Why

“The sun will come out tomorrow/Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow/There’ll be sun.”

THE sun rarely comes out during the rainiest of the rainy season but its presence was still felt last Wednesday when the ambience was too hot, the wrong kind of hot in the wrong place at the wrong time, making the sweat dripping down your back wonder if summer was here again.

It was the kind of day that reminded you why you once woke up at the most ungodly of hours and dared to join the long lines snaking outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila, believing that a U.S. visa was the only way outta here, out of this heat, out of this tropical country, so you could finally see snowflakes and make snow angels. Well, that was your only reason, right? To escape from the humidity?

Sometimes you may have no reason for things you want to do. As the Nike ad goes, Just do it. Dirty Harry also has a line for that: “Go ahead, make my day.” Er, OK, make your day. Here’s one more: “If there’s a will, there’s a way.” Sa Tagalog, “’Pag ayaw may dahilan, ‘pag gusto may paraan.”

If you’re dragging yourself to do something, that could be an example of “’pag ayaw may dahilan.” But at least you’re present after the many hours you were dragging yourself to be there. That’s different from giving many reasons to not go and eventually not appearing at all.

People can choose the kind of life they want to have. Those who don’t want to be more stressed than the normal level of stress have learned to divide their time between home and work. They don’t have any connections outside of that circle. It’s simply home and work.

But work may require other networks in order for that work to go forth and multiply, thus, they now broaden their horizons by joining organizations which may add unfamiliar stress to their usual kind of stress, so that instead of going straight home from work, they now have to drop by, say, a resto where the organization holds its meetings. Since an organization doesn’t exist by simply meditating and letting the day pass by, it also involves work. And who does the work? The members, of course.

It may be called a voluntary organization, but the word “voluntary” refers to the time when you were still mulling over the idea whether to join or not. Once you’re in, you now have to do your part in the organization. Kung sa Bisaya pa, Walay libre sa kalibutan. Everything has a price. You want to broaden your horizons, then you have to pay. And pay here does not refer only to the annual dues. You pay with your time, with your A for A-fort. If you want a simple life, then go back to your home-and-work routine.

Married members tend to make their spouse as their excuse for not joining some activities. If only the single members could adopt the same excuse: Di ko tugtan sa akong amiga. Will that make this world a better place?
But the excuse sounds better for the married members: Di ko tugtan sa akong bana. We still have to hear a male member say, Di ko tugtan sa akong asawa. For that will make him under the saya if he admits he has to seek his wife’s approval first.

Well, the single members who have been there, done that with relationships have had their share, too, of loves, sweethearts and honeys whose yeses, nods and approvals they also had to seek. It sounds familiar. There are many kinds of organizations. There’s the professional organization, the business organization, the civic organization, the leadership training organization, the traffic organization, etc. Each of them requires their members to work. The one dealing with traffic could be the most tiring of all, that is, if you hate manning traffic. But why join an organization that deals with traffic if you hate manning traffic?

And that should be the main question even for non-traffic organizations. If you hate doing extra work in addition to your source of income, why did you join? Why are you there?

And that question should be asked for all the other facets of your life. Why are you married, why are you single, why are you working for that company, why are you engaged in that business. Annie Lennox even has a song titled “Why”: “Tell me…/Why/Why.” And Karen Carpenter once sang, “Why does the sun go on shining?/Why does the sea rush to shore?”

Why do I write this column? Because I love to write. Why do I love Donald Duck? Because we both have the same level of temper, two peas in a pod. Why can I relate with Miss Piggy? Because moi is tamse–tambok nga sexy. Haha!
The important thing is to be aware of your answers to the question, Why? Otherwise you’ll be roaming around this world aimlessly, unlike the chicken that crossed the road.

There are so many answers to, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” “To get to the other side.” And some famous people supposedly have/had their own answers, too. Roseann Barr: “Urrrrrp. What chicken?” Colonel Sanders: “I missed one?” Bob Dylan: “How many roads must one chicken cross?” Ernest Hemingway: “To die. In the rain.” Martin Luther King: “It had a dream.”

If you don’t want to complicate your life, then stick to your home-and-work routine. Don’t volunteer for anything outside of that. Don’t join organizations. Be the opposite of the Nike ad: Just don’t.