Right or Wrong

I find it a bit amusing that most, if not all of us are fond of the bigay-todo attitude, as a part of our extreme hospitality.

Just over the weekend, our barangay has celebrated the annual feast day in honor of our patron saint. Needless to say, the occasion was peopled with guests. As for our house, a few of some relatives from my mother’s side came to celebrate. Maybe I am anti-social. I don’t want to be in the company of people I barely know. Worse, being in the sight of them in my own home.

But since we are family, I would just stay in the room until the day ends.

But my parents aren’t the same as me. They have inherited the forefather trait of being hospitable to visitors, sometimes exceeding the limit. The guests will get the best part of the house to sleep in, they get to eat first, and all.

While others may view this as a positive quality or practice, I must say it exceeds the bounds at times. Being too good, too accommodating, to extravagant just to please visitors always has a downside.

In fact, we had to borrow money from the Bombay so we could have a sumptuous lunch. My mother changed all the curtains, bedsheets, pillowcases…

Whenever I question my mom for maintaining the practice, she would often argue that in a way, we are doing this for our own selves. What if, God forbid, we become the ones to face need? At least we would get the idea that those people who we treated well will reciprocate the goodness and help us.

And that makes a point, actually.

Nevertheless, too much of anything is bad. We can preserve tradition but we can also be practical.