I don't know where my friend got this quote but it was his favorite punchline. He was one of the best friend I've ever had. Never looking for a favor but always looking for some way to help. A former seminarian who gave up priesthood for love of a woman, he was one of the best computer specialist in the firm where I worked. He's one guy who really worked more than what he was being paid for, working on tasks assigned to him even after office hours and weekends without overtime pay. He's the shy type who allows other people to present his ideas as it was their own, but he didn't mind them getting the promoted ahead of him. He loved what he was doing, he earned more than what he needed money-wise, and he get to learn new things.
He prided himself of having to handle only the major decisions at home. The minor decisions like - what appliances to buy, where to enroll their kids, what to do with their earnings, or how to discipline the kids, - his wife took care of those things. Only the major ones, like in case of a nuclear war, where to hide, or if ever end of the world nears, which congregation to join, - will be left for him to decide. He seldom wash his car for he considered it his anti-carnapping device, and if his wife wanted a clean car, its another minor decision for her to decide to wash or keep it that way.
He thinks that the best way to teach the kids Mathematics was to give them different allowances, and chemistry by allowing them to make their own juice drinks and "baon" for school. The less rules he makes at home, the less rules to break, they were good parents so they will sire good kids. He doesn't bring home work, so home life is home life. At home, he is a father to his kids and a husband to his wife. A computer expert as he was, every home situation that requires attention can be programmed and debugged until the right outcome is derived.
When I resigned, I left everything behind including my friends. I seldom honor invitations, or return phone calls, until they got tired of trying to reach out. I knew I was at fault, but its the way I am, and I can't help being me most of the time. I have lost my taste for drinks, and found more comfort of being alone with my thoughts and my family. I have had a good run when I was with them at work, and I guess I was a good friend to them too. But there's something inside me that wanted to be left alone, detached from everyone except for my wife and kids, and my store where I am the kind of person I have always pretended to be.
Age is fast catching up with me, and travel wears me down. The last 20 years is but a routine, tending our bookstore 14 hours a day, 365 days a year. A life with no holidays, and that includes Christmas and New year, just movies and books to while my life away. On call for my kids at home any time, any day, with my wife to fill in my store hours, while I do some cooking and other personal things. That's one thing my kids will surely miss when I'm gone - my cooking and my stories - and maybe the things I wrote to remember me by.
I have no grand dream or anything, just lived a life I loved so much, loved my wife, loved my kids, treasured my friends and relatives, and thankful for all the things I learned that I got to share with everyone who were willing to listen. No regrets, no wishes unfulfilled, for how can I not be appreciative of a life that I enjoyed so much. It may not show in the things I have earned, but how can I ever describe the smiles I see each time I get to satisfy a book-lover who found in our store the book they have long been searching for. We readers speak a different language, be it romance, mystery or suspense, or any genre whatsoever, we're digging for gold.
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