Sunday Reflection

After church, our family decided to have lunch in this fastfood chain. And while we're in the middle of it, a boy (around 5-6 years old) suddenly run towards our table, sit down and immediately grab my dad's drink and took a sip. It all happen in a mere 5-6 seconds. It was so sudden that my dad's reflection lead him to hurting the child (laying on of his hands to the child's forehead).  The mother of the child saw it and immediately made a comment about what happened.

Mother of the child: Nakita ko iyon! Masakit iyon! Wag naman ganyan.
Dad: Pasensya na. Sorry sorry. Nabigla lang.
Mother of the child: Kitang-kita ko ginawa nyo. Wag naman ganyan. Wag kayo manakit.
Dad: Nabigla lang po. Sorry sorry. Mali ako.
Mother of the child: Alam kong mayaman kayo, kaya ganyan ugali nyo, pero wag kayong manakit ng bata.

My brother's anger sparked after hearing that comment, he said:

Toni: Hawakan mo kasi anak mo.
Mother of the child: Hindi tamang nananakit kayo. Ganyan ugali nyo kasi mayaman kayo.

We tried to stop my brother from talking and making comments. But his anger just overcome his reasoning. And their public conversation goes on. Both of them have high tones, nearly shouting with each other.

Toni: Ano? Ano yun? Dapat kasi hinahawakan mo yang anak mo.
Mother of the child: Subukan mo kayang mag-anak para malaman mo. Sama ng ugali nyo kumo mayaman kayo.

Then they left after that.

We undestand why the mother reacted that way. Even I, if it will happen that my child will be beaten by someone in public, I will also be mad and will tell things that wouldnt be that good to hear. I understand that its a mother instinct. She has all her right to protect her child and we apologize that we were the ones that caused the outrage. 

My dad apologized and though someone will argue that you cannot undo what happened - the child already get hurt - we admitted that our side did something wrong. That's the best that we could do to pacify the situation. My dad didnt mean to do it - his reflection, a body insticnt, an involuntary movement of your body when you're in-shocked, a misjudge of the moment - lead him to do that. And we're truly sorry and saddened that it happened. 

My brother get hurt too. Who would want to be called 'masama ang ugali' just because you're well-off? Our status doesnt license us to be bad - we are well-aware of it. And the last thing that we would want to do is hurt people. We were taught to be fair and keep our feet on the ground. 

However, we admit that there is something wrong on how my brother reacted on the situation too. My brother misjudged the whole situation focusing on the line "Alam kong mayaman kayo, kaya ganyan ugali nyo".

He didnt like it. And I understand him too - no one is licensed to tell straight to our face that we're bad and we hurt people just because of our status. Yet, the situation wouldnt get worse if my brother just stopped making comments. 

I hope all these realization happened in that mere 3-minute situation so that there will be no shouting and trash talks. But it didnt and that's the sad part. That is why I decided to blog this. Its not that I wanna make a fuss about it, its just I feel I have this obligation to explain our side and make an apology too.

To the mother of the child, we're really sorry. My dad didnt mean to do that to your child. He was just shocked - he didnt expect someone he didnt know will just come to our table and immidiately sip to his own drinks. It was just unusual and beyond normal. I apologize too on how my brother talked to you. I hope you understand why - he was hurt. We aren't bad people. We dont like hurting our own breed. Our status in life doesnt give us any license to degrade any raise. It was just a result of the situation. I hope you will also realize that.


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