Thursday, December 27, 2007 Limlingan: The parable of Tatang tars By DP Limlingan The Advocate
BEFORE government offices wrapped up their day before Christmas, I had an encounter, albeit past the office hour, with the most jolly and most soft-spoken of them all, Provincial Board Member Tars DC Halili of the First District of the Province.
It's not the usual coffee shop and smoke atmosphere but more of an office conversation at the capitol building sipping black instant coffee.
While waiting for his driver, he invited me to have a moment of de-stressing caffeine, cigarettes and chat.
As a religious layman, he introduced to me in his usual graceful mode of talking, the parable of the two siblings. Let me share it with you.
There were two sisters who live in a farm; the elder a married woman with children and the other a single young lady.
They are the daughters of a farmer who, like in every countryside tales, died leaving all the family assets in the hands of their successors.
The pupul (produce) of their palay farm are shared by the two and despite their equitable sharing, has left a story of them.
One day, the elder sister, has contemplated on her sister's plight of being single, no one to take care of neither no one to take care of her.
The elder has concluded at the back of her mind of secretly sharing a part of her pupul to her younger sister in the latter's palay warehouse.
Little did she know that one day, the younger sister would be thinking the same way, thinking about the fate of her older sister, being with a family of her own to raise and children to grow.
The younger sister thought at her recesses of sharing a part of her own pupul to her older sister. Not to compromise her plan, she likewise intended to do it secretly.
One day while making their inventories with their respective palay warehouses, they both noticed that despite their acts of discreetly sharing their stocked produce to each other, their wealth seemed not to have lost a grain.
The morale of the story, as Tatang Tars continue, is that, when we think of what is good for the other, goodness will also happen to us in return and that love, unity, understanding and sharing ourselves are the real messages of Christ's birth.
They are the ingredients for a smooth and lasting relationship.
What Tatang Tars all wanted for Christmas, is that the parable be applied to the Provincial Capitol of Pampanga.
For him, what best lies for the province is the settlement and setting aside of differences and think of what is for the common good.
A religious layman himself, he shared to me his ideas of Christmas.
He told this writer that despite the elaborate preparations for the yuletide, relatives and visitors coming home, the opulent Christmas decorations, gifts often in monetary form, endless Christmas parties, and abundant food, we tend to fail to remember the celebrant of the season.
While we have prepared so much for Christmas, we sometimes fail to prepare for the coming of the birth of Jesus Christ per se.
If not for the constraints of material time, I could have learned more stories from Tatang Tars.
I find his parables providential and touching. His ideas simple, yet realistic.
Apart from the ideas I have for the holidays, I consider the parable as the most valuable lesson I've learned this yuletide.
Perhaps, for a change, we have not talked about poignant ideas on politics but rather some simple thoughts of how we are to live the message brought by the season.
I appreciated the brief time we had and the simple gesture of offering me a cup of coffee at his office, more so, the parable and the ideas of righteousness he share every time we meet.
What kind of ideas he shares, Tatang Tars mirrors his principles, virtues and values he applies in his daily life. I salute him.
