COMMITMENT

[November 15, 2012 at 11:13am] 

I pity a friend, his wife of ten years left him. No third party involved, things allegedly just didn’t work out anymore for them. Plain and simple, just like that. Like Mang Inasal’s unli-rice, she spewed it out when it was hot.

Is the old saying, “Ang pag-aasawa ay hindi biro, di tulad ng kaning isinubo na nailuluwa kapag ika’y napaso,” now obsolete? The sanctity of marriage, like Charlie Chaplin films, bade goodbye to basic and to Filipino culture because “Modern Times” and “City Lights” turned on the heat.

I’m still not certain though who has truly benefited between them. Was it the impatient and hot-tempered wife or my happy-go-lucky and carefree friend? I’m sad since I stood as one of only two witnesses during their civil wedding. Let alone the fact that the groom got the bride because of a little help from his friend.

Normally, separation would happen because of lack of commitment. Unlike our public officials who lack ethics, in marriage you need it. As I would love to say, “Ethics too to tango,” as that too is basic. Either one or both of you are lacking commitment, say goodbye to your union as it would surely come to its end.

Now, my friend is back to his old ways, or, to be candid, his usual ways. He complicated further the situation by involving himself with various creatures in skirt and lace. He shuns commitment now as he just preferred involvement. He doesn’t take my opinions and concerns anymore as if I’m a nonentity or nonexistent.

I always love and agree with that someone who firmly believes that the difference between COMMITMENT and INVOLVEMENT is sooo big. He said that that big difference is like a difference between the chicken and the pig at a breakfast table of ham and egg. There, as he finely narrated, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed.

I too broke the hearts of not a few friends, not a few times, because I failed to honor my commitment, though I blamed it to memory lapses mostly, yet still it wasn’t just a simple irresponsibility. Unlike Paul, who conquered himself when he proved what he said, “….I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” (II Timothy 1:12 KJV)