Trickling down the windowpane, steady as the rhythm ran its course, the rain had always seemed like a sweet respite from the fast-paced nature of life. It is natural to think that, after all, as a student whose day has been restrained by the onslaught of a torrential typhoon.
But however beautiful it is, it always is a bittersweet thing—what rain could bring, I mean. For some, serenity; for others, a catastrophe.
Nevertheless, it rained today. And the day before that.
In times like these, I begin to reflect on my privilege to lay in a comfortable bed with a warm meal on this cold, cold day. As I drowned myself in sentiment, I recalled a particularly striking scene in one of the movies that took the world by storm. Parasite (2020) is a Korean film that depicts the ever-present class struggle in society, and, interestingly enough, its opening premise began on a day like this.
Wet, cold, and somewhat gloomy.
The movie could not have depicted the two sides of a rainy day any better. While one was thanking the storm for bringing about a vibrant blue sky the next morning, the other cursed his situation, a home buried under water that had never been this heavy.
Situations like this are no stranger to us Filipinos, the unwilling transients for 20-something typhoons yearly. We need not subscribe to Netflix to see such a scene; just open your browser and you'll see videos and photos of fighting against the currents of an unexpected river from the sky flooding the pages.
It is never a pleasant sight, nor is it ever too easy to bear the burden of such a thought.
Perhaps the reason behind that inexplicable weight during a cold, cozy day despite being mindlessly perched on a feathery-soft mattress is the fact that somewhere out there, someone shivers from the cold and others wither in hunger—this unease that may be the burden of those in comfort.
So the next time you dream of the rain to relieve the mundanity of early classes, or a day’s worth of tranquility, remember to hate it just as much for all the misery and cries it brings to those who could not afford to shield themselves from it.
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