karma

Today, I am. Tomorrow, you will be.

These words were inscripted in Latin on the skull of a
monkey owned by Fr. Nolan's friend. Fr. Nolan celebrates the 6:30pm
mass at SM Megamall and is dean of the San Carlos Seminary. And his
sermon last Sunday dealt on preparing for after life. As an
introduction, he narrated how his friend loved his pet monkey so much
that when it died, he displayed its skull on his table. The skull was
a reminder of his pet and what's bound to happen to all of us.

I was thinking of the humor of this inscription when I got
off the San Miguel jeepney at the corner of Arias St. and across Gate
2. I was looking at the approaching SUV before crossing to Gate 2
that I didn't notice that the jeepney from where I just alighted was
backing to get a better view of Arias St. (where there could be more
passengers). In short, it bumped me a little. Then the driver drove
off.

Of all types of drivers, I feel for Filipino jeepney drivers
the most. They are usually cursed and get into word-fights with
passengers because they sometimes fail to return change of as little
as 25 or 50 cents.

But when one rides a taxi, the taxi driver would expect you
not to get any change at all. When I went to Delos Santos Memorial
Hospital just last Saturday, I gave the taxi driver a 100-peso bill
for my 65-peso fare. He returned a 20-peso bill telling me that his
only smaller bill was 50 pesos. I asked him for the 50-peso bill and
gave him 15 pesos in coins. I didn't give him tip for trying to cheat
me.

LTO requires all taxi drivers to have a change box and of
course, to have loose change in it. The usual reason of taxi drivers
for not giving the exact change is lack or absence of loose change or
coins.

But some jeepney drivers really need to be disciplined. If
the jeepney were just backing fast, I'd be sooner in the hospital than
the date of my operation this late November. Fortunately, it was
backing slowly, and I was able to shield my upper body with my right
hand. So now, I only have some scratch on the back of my right hand.

I was supposed to get the plate number of the jeepney to
alert the PSG but its plate number painted on its side was almost
erased and it drove off soon.

So as I was walking to our office building, I was thinking
that God would take care of him. Today I am, tomorrow, he will be :)

sayong
11-07-05 11:45pm