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Saturday, October 23, 2004
Flavier: The parable of the town tailor
By Sen. Juan Flavier
THE tailor was easily the most popular and best patronized in the whole town. His clientele covered not only every household in the town proper but also all the thirteen barrios, which radiated out as far as ten kilometers.
His workmanship was good and he went of his way to satisfy each customer in the personal manner. Many valued his reliability and promptness in fulfilling commitments.
He was the second generation of tailors in the family. His father was the first tailor of the growing town and the oldest son naturally took over the thriving business. Apart from old clients, the young tailor added on new satisfied customers from the barrio.
The heaviest workload occurred during important holidays and family events like weddings and social gatherings. Fiestas were particularly busy times as baptisms and social events abounded.
It was on one fiesta the tailor over-extended his commitments. He hired extra help but still he was behind. For he had to personally do the all-important cutting (tabas) chores. All his assistants could do were to sew buttons and the buttonholes (ohales). Others did the linings on the edges of the clothes (maglilip).
The tailor measured the farmer carefully and promised the pants and the heavy embroidered barong tagalog for next week. The deadline was the day before the big fiesta when the farmer was to stand sponsor for a grand wedding.
On the agreed day of completion, the barong was not yet ready. He tried to explain that he was simply much too busy. But to make amends, the tailor invited the former from the distant barrio to lunch at an eatery near the tailoring shop.
After ordering the food, the tailor excused himself to visit the toilet. By a happy coincidence, the Governor was at the door of the comfort room so the tailor approached him.
"Mr. Governor, it is so good to see you," greeted the tailor. "Could you do me a favor?"
"Sure, anytime!" replied the heavy-set Governor with genuine enthusiasm.
"Anything for my best town political leader. After all, you effectively campaigned for my candidacy with all your satisfied customers (parokyano)."
"Please approach my table there to say hello before you leave this eatery. I have a customer I want to impress."
Sure enough, the Governor greeted the tailor and the former as requested. "How is my favorite tailor?" declared the Governor with extra bravado.
The tailor looked up with an expression of disinterest. "Can't you see I am busy, Mr. Governor?" he exclaimed. With that, the tailor faced the dissatisfied customer and added, "See how busy I am, my friend?"
(October 23, 2004 issue)
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