These chills
Christmas is definitely in the air. As we welcome the second day of December we feel the chills in the air. The wind breeze is cold due to the low pressure area hovering over the oceans. In fact, last week, Tropical Depression Queenie passed by the Visayas and left five people dead.
I was on the ground during the aftermath of Queenie possibly looking for people related to the stories in the Metropolitan. The airport was my first option; I wanted to check if there were delayed or cancelled flights. In having a hard time going in, I only managed to get hold of information about a cancelled flight. So small a story, I went to the pier. It was there when I saw hundreds of passengers stranded. Some of them were even in the terminal the day before hoping for a miracle for the public storm signal to be lifted. To boost their spirits, others were playing games, singing and making fun with one another.
Queenie was just a passerby; it could have been worse if we had a typhoon that would linger longer in the area. The chills in the air remind me of the days when we have to practice late at night for Christmas performance. I was only a high school student then but I would go home late just to make sure the tunes on my fiddle or my voice and dance would move perfectly for the Cebuano crowd. I easily got excited when the wind turned cold. It used to signify me of delicious food on the table in a few days. But now the chills send a different message, it speaks of fear and danger.
We all have a lesson to learn from the past typhoons that hit us and most especially Queenie. I guess the ordinary citizen had a bigger, important role to play. Media has been doing its part in informing the people about tropical depressions. There were enough warning for the people to prepare, to secure their homes but it seems like we have been becoming complacent. I wonder what it would take for the Filipino to be on guard or be prepared whenever another storm would come. It is a mindset I would say, a difficult mindset to recreate.
This is the 21st century, the generation of social media and the information highway. We can all maximize this regardless of social and economic status. If you are misinformed in this age, then you are bound to be swept away by the world that is full of knowledge.
Now that the Christmas spirit is here I could only wish for a few things to be on my Christmas list (except for that Miriam Santiago book though). One is for the Filipino people to have a sense of urgency. Hearing and listening are two very different activities. The former is only up to the brain without comprehension while the latter understands. We all must learn how to listen well. But after listening we must put what we have understood into action thus translating it into concrete steps such as preparing what to do in case a typhoon arrives. My second Christmas wish is for the Filipinos to have a sense of identity. Now that it's Christmas time, we must know what really are the traditions that are ours as a people - not that of the foreign invaders. We have a lot of interesting Christmas practices, why not own them wholly instead of dreaming to be in the West with a white Christmas. I would not trade snow with an evening with a complete family on the Christmas eve.
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