Big Bonsai

With my long daily trips to and from the city, I can’t help but find something to occupy my mind while on the bus. I read a book (lately its Belva Plain’s), watch what’s on TV (no-brainer shows like Whammy), eavesdrop on conversations (like I can help it?) or sometimes pour my thoughts in my PDA. Sometimes, I look out the window and observe the passing scenery--- like tonight, the well-lighted boulevard thick with traffic and its towering buildings giving way to the dimmer, dustier roads of the coastal province of Cavite.

This evening, the bus I’m on is caught in traffic in Quirino St. There, standing on the narrow island splitting the narrow two-way road was once a huge acacia tree. Its ancient roots were protruding from the ground. Its trunk was cut probably a mishap from a typhoon. It would probably take three adults holding each other hands to encompass the huge trunk. What caught my eye is its mis-shapen and unusual figure. New branches have grown from the cut trunk. Instead of one main stem, it now has a number of them with smaller circumferences. And it is thriving in spite of the constricting enclosure of the island. Green, healthy leaves crown the stunted tree creating a natural umbrella. A big bonsai tree.

The tree is akin to a wounded man or someone physically handicapped or emotionally handicapped. Despite such setbacks, he is willing to live, grow and flourish. Although he has lost his original beauty, he embodies a new one founded on strength of character.

It is a representation of a life triumphant. A small big man.