| Every afternoon on my way to work, I used to stop by to give him something --anything, from used clothing, to biscuits, to 20 bucks. He's the mendicant man by the churchyard who had lost both legs but not his cheerful smile. Some nights back, as I walked to the bakeshop, I saw him on the same spot. I apologized for not having anything to give this time but for one of 5 pieces of ensaymada that I had bought. He gave me the same cheerful grateful smile. I wondered as I made my way home, just how much he and I had in common these days… wondered what sort of dreams he had before he lost his legs, and what dreams I deemed lost after ABS. I wondered why nothing seemed to bother me these days compared to a lot that bugged me when I was one of the top paid executives this side of town. I wondered some more if I could muster the same cheerful, grateful smile if I had to walk with my hands and butt as he did. The wondering had gone on all night I wondered if I would wake up as Wonder Woman the next day:-))Eventually, my late-night wonderings turned to that Dream Butcher of a big boss that ABS hired in mid 2004… wondered what skills & talent he had that convinced the bigger boss that he would steer us to greater heights. Within months of steering our corporate course, he had led us to greater depths --forgivable, had they been depth of compassion, depth of reportorial perspective, etc, but despicable in that his pockets of intelligence only ran as deep as the pockmarks on his face, and thanks to that, our ratings, earnings and reputation as a news team plunged into erstwhile unimaginable depths!I wonder what took me this long to say it. I should have said these words to his face in March 2005, when he called me at the Taguig Jail Compound to ask if I was there to negotiate the surrender of the rebelling inmates, when even the office goffer would have guessed what duties I was there for. I should have said it when he called one Black Saturday, just hours before the Pope di... |
