Taking out the trash is our business

Don’t you just hate it when you hear a song early in the morning, and then you find yourself singing the same stupid song the whole day? It happens to me all the time, and I call it the "I-can’t-get-it-out-of-my-head" syndrome. It has almost become a daily routine for me: I get in the car on my way to work, turn on the radio, recognize the tune, hum it, bob my head with the beat, sing out the lyrics – and when I’m in the mood, I even snap my fingers, feeling the rhythm. Without realizing it, I’m setting myself up for an embarrassing moment.

I reach the office, fix myself a hot cup of coffee, go to the fax machine and check for any new letters. While I peruse over the papers, I bob my head left and right, with the beat still playing in my head, and quietly I sing, "Ako si Mr. Suave, oh-hoh-hoh-hoh grabe… Ako si Mr. Suave, hoy, hoy, hoy, hoy, hoy, hoy…" And then my officemate, who happens to be within hearing distance, stops and screams at me with utter disgust, "Rod! What the heck are you singing????"

Immediately, I snap out of my subliminal mode. And it suddenly dawns on me: "Geez, I’ve been singing Mr. Suave, and I didn’t even know it!" Instinctively, I cover my face with the faxes, go straight to my room, and lock myself in shame.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with singing Mr. Suave. I think Parokya ni Edgar is a pretty cool, brilliant band. But it’s just a funny song to sing early in the morning, especially in a corporate setting. It could be worse, though. I could be singing the Name Game ("Bonnie, Bonnie, bo-fonnie, banana-fana-fo-fonnie, fi-fi mo-monnie, Bonnie!") or April Boy’s nauseous anthem ("Di ko kayang tanggapin…) complete with arms in the air, crossed like a letter X. That would have been quite a scene, huh?

What Comes In, Must Come Out

The brain is an amazing piece of work. Even when we try not to think, it has an amazing ability to absorb things. Just like the first song that you hear in the morning. You don’t consciously try to absorb it. You don’t make an effort to memorize it. Yet, amazingly, the brain takes it in. Worse, whatever is taken in is translated to action. You hear a song, you end up humming it the whole day, and you can’t shake it off! It plays on and on. So you really have to be careful in a sense. You don’t want to be singing garbage like "Don’t break my heart, my achy breaky heart" the whole day.

And that could be a tragic thing, you know. I think I know of some people who lost their jobs for singing Achy Breaky Heart. And frankly I don’t blame their employers. I feel that anyone in the office who sings that brainless song out loud should be shot.

Well, in a nutshell, we really have to be wary of what we expose ourselves to. We have to be really careful on what we take in or what we allow our brains to take in. Because, really, what comes in ultimately comes out.

It’s a basic law of nature: You build something out of garbage, and you end up with garbage.

If you eat whatever you want – say, oily, fatty, greasy, and lardy food – that’s what you’ll end up becoming – an oily-faced, fatty, grease-filled, lard-bloated couch potato. And you will eventually end up getting sick. You take in garbage, so the result is garbage. If you allow yourself to be exposed to people who talk dirty, or who use a lot of invectives and crass words, ultimately, before you know it, you will be talking the same way.

If you were born in a privileged environment, where everything was served to you on a silver platter, and you allowed yourself to be spoiled rotten in that situation, chances are you will never know the value of work and money and you will be a spoiled brat the rest of your life.

If you smoke like a chimney, you’re building filth in your lungs (and other people’s lungs as well!). Eventually, all that smoke will result in cancer. If you drink alcohol like there’s no tomorrow, your liver will eventually throw a tantrum, eventually leading you to sober up – but then, it’s too late. And if you put in only half the effort in your work, you will only get half of the desired result – which is always not enough in the merciless corporate world.

Sometimes, I get a bit philosophical about the whole thing and I think the reason why we’re all so messed up is because God made us from dust, from dirt. Maybe things would have been slightly different if we were made from something else, something nicer, like a flower, a butterfly, or a ray of sunshine. But dirt? Couldn’t God have been more discriminating in choosing what to make us from? Hmmm. But then again, who am I to question God? Maybe he made us from dust precisely because he knew we’d become what we are – a proud, arrogant lot.

The fact that he made us from dust is a constant reminder to all of us of what we really are. Unfortunately, most of the time, we don’t realize this. Oftentimes, we think that we’re God, that we control the world and our destiny. Think again.

The "Garbage In, Garbage Out" theory applies to our whole political system, too. We always complain about our politicians. Everyone complains about them. We always say they are the reason why this country sucks. But I’m beginning to think that maybe I should stop complaining about them. Where do these politicians come from anyway? They didn’t come from another planet (although sometimes I think that that’s not such a remote possibility). Our politicians are products of Filipino homes, Filipino schools, Filipino universities, Filipino communities, Filipino associations. They are products of our system. And we made the system. All of us had a hand in making these politicians our leaders.

So, really, what are we complaining about? If you think we have trashy politicians, it’s only because we all put up a trashy system. There’s no one to blame except us.

So what do we do? The great thing about garbage is you can get rid of it. Let’s not allow the garbage to take over us. Let’s carefully select who are the treasures and who are the ones we can live without. Ultimately, we just have to learn from our mistakes.

We have produced some trashy leaders in the past – dictators, dimwits, gamblers, womanizers, balato-seekers. We all know who they were, and yet we voted them into office. I sure hope we’ve learned our lesson.

We must realize how important it is to guard our minds from all the filth around us. If all we take in are gossip, mudslinging, finger-pointing, intrigues, fault-finding, and if they become ingrained in our culture, that’s what we end up becoming: a gossiping, mudslinging, finger-pointing, intrigue-filled, fault-finding country.

This country can still be great. Let’s not accept the constant subliminal message around us that this country is sinking. If we do, believe me, it will happen. And we only have ourselves to blame. But if you continue thinking that this country can be great again, it will happen. In the end, we will all be proud of ourselves.

It all starts with a proper frame of mind.

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Thanks for all your letters! You may write me at rodnepo@yahoo.com. By the way, if you’re looking for a new spot to hang out, try Bora Bar. It’s at The Fort, right beside MC Home Depot! Excellent view, great food, cool drinks and the best crowd in town!