WITH THE family car still down for the count and me and my son were on the way to shop for parts, it’s back to public transport once again.
Despite the coming and going of that virus almost eight years ago, which limited travel for a while, one would be surprised that nothing much has changed really.
I must have written about this many times already, but has anyone also 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? Or sitting across a teen who has got his phone volume on full while listening to TikTok videos, oblivious to other people’s stares?
That pretty much sums up this fresh but looping experience I have. 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 slowly-rising fare matrix that truly burns a deep hole in the pockets, it’s really becoming one cruel bit of reality that we, at times, have to deal with such people.
You’d assume a direct confrontasi would be the logical option but it’s really a mistake.
Truth is, the majority thinks the mind-your-own-business mindset is here to stay good. To be confrontative is deemed by many “desentes” as uncouth and passé. So, the end result of this would be…just to chill.
A mask of disbelief might be difficult to picture but I think it must have shown on my face as clear as day as I espied the sympathetic stares of other passengers. Already resigned to keeping a tight rein on my feelings, I looked away while her sharp voice, like a send-to-all e-mail, bansheed its way into my head.
I know I’ve written about scenes like these a long time ago. I guess they qualify as a pet peeve now. If not for anything else, I’d conclude that nothing much has changed and some people are really wired as such.
I’m reminded of some who time and again tweeted they’d leave the country because of our situation or whatever.
In a weird way, I feel them… but only in search for a quieter ride in public transport. ATM, I might have strayed at home and waited for the car to be fixed. Sana all.
Yet in the end, it still begs the question, should the poor commuter be held hostage to the shotgun blast, one-way ranting of any 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 everybody possesses, 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 desensitized to such. Is that the time to then look away?
