Mano Po Should Live
If you are patient and prepared to wade by way of any number of unremarkable, familiar duplications, you will sooner or later find an individual or one thing in the mall that will hold your focus. This past weekend I was not disappointed. I witnessed an exquisite occasion - some thing I in no way anticipated to determine nor shall I ever neglect.
A great deal like bird watching in an aviary, I watch for rare and fascinating individuals in the mall. I initially focused on an Asian boy and girl who had each purchased a sizable Starbuck's coffee. The boy was dressed in all of the most current gear, head shaved, hat for the back, jewelry, chains - the functions. The girl wore equally trendy clothes, pink Keds, a tribal arm tattoo and a variety of facial piercings. I was taken by the contrast amongst the cool, rough-neck, hip-hop appear the boy was desperately wanting to preserve as he delicately sprinkled cinnamon onto his grande coffee in a venti cup with two pumps hazelnut, two pumps vanilla, two pumps caramel, two Equals and four Sweet'N Low, filled to the prime with cream - extra cream around the side, double cupped with no sleeve, a stir stick and stopper within the best. I looked away having a grin and sipped my plain, black coffee. More than the rim of my cup I encountered the eyes of an Asian man intent on me. He was dressed in Western clothing, but was also wearing a barong, his black and gray hair neatly combed to one side. We every casually looked away, recovering smoothly from our accidental encounter.
The Asian man was using a young, teenage girl who I imagined was his daughter. The two sat for any moment, not talking. The man seemed to become settling in, taking in his surroundings before committing to sitting in that unique spot. The girl was a little jumpy, anticipatory, searching from side to side and checking her phone for texts. Ahead of long the man cautiously took cash from his billfold and handed it for the girl. She bolted toward Starbucks, taking her place in the back in the line. She gave two smaller, excited jumps, outwardly energized by some thought she was getting. Her movements had been swift, speedy, as opposed to her father who seemed to move in slow motion, as if performing tai chi, adjusting his chair and settling in contentedly. He folded his arms over his chest and crossed one particular leg over the other.
It wasn't extended just before the girl was joined by the boy and girl I had been observing earlier. The jumpy girl apparently knew the Keds girl since, after they saw one particular pinoy tv a different, they initiated an animated, dance-like greeting, gripping each other around the forearms and jumping up and down. The boy stood, sipping his coffee, still focused on preserving his emotional distance. The girl pointed inside the path of her father, and also the teens waved in his direction. The man nodded back.
Not lengthy right after, the girl, followed by her buddies, carried a tray of refreshments to her table. The hip-hop boy put down his coffee and approached the man. He greeted him, referring to him as Uncle, after which took the man's fingers in his hand and raised them to his forehead. The Keds girl did the exact same. I imagined that I has to be within the presence of royalty, or at the least somebody who was pretty wealthy or possibly famous - someone who deserved this amount of respect. I looked at his ring finger, expecting to find out a wide, ostentatious red ruby. The man wore no jewelry. The teens stood for any handful of minutes and chatted, but quickly left, bowing their heads after more inside the man's path.
One of the most great issues I locate about today's technology is that I can locate data about almost anything in just a couple of second. I typed some keywords into Google on my mobile phone and discovered that what I had witnessed was a Filipino greeting named mano po - mano meaning hand; po is placed at the end of a sentence when addressing elders. It seems that Filipino youngsters and young individuals greet or say goodbye to their elders by taking the appropriate hand in the elder with their suitable hand and touching the back the elder's hand lightly on their forehead. Mono po is really a Filipino custom for displaying respect to elders and receiving their blessing. This gesture of deference is not, as I had supposed, reserved for the wealthy, the famous or the politically connected. Mano po is performed as a sign of respect with all elders by Filipino youth, no matter the status or social class of your elder.
Mano po represented a striking contrast to the individuals with whom I'm much more familiar in my personal culture - people who shout orders and demands, swear, discuss intimate and private matters of national tv, cough in to the open air, shoot 1 another more than a parking space, push, pull, grab and normally behave selfishly and inconsiderately. How magnificent, I thought, to reside one's life long sufficient to become honored for enduring this quick, but chaotic journey? To become prized for one's knowledge and understanding - to have accomplished an even larger degree of individual value and social significance as a consequence of regular aging.
