From my time to the present and maybe the future
Again, summers reminds me of home. Home of course where a lot of nice memories. As they say "There's no place like home." But I can remember when I was back home I cannot wait to leave home. Now that I am thousand miles home,I long to go back. I guess because I came to the realization that no matter how "home" sucks, it is still home.It is in the exploration of the horizons and the seas and the mountains that I learn how important home is. I have been away for a long time now and whatever left of home are only in my memories.And yes, summer reminds me so much of the hot humid days I spent with my parents in the province. I can recall those days when we have to go to the nearby town to buy some groceries. Some days when we get so unlucky and it rains, we would have to wallow in mud puddles to get to town or get back home. If we are lucky enough we would ride in an overloaded jeepney where the seats are almost occupied by goods, no aisle visible and feet can hardly move under all those groceries and luggages. Some guys would stay on top of the jeepney (top load) but they have tried to pass ordinances against overloading and top loading the last time I visited. It was sunny during those times, muggy and humid. Of course in the far flung places away from town they don't even have air conditioners nor electricity. Atleast from what I recall growing up, people are very friendly and as much as possible generous and there was respect towards each other. I mean in a village where everybody knows thier nieghbors, they try to be more like a family. Something we might not see nowadays. I can remember some nights when we caught in the middle of a storm, we didn't have to worry, we would just spend the night to the first house we can find. And there was nothing to worry about, they gave us, warm food and shelter and the next day we could go ahead on our way home. As I told you when it rains or storms there may not be any vehicles traveling, so in order to get home in the village we have to walk even at night. When we have to go to town we would wake up at three o'clock or even earlier to catch the jeepney that heads to town at five o'clock at the next village. If you oversleep, the jeepney would be gone by the time you get there. See how inconvinient the way of life over there. But that's a way of life, everyone has to do it and so, nobody really complains.
Of course when I go back I am sure there will be changes, my mom told me that electricity have reached the remote erea they live. The last time I visited home, I actually saw some people have televisions. I was amazed, I asked them how they do that withought electricity, they said they used "batteries" from the truck and they recharge them every now and then. Amazing! These little improvement can change the lives of people.
Yes, whenever I would visit home when I was young, they only listen to dramas played on the radio. Now they can watch television. I mean of course I lived and studied in a more progressive town, so I am already exposed to them. In a way I didn't want the people to lose thier sense of innocence. But I guess being able to experience the wonder of electricity isn't that bad. What I am worried about are the changes in the people that leads to decadence, especially of what they see on televisions. Somehow I like to preserve that innocence, the way the treat each other. Oh, well, I guess I don't have the power to do that.All I can do is wish. It's normal phenomenon beyond human control. Thinking of that place and where I am now, it seems to me that I am almost transported way forward to the future. I mean J says that it was also like that here maybe 50 or 60 years ago. How fast could it go? It seems to me that as we head towards material progression, the moral aspect goes the opposite way. More and more man is obsessed with gaining material things and in the process he forgets what's really important. More and more people's efforts are geard towards technological advancement, the spiritual and moral aspect is no longer taken into consideration.They are ven starting to make thier own kind a lab rat. Where are we heading....is it towards man's own destruction from his very own inventions?
