WITH the family car still down for the count and me and my son was on the way to shop for parts, it’s back to public transport once again. Despite the coming and waning of covid which limited travel for a while, one would be surprised that nothing much has changed really. This query I posed about two years ago. Have you ever experienced sitting next to someone inside a jeepney who has got her mouth close to your ear while she is talking loudly to another party on her cell phone?
That pretty much sums up this fresh but looping experience. In my mind I’m thinking, woe to many of us everyday commuters who endure this scourge of insensitivity on a day to day. Second only to a new fare matrix that truly burns a deep hole in the pockets, it’s really become one torturous part of reality that one has to deal with such peeps. You’d assume a direct confrontation would be the most logical option, but that would be a mistake. It seems that the mind-your-own-business mindset is here for good. The opposite is passé. So, the end result of this would be…chill.
A mask of disbelief might be difficult to picture but I think it must have shown on my face clear as day as I espied the sympathetic stares of the passengers sitting in front of us. But already-resigned to keeping a tight rein on my feelings, I sulkingly looked away, while her sharp voice, like a send-to-all e-mail, bansheed its way into my head.
Back to realizing I’ve written about this a long time ago; does that mean I still regard this as a pet peeve? If not for anything else, I’d conclude that nothing much has changed and some people are really wired as such. I’m pretty much reminded of some who’ve tweeted that they will leave the country because of their disappointment with the election results. In some weird way, I feel them but my only my reason for doing so would be to search for a quieter ride. Or stay at home. The car better be fixed really quick..
Yet it still begs the question, should the poor commuter be held hostage to the shotgun blast, one-way ranting of another fellow passenger? Whatever happened to respecting others? Of course I know that we are molded largely by culture: how we were raised, where we hail from, influences of school, religion and people we’ve interacted with, etcetera. In this context, what particular page of that tome of experience is the brief mention of empathy?
It may seem funny whenever we hear about similar situations happening to other people. Thing is, that is how we begin to become de-sensitized to such. Is that the time to then look away?
