JESSICA + NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

J E S S I C A
April 30, 1994

Throwing away a live rabbit is not as easy as one would imagine. It takes much courage, determination and emotional detachment to do so. To begin with, it all started when the suitor of one of my daughters gifted her with a baby rabbit in a cage a few Christmases ago. It was a very exciting gift complete with food pellets and instructions on how to deal with it.
At first the rabbit which was named Jessica was very shy and wouldn’t eat. But as days passed-by it became greedier and messier. It grew bigger and bigger until the cage turned too small for it. Something must be done. But my daughter wasn’t concerned enough, it seemed. Her suitor promised to transfer it to a bigger cage but he didn’t because to do so he would have to use his car in transferring it from Alabang to Bel-Air and he just didn’t want to mess his car with his own gift.
One night I decided to free Jessica from her already unfriendly cage to a vacant lot where there are plenty of grass and banana plant. The idea was so it won’t starve while feeling at home too.
The following morning my son visited the plalce where we left the rabbit the night before and there it was exactly catatonic at the spot where we left her.
Jessica must have been shocked by the experience that either she didn’t know what to do or must have thought that she was still inside her cage. I went back with my son to see what happened. She moved a little distance where it was shady but she was shivering as if asking for compassion.
The “rabbit” in me must have been so touched that I brought it back home. The experience must have taught Jessica a lesson. Now, even if we open her cage she would stay inside or if she goes out for a while she returns and stays inside.

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND
Nov. 29, 1993

Social Obligation is one big burden that any social being has to face every so often. From baptismal to burial ceremonies and all the other festivities in between, one is expected by the “cruel society” to give his share. In return it is all the same except that it is the other way around.
Social Obligation is nothing but give and take – a cycle that goes on and on and wherever you are and whatever your status in life is. It is the obligation that can sometimes go too far or a bit too difficult to handle. But I think that is the penalty of being good or popular (like a politician) or by just being anybody.
No man is an island, so we always say. Each one has to get involved one way or another, each one has to share what he can to others.
Oftentimes it becomes a burden when you have to sponsor so many weddings, respond to so many invitations, buy so many raffle tickets and it is the time to pay the children’s matriculation fees and other school expenses.
But life has to go on. Social responsibility is everybody’s problem. It may not be as hard among affluent families but as a general rule it is society’s curse.