Time for reflection

I published this a couple of years ago. But it’s such a thought-provoking story that I think it’s worth reflecting on again. It’s time to listen.

The online version may also be viewed on www.thepathoftruth.com.

The story goes:

“A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something.

“As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag’s side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.

“The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, ’What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That’s a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?’

“The young boy was apologetic.  ‘Please, mister … Please, I’m sorry but I didn’t know what else to do,’ he pleaded.  ‘I threw the brick because no one else would stop…’ With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. ’It’s my brother,’ he said.  ‘He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up.’

“Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, ’Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me.’

“Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.  ‘Thank you and may God bless you,’ the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

“It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: ’Don’t go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!’ God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don’t have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It’s our choice to listen or not.”

Let a brick hit you in 2017.

The column was written in December 2014. I also said there: “If I were the President, I’d be asking for emergency powers. Not to address the power problem, although in a modified form these powers can be useful there, but to bypass all the absurd bureaucratic and legal hurdles to just get anything done. More than 20,000 poor souls in Zamboanga are still living in temporary shelters 12 months after the siege. That there are many, many thousands still without a home in Leyte a year after ‘Yolanda’ is just not acceptable. Yes, there has to be some control so that money is not stolen, but I’d rather risk losing a little than keeping hundreds of thousands of poor folk out of a halfway decent home. Let the Sandiganbayan, the Commission on Audit, the Office of the Ombudsman and other concerned agencies go after the thieves later. And maybe the priests can preach a bit more strongly on the sin of stealing (commandment No. 8) and the subsequent journey to hell.”

Well, two years on and more than 200,000 families still don’t have their own house. Emergency powers weren’t given, action didn’t happen. Today we are strangled by traffic that is devastating our lives, ruining family relationships, costing business enormously. Yet the House of Representatives appears unconcerned. Sen. Grace Poe, bless her, pushed for the measure’s plenary approval before recess, but the House version got nowhere. It’s time the President used his muscle, cracked a few heads and got us emergency powers to accelerate at least some solutions to the disaster we (try to) live in today.

E-mail: wallace_likeitis@wbf.ph. Read my previous columns: www.wallacebusinessforum.com