Outlook. . . Attitude

On my day offs, I oversee the workers who help fix up our house. One of them, a sixty-eight year old man, eagerly and diligently carry sacks of cements to and fro the second floor. Though I don’t see him rest and stop on his trips, I can feel his difficulty in carrying those sacks. His body is old and tired yet he doesn’t complain. He doesn’t let it hinder him from earning money for his family. He comes as early as 7.30 every morning and leaves late in the afternoon. Every time I see him he always has a smile on his face. Day in and day out, I can see his happy smile. The meager money we pay him has helped a lot put food on their table.

But every morning on my way to work, I always pass by a group of men sitting and talking looking like they don’t have anything important to do or go to. I always see them either smoking, drinking alcohol (that early) or talking loudly. Once, I heard one of them say he can’t have her pregnant wife checked up at a hospital cause he doesn’t have money. I always hear them complaining, how they don’t have jobs or food to put on their table everyday. They can’t even send all their children to school with the meager income their wives make from selling vegetables. What? Why let their wives work when they are the one’s supposed to provide for their family? Day after day, they leave their “tambayan” with nothing, except a murky outlook and attitude.

In life, it is our choices that make us who we are. It is our attitude that shapes us. And attitude is always a matter of choice.