Of kindness

This is where it begins.

Like most blogs, I will start mine with a vague and cryptic line signaling the creation of this online journal of sorts. I am, like most days and with most speeches, writing without a properly outlined draft. Just typing away like I’m chatting with friends on Telegram.

The Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli is credited for his work on Bernoulli’s principle which relates pressure and flow and has applications in modern transportation and aviation. However, it was a fellow Swiss Leonard Euler who translated Bernoulli’s theory into a mathematical equation. I distinctly remember our high school advanced physics teacher demonstrating Bernoulli’s principle as the feeling of being sucked into a moving train because the fluids (air) next to the train are faster and thus pressure in that area decreases. The pressure in the fluids behind you will thus be relatively higher and will cause that push towards the moving train. This is why you see those yellow markings on the platforms of LRT’s yellow and purple lines, amplified by the garbled announcement by the security guard over megaphones.

My youngest brother has gifted me with an active Beep card that I use in the daily commute onboard the two light rail transits conjoined perpendicularly at the Doroteo Jose and Recto stations. For the first two months or so as a junior diplomat, I had to traverse more than 20 kilometers from Roxas Boulevard to Katipunan (Google Maps says it would take 3 hours 31 minutes on foot, all things held constant including one’s stamina). There are moments when I catch my self wondering if this is all a dream (or a nightmare, depending on the time) but at the end of the day, I still could not imagine doing anything else apart from this sweet spot between public service and international law. I’d say it feels like a pipe dream, being entrusted to take point in an international conference hosted by Manila while doing important work in ensuring that the national interests and the welfare of its citizens are protected in international agreements.

I consider my self lucky to be assigned in the treaty and legal office, surrounded by lawyers and legal professionals who seamlessly code-switch from legalese to funny anecdotes while at post. In them, I see a workforce that inspires me and that I can proudly call Filipino, even at a time when most public servants fear what lies ahead. Fellow lingkod-bayans in my circles are unsurprisingly jaded with recent events, and who can blame them? Left and right it seems that patronage and affinity are rewarded over merit and fitness. But for me, giving up today is more unimaginable. If we yield the space that young, passionate public servants are occupying, we let others take our spots– others who may not have the same zeal and focus and (ugh) love that we have for Inang Bayan.

When days get uniquely and terrifyingly difficult, I rely on the sentiment that the Bernoulli effect might hold true for working in government: that high pressure environments eventually equalize and diffuse into areas with low pressure, and that even the impetus of a small push, done consistently, may drag other bodies to move forward as well. And these small pushes may manifest even in small acts of kindness, such as when our maintenance staff saw that I failed to obtain my own ID lace because the merch stall ran out of stocks. She then rummaged through her things and unearthed an old, rusty one that she rinsed and shyly handed to me. “Sana ok lang ito Sir, medyo luma na.” It’s the same one I use today: a reminder of my identity being an amalgamation of efforts grand and minute, by both loved ones and strangers. I doubt I’ll be changing anytime soon. I hope not.