Nowadays, it is with much sadness that I get to witness so many acts of rudeness and ingratitude. I cannot -- to much of my dismay -- count to the excess of my fingers the number of times where I have heard and seen people actually saying please and thank you. The number gets fewer with people sensitive enough to give their seat of comfort and slide farther inside the jeepney for old people with arthritic joints and painful backs and to heavily pregnant women. I have yet to see a person who knows the rule, "it's rude to stare" and much more the passed law where it is prohibited to smoke inside jeepneys.
What happened, people? Good manners has gone the way of the dinosaur, too?
One of my many gripes when riding the jeepney is the dishonesty. If the fare is 6.50 and you give 7.00, the driver very seldom ever returns your .50 cents. Why? I'd like to know, too! It's not about being such a miser that you have to get that .50 cents from the driver when and if you can do better still even without that .50 cents. It's about honesty and what is right! If you cannot be trusted with a measly .50 cents, then what makes you credible enough to be trusted with something bigger?
Yesterday was a breathe of fresh air, though. There was a fellow commuter who clearly was not from around here. We were already near SM when he asked the driver where the bank of PI was. The driver told him that we've already passed it but that we used a different route. The driver said that he should have taken a different jeepney instead, one that's routed to pass BPI. Upon knowing that, the guy started getting up to get down and transfer to another jeepney the driver instructed him to ride when the driver gave him back his fare. The guy refused to take back the money but the driver insisted saying, "you never got to where you intended to go so you should have your money back."
Wow.
The driver was by no means at all obligated to return the money but he still did. I love random acts of kindness like that. Makes me smile and realize again that hope is not lost and that it is easily found by those who seek it.