted and Mouse was thrown out of his home.
What's the lesson we learned from this fable? "An act of kindness is always subject to abuse." That's very true. Earlier today, I had the chance to join my daughter in her first dawn mass for Christmas. She has to attend it to get her credits in her music and religion classes. I'm not really a church going guy so while my daughter is inside the church, I decided to try out my plastic bird which I earlier bought in Divisoria. It's a toy composed of plastic, rubber band and palo china wood. I bought it at a sucker's price of 20 pesos (the boy who sold it to me was asking for 35, I huddled to get it at 20. The sample was very convincing. It flew round and round and even landed nicely on the ground.Well, the sample was a lot better compared to the one I got). I carefully carried the toy home with some plastic bags full of token gifts for Christmas. The wings are so fragile that I have to literally make sure that I get it home safe. I didn't play with it right away because I was afraid that it will go to our neighbor's roof where I won't be able to retrieve it anymore. So I waited for the right time to play with it. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not deprived when I was young. It's just that seeing it fly brings back wonderful memories in my life. Those were the time when my father was still strong and played with us.
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| The Fool with Joy, Arnel (Pebbles) and Thess Vasquez! |
The right time came when I have the basketball court all to myself. No one was playing, and no one will mind a 40 year old, unemployed guy play with his 20 peso plastic bird. So I thought. On the side bleacher there was a homeless woman and a child. The child was sleeping soundly and I didn't mind them and did my own business. I started throwing the plastic bird into the air to see if it will fly like the sample product I saw in Divisoria. It didn't. It crashed to the ground several times. I tried various ways to get the glide I wanted. I tried spinning the rubber tightly and lightly, threw the bird high in the air and again like a paper airplane. Nothing seems to work. That's when I realized that the 20 peso plastic bird was a sucker's product.
I caught the attention of the homeless woman as she protects her sleeping daughter. She shouted insults and started arguing that I'm making so much noise that her sleeping daughter might wake up or get hit by my plastic bird. She even muttered that I was too old to play with toys considering that I'm a 40 year old man. Well, I'm the Fool on the Hill! This homeless woman is hurling insults on me! I politely asked why she's staying in our subdivision's basketball court and asked if she's a bonafide resident of the subdivision. That's when she blew her top and started shouting at me, not minding that a dawn mass was currently being held. She even said that I'm TRESPASSING on her property!
I said to myself, I can tolerate a fool sit down beside me, but once the fool starts claiming public property, that's where I draw the line. I told her that her presence there isn't allowed because the homeowners association prohibits sleeping in the basketball court at night. Staying out late at night is vagrancy and we need to have it corrected as soon as possible before everything is too late!
I tried to call the attention of the barangay police who has its sub station on the playground. The sub station was locked and empty. So I tried to look for a security force in the neighborhood and advice them about the scandalous shouting that the homeless woman was doing. After a few minutes, a security guard came over and asked me what's going on. I asked the security guard who approached me if they are aware that a homeless woman is sleeping in our community's basketball court. He said yes, they are aware. They once tried to shoo her away but she fought back. She claimed the court as her home already. I asked the guard if the barangay police knows it as well, and he nodded. They also tried to act on her presence but got the same vocal treatment.
The woman claims that her presence there is known to everyone, and she's already a resident there. She said her presence there is even known to the homeowner association's president which she calls Director. She was tasked to guard the Director's office at night. She also mentioned that we can't get her out of there because she's a resident of the barangay and is related to Mayor Eusebio of Pasig! What? Is the city mayor aware that he has a relative that's living in a basketball court? We're dealing with a fool! She will name drop anyone just to keep her place in the bleachers. She even mentioned that she has the paper works to validate her stay in the community's basketball court.
After the mass, the security guard assured me that they'll report the scandalous shouting of the woman to the Homeowner Association's president. While we were talking, another woman who frequents the basketball court huddled with us. She runs the newspaper distribution business for the entire community. She said that this woman with her child comes to the basketball court every seven in the evening and stays there to sleep. She comfortably leaves her things there and collects them at night. She regularly fights against anyone who sits near her bleacher because it's already her "property" She recommends that we confiscate her belongings and that will force her to leave the place. It was done before, but her cursing and shouting forced the people there with kind hearts to return her belongings. Then after that all's back to normal for her, she stays in the bleacher and sleeps with her child. That's what happens when you tolerate these small things. Just like the Elephant in the fable, an act of kindness is always subject to abuse. The people around her have been passive and more forgiving. Well, I'm sorry to say, I'm not a mouse!
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