True Freedom

True freedom is having no choice. Four days ago, while eating breakfast at a hotel in Leyte, I noticed this grungy looking white man busy with his pen and paper. "Are you a writer?" I stuck my nose into his business. "Why not?" was his friendly reply. I moved my food next to his table and I proceeded to interrupt his quiet morning, which he didn't mind, he said. He's Australian from Kangaroo Island and he's a farmer raising Heritage apples. Very Interesting. He was journalling about his day to day experiences in Leyte but he's really into Haiku poetry. Interesting. He talked about Issa and Basho, two Haiku poets of old Japan and when he gave me a sample reading of his own poetry, I could not believe it warmed my heart the same way how my foot reflexologist is capable of making me feel like my liver moves when he presses the sole of my foot.

Our conversation then meandered towards his pending divorce, his new perspective in life and then to the 23-year old Filipino girl he thinks he would like to take back to the farm. As a wife. He asked me to enlighten him about the Filipino culture and how Filipinos seemed to be happier than their Western counterparts. "Filipinos are happier, because they don't have a choice." I said. "They take what they're given and live with it." "Ahaah." He said. Our conversation was getting more interesting but I had to leave for the airport and he had to go see his kid...I mean his girlfriend. I wish I had more time to spend with him, because as always, an interesting company is more fun than fun.