There Is Good In Every Man.

I've always believed in this. Despite the world being messed up most of the time, despite news of killings and crimes, despite the hatred that surround me (and even consume me) sometimes, deep in my heart, I believe that man is intrinsically good. He commits evil, yes, but always for a reason. When you look at him up close, you'll see that he is overflowing with goodness.

Earlier this day, between 12 noon to 1pm, while I was aboard a jeepney, I saw a long line of tricycles at a terminal, with most of them without their driver - they were probably having their late lunch. There were only a few drivers in there, some resting, others tinkering with their tricycle. 

Then from a small sari-sari store, a teenage guy walked towards the line of tricycles. He was holding half a styrofoam plate with pancit canton and plastic fork. I saw him approach one of the drivers, an older guy, who took a forkful of pancit canton and ate it. At first, I found the scene weird - I thought there was something not normal about it, about those two guys with one giving food to the other and the other taking a forkful of that food without second thought, like it was the most normal thing in the world to do. I even thought maybe the old one is the father of the teenage guy, and the guy is simply giving his father some food, thus the closeness. That scene had something very personal about it, something very private.

After approaching the older man, the teenage guy approached another man and gestured, inviting the man to eat pancit canton from his plate. The man, who was busy working on something, declined. The teenage guy appeared to be insisting that the man take some pancit canton from his plate, but the man was shaking his head. 

The teenager then proceeded to the last part of the line into a tricycle, and that's when I realized he's one of the drivers. The other two men whom he approached earlier were co-drivers, not family members like I first thought.

That scene has deeply touched me. I didn't realize that a man like that, a teenager at that, and a trycicle driver, would be capable of an act such as the one I witnessed. I mean, it was just a small serving of pancit canton. And for lunch, that would not suffice. But, the guy was still able to share it with his co-drivers, and he seemed happy doing it, like it was as normal as it could be.

What a beautiful scene it was, and it only reaffirmed my faith in man. No matter what happens to him, no matter what his circumstances are, nothing can take away the goodness of man. Yes, at times it will be buried deep because of bad events and experiences, but it will never totally disappear - that goodness will always be there.