Friday… Payday… Driving… Enduring a two-hour hell. Finding solace with the 80’s music spun by Boom Gonzales of Magic 89.9. There’s no need to check the social networks about how terrible this monstrous Manila madness is. I’m in it, part of it, seemingly woven into it. Maybe I’ll checkon twitter a rant about this gridlock and the failure of the people who are supposed to take care of this. There is always that voice who seem to weave that perfect line of 140 characters and capture what most of us feel and light us up. Maybe later, I have faith that this 13km queue my car is in will eventually move and lead me home.
The motivation is simple, My wife and I want to go home to be with our kids. They are the reason we go to great lengths to ensure their welfare and their future. To be with them in the soonest possible time would be a gift worth paying my income tax on top of the road user’s tax and each VAT I shell out every time I do anything. Only then will I feel that my taxes are somewhat worth it. Until then, we seem to be fighting for every inch to move forward.
I reckon that on some levels, this is how a soldier or a police goes through his day. I’d like to believe that on some scaled down level, my familial aspirations are similar to theirs; Even the bad ones when I ask for a pass from kotong, and more importantly the good ones in their far nobler pursuits.
Dream the dream of other men, you will be no one’s rival…
As Eddie Vedder wrote, with that fervent hope that all of us should be able to find a common ground and move forward. We all go fight different battles but in the end we just want to get home… safe.
I got stuck again for two hours for the same Manila traffic like many payday Fridays before and I swore it was dumbing me down enough to give in to primal urges of rage. But I won’t. Maybe because 44 fathers/brothers/sons went to a mission and came back home in a box or a bag. Maybe it’s a new perspective that will be worn out a few more times on the road. Because the only real thing I had in common with them is that wasting time in traffic is senseless, just like the mission that lead to their senseless death.
There is no need for rage, but there is a raging need for answers and accountability. Until then we will be fighting for every inch to find justice.
danDAman 