Monday, October 26, 2008 Luab: Tolerance, patience, humility come with age By Evelyn R. Luab light sunday
IF anyone had told me that one day I would just quietly wait my turn at a salon while the owner of the shop and his hairdressers pass by me without even giving me a glance, I would have said “no way!”
However, these days I enjoy reading their magazines till someone finally notices me and attends to my needs.
In my younger days, you could not make me wait my turn in an emergency room without my using my cell phone to try to reach someone who could get me attended to right away. (Ahead of everybody else.)
Today I say to myself: “The others were here ahead of me and they may be more sick than I am. I can wait for my turn.”
Waiting at a doctor’s clinic can be quite an ordeal even if you are number one on the list. Sometimes the doctor has a surgery to perform or gets delayed in his hospital rounds that the clock strikes one before he arrives. Those of us who try to put ourselves in his shoes just smile at his apology and take his reasons in.
I overhead a foreigner at one time raise his voice at one of the sales girls at a bakery in Ayala.
He said, “Is there anyone here ready to attend to me or are you both busy talking to each other?”
If he had been a close friend I would have teased him this way: “Are you really that hungry or are you just like my husband who cannot stand being ignored?”
Unfortunately, he was not even a friend so I just smiled at the sales girl in open sympathy to take the sting out of his words.
In all malls, in open restaurants, in coffee shops or stalls, you have men who bide their time. “Standing or sitting in the corner, watching all the girls go by” as the song goes. I have two beautiful nieces who complain: “Why do these men have nothing better to do than ogle young girls?”
My answer? “Ignore them. They are just little boys whose mothers (or wives?) have let them out to play.
"If that’s all they enjoy, then allow them their happiness.”
At one time, we were stuck in an elevator in one of the malls. My two grandchildren were with us. They were perfectly calm at first but when one young lady showed her panic in her voice, the two started crying. I took out my cell phone, called up the phone number of the Cinemas in that mall and asked for help.
In less than five minutes a voice came across, assuring us that work was being done to help us out. Of course, the young lady who panicked was in her early 20s while I am practically in my dotage. When my cook messes up a dish, for which I painstakingly buy ingredients, and the dish turns out to be a fiasco in spite of my repeated instructions, I can still say: “This isn’t it. We still have to master the recipe” while thinking of the pesos flying away.
At one time, my room was repainted a light blue. Imagine my surprise to find that the upper part of my room was a different shade of blue. When my painter was asked to explain, he said in Cebuano: “It looked like the same shade of blue to me.”
My husband saved the painter’s day by saying: “It’s okay, honey, it looks like a combination of sorts and the dividing line is evenly proportional.” No, I’m not a saint; just growing in years and to prove it, I have one pet peeve I cannot forgive up to this time.
They are the mothers who allow their young ones to run up and down the escalators till an accident happens. Believe me, mothers, beware because I am not above spanking you and then I can plead temporary insanity to justify my action.
Perhaps I really have not yet mastered being patient, tolerant, and humble. It would be good, however, for all of us to be aware that we can learn these traits even late in life.
