Aguinaldo, Aguinaldon't

Plutarch once said, there are only so many times a man will be exposed to a force of such magnitude, the mere presence of which already lifechanging. I think he was referring to a rampaging tenwheeler. That or hivemind mobs. Speaking of mobs, I can only partially describe to you how much ruckus aguinaldo-giving on christmas day can generate when twenty peso bills are involved. All 600 of them.

Now I've participated in pamasko-giving sessions before, but this year's response was simply overwhelming. By overwhelming I mean holy-shit-resident-evit-redux overwhelming. At one point, our gate's hinges nearly broke down because of the sheer amount of people pushing to get a good position. If the gate could file for early retirement I'm pretty sure it would have, and probably lodge a complain or two in DOLE while at it.

With the help of my sister, mom, and proper crowd control in the form of Tita Arthur and the Knights of the Round Parlor, we were able to distribute more properly. Not to be a neat freak or anything (Hell, I didn't take a bath the previous day) but I showered before distributing the money, 2 hours after which I felt that I needed another one, with my hands covered in grime.

It was fun though. You can't put a price in having a kid, a complete stranger come up to you with delighted eyes that you will never see in any well-to-do kid even on christmas morning. He'll give you a warm hug saying "Salamat po, Merry Christmas." And you'd think courtesy is dead.

It's just sad to think that there are still so many people able and willing to take advantage of a system for personal gain even on Christmas morning. People pretending to have lost their claim stubs, stealing stubs from the younger kids, and just plain line cutting to get more aguinaldo. In a society that rewards ingenuity, suddenly following the rules becomes somewhat unappealing. When a kid asks me in the future, what it was that destroyed our great culture, it would be surmised with this: "Us and our value for the characteristic called 'wais'"

Merry Christmas, people.

Oh and yeah, Plutarch didn't say anything about what I mentioned earlier. I just felt that I want to mention his name in this article.

[pictures to be uploaded later]