A short video was making the rounds via Facebook. It was taken allegedly by a motorist by the name of Lyndon Santos while he was caught in the traffic under the Edsa-Timog flyover in Quezon City last Monday.
The video showed a young woman giving her coat to a young girl, perhaps five or six years old, apparently naked until the mystery woman gave the little girl her coat. There was more than just a drizzle. Typhoon “Gener” was raging, after all, and the other pedestrians were seen running past with their umbrellas.
The young woman had stopped to take the hooded coat off her back, and had knelt down to button the jacket neatly around the child. After giving the child a gentle pat, the young woman rushed off.
The video clip lasted for only 35 seconds but it was moving, and I hope her fine example (and Lyndon’s initiative to post it for all to see) would be repeated countless times in quiet acts of charity that affirm our innate humanity and bring out the noble self that was inherent on each one of us.
In this wifi age, brutal hazing resulting to death, insensitive souls abound. So I never thought that the Good Samaritan story that I've read from the bible is still being followed by Pinays/ Pinoys.
Would I have done the same thing in that same situation?
I don't know. Maybe not.
What I do, whenever I eat out, I ask the waiter to wrap whatever food that was left on my plate and I give them to beggars or co-passengers in the MRT.
The other day, I was inside the MRT, and a small child around two years old, dirty, poor, and her mother said she couldn't speak yet, was intently looking at another child who is not only cute but also look rich, eating marsh mallows. Maybe she don't understand why the other child is eating and she doesn't have anything to eat. Since the mother of the rich child did not bother to offer food to the poor young child, I offered the chocolate cake I have on my bag.
The child's face brighten up when she tasted how delicious the chocolate cake is. She smiled at me. I felt happiness in my heart. You know that it was a sincere smile from a person who can't give anything back to you.
I gave her my noodle soup and instructed the mother to add hot water. She was gesturing bye bye and smiling at me, when they get off at the next station.
Maybe it is impossible for us to change the world. But the mysterious woman taught us, that if we wish to change the world that we live in right here, right now, we can do it ourselves in the course of our daily work. No need to wait for the next coming of God. We can do little things for others.
You, yourself can find your own miracle. Maybe while walking to school, at the mall or under the flyover, bridge or even just within your own community.
John F. Kennedy said: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
The miracle woman on Edsa showed us, in the wordsof a Facebook post, that “there are still good and kind people out there.” By her example, she taught us that we can make a difference in simple ways, and that we don’t need wait for some big issue or be like those corrupt traditional politicians who lend a helping hand only because of publicity.
The mystery woman reminds us that doing good, calls for actual sacrifice. She gave up a coat. Yes, her act of kindness did cost her something. She gave up a coat during a typhoon. She risked getting wet and sick on her way home.
The episode under the Edsa-Timog flyover is special. It is one of those quiet acts of kindness:
- unrehearsed
- unplanned
- spontaneous
- and real
A moment solely between the woman and the child she was helping. I bet, God is smiling from ear to ear. I hope and I pray that the kindness that the mystery woman showed that morning would be returned to her a thousand fold. Mabuhay ka!
