Richard Abad
IF THERE'S one thing the earthquake last Monday reminded me of my place on Earth it is the fact that nothing I know is unshakable anymore.
Before the incident this wasn’t exactly most felt. No cebuano seems to me could think that they’re just one wave away from being crushed or wiped out. No one could afford to think such a negative extreme.
Nobody in their right positive-thinking mind ever wants to be reminded that their dreams of owning a big house, a big car and big things are not safe from the entrenching reach of a simple intensity 7 earthquake. Who thinks too much of an earthquake when it’s too unlikely to happen?
Clearly more than one Cebuano now thinks an intensity “end-of-the-world” calamity is not too unlikely to happen in a place like Pasil. Clearly most of these people who now think otherwise were part of the crowd in Colon who ran to Capitol and the mountains at the news that a tsunami was two blocks away from them and they’re about to be the next stars to the literally hit sequel of that last big tsunami show in Japan. Clearly these people are now firm believers that it pays to repent and not having done so is the sign they were very vulnerable to panic. Clearly these people are the new big witnesses to a sudden drastic change in world view.
Of course, such new worldview could only be taken in two ways: the positive and the negative. The positive side is simple: when something almost impossible happens in our midst, why bother think of the future when the only thing to do is to live in the moment? Why study for this exam when the world’s about to end anyway? Why bother saving the future by fighting global warming when probably no human can be there to witness it?
No one should stop me from travelling anywhere I want to even if it costs twenty-years-worth of jet fuel if that’s my right to do so and the world’s about to end anyway. If I want to build thirty houses now and buy fifteen cars and can afford it, I’ll do them!
The negative approach is obviously more tricky and obviously harder to do and should be done with great caution: if I’m possibly about to die any minute from now, maybe there’s no point in buying all these unnecessary gadgets when having only one is more than enough. Why bother having an affair and leaving my 24-year-old marriage when the world ends anyway and I might not live long enough to appreciate what having a mistress is like? Why bother lying when the truth of the matter is that you die either way.
Both views are respected and clear thoughts of what society thinks today. Obviously I know this because it’s not like I’m biased and all I’m saying here are more than just opinions. Even if they are, this doesn’t make any less true the fact that we Cebuanos now are just people ready for the next panic from a shake, witnesses of an almost end of the world.
(Editor’s Note: See what happens if you ask nicely?)