choices.in.jest.

while cooking our sunday dinner after a game of football, we found ourselves teasing elay in a mushed up talk. and suddenly, after getting tired of waiting for the pot of water to boil, the philosopher in me (pilosopo in filipino) blurted out, with a can of sardines in hand: hindi nyo kailangang maging bagay, it's not a necessity. it's all about choices.

to me (for self-gratification), those spoken words came as almost grandiose. in baritone voice. they were almost divine. with placid haloed face. the eleventh commandment. etched on rock tablets. only that they were all in jest.

i spoke those words in jest and found myself caught in sweeping generalization. but now, thinking about them again, it did hit some sensitivities and truths. in semi-ideal scenarios, that proposition will hold true and stand the test of socrates, st. thomas, marx and rizal. it was almost ideal that it becomes trivial. but when we are faced with such situations - weighing social standard against bitter choices - we usually find ourselves on the defensive. we cover ourselves with our security blankets, cower to our comfort zones and choose to look the other way. we choose to live the rest of our lives with what the society dictates.

we failed to get a reply from elay to make a choice that very moment. but i think she was caught in the moment that she almost readily gave her answer. maybe sooner she will. or maybe... she'll just let things be, until they eventually become bagay.

elay needed to decide afterall... bagay ba sila? bagay ba ang sinigang sa sardinas? o ang sinigang sa pancit canton? or, is it all about choices? sardinas o pancit canton?

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sometimes it takes more than luck to get what we really want. oftentimes, it's the choices we make that give us what we hoped for. more gratifying than what we asked for.