These past few days have been generally very nice for me. I'm settling into a very enjoyable "routine" from going to work early to going home late. I ride the MRT quite frequently, and I'm amazed at how people could just mind their own businesses. Public transport take you many places, and lets you experience a lot about people's culture, and it's very surprising how much you can "zone out" and just mind your own business while having someone literally inches away more or less invading your personal bubble.
I don't know if it's the same for every known civilization on earth, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's only in the Philippines that this happens. Riding the Jeepney, the MRT, the LRT, the busses -- crowding is something Filipinos can definitely deal with.
But it's not everybody who minds their own business -- some people just cannot help but look at people with different hairstyles, give a look of bewilderment when "strange" people are beside them, and couldn't help but just look a someone else judgingly as though they were perfect. Of course nobody's perfect, even though some people seem to think that they are (or act like they think they're perfect).
It's a phenomenon very strangly human -- people in a crowd minding their own business. In the animal world, it's very rare that you find this behaviour. Although there are known species of snakes that hibernate in large groups, ultimately they do stil mind their own business. That tells so much about the human allegory to snakes and people who "act like snakes".
Some people cannot help but put some people down just to make themselves feel "better". Instead of helping someone understand what's wrong, they just say (in different words but send off the same intention/message) "You should know this!".
What has minding your own business done to people? I really want to know. But when people start minding other people's business, or telling other people what to do or not do, it almost always goes haywire. So which then is better, minding your business and be indifferent to most of what's happening around you, or stepping over your bounds and imposing your "perfect self" onto someone you don't even know?
Finding a healthy balance should be very interesting in this environment we have.
CHill...
I don't know if it's the same for every known civilization on earth, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's only in the Philippines that this happens. Riding the Jeepney, the MRT, the LRT, the busses -- crowding is something Filipinos can definitely deal with.
But it's not everybody who minds their own business -- some people just cannot help but look at people with different hairstyles, give a look of bewilderment when "strange" people are beside them, and couldn't help but just look a someone else judgingly as though they were perfect. Of course nobody's perfect, even though some people seem to think that they are (or act like they think they're perfect).
It's a phenomenon very strangly human -- people in a crowd minding their own business. In the animal world, it's very rare that you find this behaviour. Although there are known species of snakes that hibernate in large groups, ultimately they do stil mind their own business. That tells so much about the human allegory to snakes and people who "act like snakes".
Some people cannot help but put some people down just to make themselves feel "better". Instead of helping someone understand what's wrong, they just say (in different words but send off the same intention/message) "You should know this!".
What has minding your own business done to people? I really want to know. But when people start minding other people's business, or telling other people what to do or not do, it almost always goes haywire. So which then is better, minding your business and be indifferent to most of what's happening around you, or stepping over your bounds and imposing your "perfect self" onto someone you don't even know?
Finding a healthy balance should be very interesting in this environment we have.
CHill...
Hey, Dean!
ReplyDeleteAbout the Happy Lent thingy:
I know it's weird to greet people that because I actually felt weird about it when I heard it over the phone.
But I thought about it some more and I ended up with this thought:
Lent isn't something to be very depressed about. It's something that should give us hope. Yes, strange as it may seem it should give us hope because the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection tells of something redemptive, which is something that I see as a characteristic of God. :) So a happy lent isn't all so weird, if you think about it.
I am not saying that people should party like crazy on Lent. But even though it is a time to reflect upon a lot of things, people shouldn't be too keen on being overly somberly religious.
That is my personal opinion. :)
Happy Easter!
And by the way, this is what I did to my kernel during the kernel panic episode of my newbie life ;)
http://clair.free.net.ph/52