Love, Through the Aetas' Eyes

Around 7 years ago I was given the opportunity to preach the retreat of around 200 senior citizens. I do not remember much about the retreat, except what happened after my talk.

The incident happened during lunch break. For some reason, an elderly Aeta couple got separated from each other at the dining hall, and they ended up being seated apart from each other.

Lunch was served, and all 200 elderly people began to eat. Except for the Aeta couple. I thought to myself that it might be that they weren't used to the food that was served to them. After a couple of minutes, I noticed the husband standing next to his wife, who was by now having lunch. I asked him why he was standing beside his wife when he already had a seat several tables away. What he told me was something I still vividly remember until today, several years later:

“Hindi po kasi kami sanay kumain nang mag-isa.”

 In this post-modern society of cheap, easy-come-easy-go relationships, they stand out like beacons in the middle of the sea; or as Shakespeare says in one of his sonnets:

 (Photo courtesy of homepage2.nifty.com)

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

In this day and age where people prepare and invest more in a grandiose wedding more than a lasting marriage, divorce is an easy way out of their marital vows. They were the teachers no one listened to. This simple couple is, in many ways, wise in the ways of human relationships despite being out of step with the modern world in terms of lifestyle and mentality. It was a very simple act on the husband’s part – to stand by her wife and to stick with her no matter what – that seems very profound given society’s antagonism for things that are timeless and permanent.

Like marriage.

Despite their apperances, they knew what love was. 

“here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)” – E.E. Cummings