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Sunday, December 12, 2004
Obenieta: To grin at the grinch
By Myke U. Obenieta
Sun.star essay
Do you have the itch to twirl some cotton buds of cynicism into your ears when these turn watery or oily with the waxing of holiday ditties and greetings of goodwill?
When calamities become as perennial as the climate, when the flood of human folly seems endless, mustn’t cheer be compulsory?
Garbage, or so the Grinch--grim and determined to steal Christmas--might as well have grumbled at our grin-and-bear-it syndrome to turn happiness into a heap of necessity. When things go hellish, after all, the more compelling it is to steal a piece of sky, a handful of heaven. How stubborn, this starry-eyed exigency to find a gift even inside a trash bin.
But stealing Christmas, or its spirit, is not solely the obsession of the Grinch. Might as well snatch it from Scrooge’s clutch, why not? In Mandaue City, for instance, the City Council has deemed it of earthshaking urgency to resolve for “all residents to be one in celebrating Christmas by putting up decorations in their houses.”
Elsewhere, there may be storms, landslides, a deluge of deaths and destruction. Terrorists may always be timely. Guns-for-hire, drugs lords and messianic cults may enjoy an exclusive right to primetime and front-page fame. There may be no reprieve from the glut of hunger and the lack of water. But, no, there’s just no stopping us Filipinos from calibrating the nuts and bolts of celebration, this machination of merriment. Woe can wait.
Stop, have a jolly good time for the time being. Defer the persistence of all things unpleasant. Come on, suspend disbelief against the wanton phenomenon of want. Try make-believe, as did three men who were too wise, if not street-smart for their own good.
According to the report (Sun.Star, December 11, page A16), the trio has been knocking on the doors of residents to solicit money or Christmas gifts, passing themselves off as “garbage collectors.” Were they out to collect evidence of prosperity or proofs of generosity? Did they try to discover if all that glitters in this time of year are not just trash?
Caught, they are now facing criminal complaints of usurpation of authority and official function after identifying themselves as personnel of the Department of Public Services (DPS). Who says the necessity to be merry--no matter if they ended up as s.o.b.--isn’t the mother of invention? Would they, sly as they must be, have fared better had they tried caroling while donning costumes of the magi? Would we hear and believe them?
Of folly under fire, there’s no end. So it was in the beginning, be it in the myth of Prometheus’ gift to mankind. Or the mystery of God’s selfless offering that set faith, hope, and love aflame from a manger in Bethlehem against the world’s coldness, darkness, danger.
Against the sigh, the sound of teeth gnashing or tongue clucking, stealing joy by cottoning onto the celebration of December is simply a matter of playing it by ear.
(December 12, 2004 issue)
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