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Thursday, October 30, 2003
Flavier: Letter
By Juan Flavier
COMMENTARY
During a typhoon, Lencho lost his crops because of the flood. The whole barrio was affected, so he had no one to turn for help. In sheer desperation, he wrote a letter to God:
Dear God:
The typhoon devastated my whole crop. We have nothing left. I have seven children. Please, God, send me P100 to tide us over.”
Sincerely yours,
Lencho
He placed the letter in an envelope and mailed it to “God in Heaven.” The letter reached the post office but could not be delivered. Meanwhile, the postmen had the time of their life laughing at the letter. They decided to show the odd letter to their postmaster.
“Do you want to laugh today, sir?” they asked their boss.
“Why, yes,” said the postmaster.
And so the letter was handed to the postmaster who read the letter. But he did not laugh. Instead he re-read the letter in all seriousness and then faced the postmen.
“We talk of social action,” he said. “We speak of the brotherhood of all men. Yet here is a man in dire need and you think it is funny? Shouldn’t we pool our resources instead and help Lencho?”
The postmen were embarrassed. So they decided to pass the hat around and raise the money themselves to assist Lencho.
But they were few and money was difficult to come by, so all the post office personnel could raise was P80. Nevertheless, that was better than nothing.
They also decided to play the game with Lencho, so they placed the money in an envelope, placed a stamp complete with stamp mark and wrote on the upper left-hand corner: “From God in Heaven.”
A postman hand carried the letter with the money to Lencho, who was ecstatic. “I knew God would answer my plea,” he exclaimed. “God did not forget to send the money!”
Lencho quickly counted the paper bills and found only P80 instead of the P100 he asked for. So he wrote another letter.
Dear God:
Thank you for answering my prayer, God. But, please, next time, do not send the money through the post office, because the people there are thieves.
Sincerely yours,
Lencho
(Juan Flavier writes for Sun.Star Baguio)5.
(October 30, 2003 issue)
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