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Friday, May 23, 2003
Flavier: The parable of the furniture maker
By Juan Flavier
THE man was originally a rice farm tenant. While the produce per hectare was above average, his leased land of barely a hectare could not support his growing family.
He decided to concentrate on a hobby, which proved lucrative. Early in life, he used to assist his father make furniture. They specialized in bamboo craft and built some of the most beautiful sala, bedroom, and dining sets. What was unusual was their use of wooden pegs instead of nails. Art was added through the unsparing use of rattan strips.
In shifting to furniture making, the farmer found his income easily increased five-fold. His products were in great demand in the town proper and in the neighboring barrios. The whole week, he crafted the sets and on Saturdays, he delivered to an outlet in town. After a delivery, he would reward himself with a couple of drinks in a beerhouse near the bus station.
One day, he had an escapade that he related to his best friend in the barrio.
"Imagine, a pretty woman approached me and sat beside me at the waiting shed," began the furniture maker. "The problem was language. She spoke only a Visayan dialect, which I could not understand. On my part, as you know, I can manage only in tagalog."
"So what did you do?" the best friend asked.
"I got a piece of paper and a pencil and communicated by drawing. She did the same. I invited her to eat at a restaurant by drawing a plate with a spoon to the right and a fork to the left. She nodded her head and then she drew a kalesa (horse-drawn rig). I understood that to mean we should ride a kalesa and eat in a restaurant by the edge of town, so we did."
"Wow! What an adventure. After eating, what else happened?"
"That is the most interesting part. Just as we were finishing the meal, she got back to her pencil and paper. She drew a picture of a bed. Truly remarkable and surprising (kahanga-hanga at kagulat-gulat)."
"Go on! What remarkable thing happened?"
"Can't you see how amazing she was? She guessed that I was a furniture maker!"
(May 23, 2003 issue)
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