MATIISIN

You leave the house at 6am knowing you have to be somewhere early. As luck would have it, the ride you took was just the best so far. The aircon was broke, the driver stepping on the brakes like he's swallowed some brake fluid that morning, and pulled over to a gas station where the vehicle was misloaded by gas instead of diesel. You get to the metro and you see the line was unusually long, about 500 more people before you reach the ticket booth. And then you line up on another queue to get on the train. You reach the destination at 10am. You could have made it by 7:30am. "Ganun talaga," you tell yourself. No, my friend. You're just an emblem of pure, immaculate patience; that is, in the wrong context. 

Filipinos can be just too matiisin even to unbelievable heights. "'Pag maiksi ang kumot, matutong bumaluktot," this is what we were ultimately taught. We tend to make do with what we have despite the several options that we have. We stick to the conventional, to what we're used to, even if we know things could have turn out with better results had we chosen the alternatives. That's why we had 333 years of the Spaniards, 10 years of Americans, 20 years of Marcos, and 9 years of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. 

I have all the respect for people who know how to look at the brighter side of things, for people who can smile despite the burdens that they carry. But sometimes, we have to draw the line between our patient endurance and our ignorance. Is it just 'hope' we're clinging to? Or we just settle in the comfort zone sometimes brought about by our indolence? Three paragraphs can't answer but this definitely opens up the wide array of different cultures, both right and wrong, that we were taught over generations. 

Yet no matter how frustrated I get when I see my countrymen in this situation, I still cling to the hope that there's a part of the pie who sees problems as opportunities and who wouldn't settle for a broke-down FX ride. Or maybe it's just me. After all, I'm Filipino. I'm a Filipino who's plainly, stupidly, and luxuriously 'matiisin.' #