THE LIFE COACH

Posted by Hub Pacheco (Pasay, Philippines) on 27 January 2008 in People & Portraits.

When I post portraits that I've worked on, they usually are glamorous, production-wise, with all the lights and makeup and fancy locations. I'd like to show something different this time around.

I saw this guy when I was on a trip with friends to Mines View Park in Baguio City. I studied him for a couple of minutes. While sweeping the park grounds, he would often stop and salute, rigidly as any military personnel would, people in military uniforms (or anything related to civil service). As far as I saw, no one returned his salute. He would also say something to the people he saluted, maybe he referred to the office to which those in uniform belonged to. I'm not sure. I didn't hear it.

Of course, anyone could tell that this guy is definitely off his gourd. You know, being politically correct, he was eccentric. He didn't seem to mind that people didn't mind him at all. He fixed himself up and continued to sweep the park grounds. I was taking pictures of him when he suddenly turned and faced me. I froze for a millisecond, raised my camera, then took a frame of him (which is what I posted above). He gave me an honorary salute. I smiled then walked away.

I dunno. I suddenly felt warm and happy inside after I took that frame. I didn't even look at the camera's back monitor to see if I got it "right." I knew I had a good picture.

There's something about the sincerity of his smile. It kind of draws you to a sense of clarity on life. In one of the Sandman stories, there was an eccentric who sincerely believed that he was the emperor of the United States of America. And at the end of that story, there was a line that referred to that eccentric that went: "His madness keeps him sane."

It's a no-brainer that life is complicated. It's full of ups and downs, sometimes, on the brink of despair, we contemplate hopelessness. In our story's case, madness. Here's a guy, who for all we know lost his marbles a long time ago, goes around and extends his warmth to other people. And we ignore him. We ignore those who are different from us. We're afraid. We're not sure what he'll do. Is he a killer or something? Yes, we can't count out the fact that there are legitimate crazies out there, but you know something, I bet those eccentrics are more sane and secure than we are at times. They believe in something, strongly. And they stand by those beliefs. Though their minds are hampered, they believe and act in a certain way that they are comfortable with while we aren't. How about us? We sometimes get so caught up with unimportant things like ____(you fill in the blanks) that waste our time that we can't even stop and acknowledge sincerity from another human being. They're persons, too, aren't they?

I never got that guy's name. I wish I had ask because he taught me something that we always seem to forget: We are different from animals because we are rational beings who form and nurture social relationships based on love. And no one can deny us that. It is innate in all of us, eccentric or otherwise.

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