Wise Men Say...

“…only fools rush in.”

I wonder what the wise women say.

Last night I went out with my kumares. Notice how fond I am of using the term kumare. It has a lot to do with them, the actual people I am referring to, being my first set of kumares who are within my age range. I have to thank Mareng Cheche, Pareng Budic and baby Perry for making that possible.

Our dinner was not really a girl’s night out because Mareng Ging brought along her son, Carl which was not at all bad. Carl is five years old. He is therefore within three months to seven years old—the age of kids when they are at their cutest—that is, according to me. Anyway, Carl is very amusing and is pretty much bright. He talks a lot and, amazingly, he makes sense!

I think it was Mareng Cheche who said “Ging, magaling na ba magbasa si Carl?” Which I followed up with, “Oo nga, parang ang dami na niyang alam!” To which Mareng Ging replied, “Nasa delivery lang yan.”

And just as the son, the mom, too, made sense.

It is how we deliver things that make a difference. Delivery may make or break us.

Last weekend, I dragged myself early out of bed just to make it to my 8:30 A.M. dental appointment. Nope, I was not looking forward to it. When I am the patient, doctors including dentists are monsters. I am extremely afraid of them. I once stopped a dentist who was half-way through drilling my molar, not because I was in pain but because I couldn’t stand my fear. I walked around with an open-drilled molar for about three months—the same span of time it took me to gather enough courage to go on with the dental procedure which usually runs about 30 to 60 minutes.

Somehow I realize that I do have to face my fears. Of course, I would not want to be late when I do that. And I wasn’t.

Unfortunately the dentist and her staff were. I arrived in a clinic with no signs of living, human medical creatures inside, thus aggravating the tension a battik patient goes through whenever within proximity of a clinic or a hospital.

Forty-five minutes after my schedule, the dentist and her “staff” arrived. Five minutes after that, I found myself sitting on the reclined dental chair, leaving me powerless, so to speak.

“Kanina ka pa ba naghihintay sa labas?” the dentist asked.

“Nandito na ako ng 8:30. Ni-remind kasi ako ng assistant ninyo kahapon to be here on time.” I tried to deliver it as if I were not pissed off. The dentist was about to stick several of her apparatus in my mouth—I wouldn’t want her to hate me. What am I? Crazy? Wimp, yes. Crazy, no!

Sometimes, clamming up is the best means for self-preservation.

But, God, I hate late! The day after that fateful dental incident, my new cube alarm clock failed me. I woke up late for my scheduled Divisoria trip with my friends. On my tardy way to our meeting place, I saw this huge red sign which read, “Hate Late?” Some cosmic entity is speaking to me. (Yesterday, I figured out that the said cosmic entity is none other than Pizza Hut—the company responsible for those huge red hate-late signs around Pasig.)

Recently tardiness has gotten me a 16-hour suspension from work. I will not try to defend myself for incurring 20 lates this year even if I know I can justify my lateness. A lot of people, though, were surprised because of that suspension and the very “demeriting” news (I am inventing my words now) even reached Singapore which is not at all OK with me. I mean if I screw up, I prefer that it won’t go international—after all, I am NOT famous.

However it is clear to me that although I hate late, I am not one who is incapable of being late for no good reason at all. Probably the best no-good-reason-for being late is procrastination. I have come to realize that I am guilty of procrastinating almost everything in my life that if ever I decide to come up with a list of things I’ve postponed for yesterday, it will take me forever. Well, one, because I will surely procrastinate and, two, because my list will be infinite.

So now I am reduced on rationalizing: if fools rush in and I procrastinate then I will be no fool according to wise men.

Still, I wonder what the wise women will say.