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Thursday, March 04, 2004
Antalan: Some people never learn
By Roger P. Antalan
Dateline Igacos
To see is one thing. To understand is another thing. To learn from what you understand is still something else. But to act on what you learn is what really matters.
SOME people never learn from the painful lessons of the past. Take the case of the woman who was pregnant with her fifth child. She did not prepare at all for the birth of the child. She did not even see the doctor.
When the time came for the baby to come out, she was not ready. There was panic in the house. The husband was away at work. Finally, the neighbors got a taxi and rushed her to the hospital. But the baby was more in a hurry. The baby came out inside the elevator.
The mother was so ashamed, she wailed in a loud voice, "Nakakahiya, sa elevator pa ako nanganak." The attending nurse tried to console her by saying, "That's okay, Mrs. Last year a woman also did not reach the delivery room. She gave birth at the parking lot!"
The woman cried the louder: "Ako yon! Ako yon!" Well, giving birth is really a happy event no matter how painful to the mother, even if the mother of the above story did not learn her lesson. A few months ago, I attended the wake of a man who was only in his early 40s. He was strictly prohibited from eating lechon by the doctor. But the guy really loved lechon.
The day before he died he bought a few kilos and feasted on his favorite dish. The grieving wife recalled her husband saying, "Die today. Die tomorrow. Same die." The wife sadly commented, "He did not listen to the doctor, "Die na gyud siya karon."
Then there was this slightly apocryphal story of the kindly old politician who was supposed to fall into the same trap time and again. A crying lady came to him with the sad story that her father had just died, and she needed money badly for the burial. Not wanting to hear more about her sad story, the old politician gave her money at once. When the woman was gone, the bodyguards told the old man, "Sir, kaupat na mamatay ang tatay niadtong bayhana." (Sir, the woman's father has already died four times).
A number of years ago, when my family was residing in Quezon City, we had a young man in the house who acted as our errand boy. Everytime we had visitors from the province, we assigned the young man to accompany the visitors to go sightseeing or shopping to Quiapo and the Escolta, the places to go at the time.
A number of times, they were held-up, their watches, wallets and money taken. It looked like our tourist guide did not know how to avoid dangerous alleys where the criminal elements were waiting for innocent probinsyanos as their preys. We had to stop asking him to be "Tulis Guide."
Experience is sometimes a harsh teacher. Human as we are, we may take the painful lessons of the past lightly. Even the great Winston Churchill once said, "Personally, I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like to be taught."
The consequences of taking for granted the lessons of the past can be immeasurable, such as losing hard-earned money or even one's life. There are times when a drastic move is necessary. A father saw his child playing with matches. The father lighted one stick and tried to burn the fingers of the child. That child did not play with matches from then on.
To see is one thing. To understand is another thing. To learn from what you understand is still something else. But to act on what you learn is what really matters. Aristotle said it long ago, "What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing."
(March 4, 2004 issue)
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