Taro Rocks

I’m sitting in front of my laptop screen, happily fulfilling the role of being a personal DJ to my brother and his fiancé (my future sister). They're practicing their dance with their instructor, Mikee. And I’m their willing in-house DJ.

In between pausing the music and choosing the next song, I sit here with nothing but my thoughts. That’s why I just decided to write something for my blog.

For today, let’s talk about humanity.

Sometimes the best conversations in the world are those that are exchanged with complete strangers. Without knowing anything about the person, you just talk about things that you don’t even discuss with some friends just because you don’t find the reason to.

While tipsy and naturally high from rockeoke-ing, I had this friendly conversation with someone I just met the other night.

Upon knowing that I was a Psychology major and a Developmental Psychologist at that, he asked me if I believed that humans are innately good. I said with complete confidence that yes I believe that the human person is innately good.

And then he asked me what was the worst thing that anyone has done to me. I thought about it and said that the worst was probably being backstabbed.

He said, “That’s it?” Yes, that was it.

Then I asked him if he believed that the human person is innately good. He said that despite what he has experienced including betrayals and other things in life, yes he believes that people are innately good.

He was straightforward and his tone could have been considered curt by others when he said afterwards, “Your turn. Ask me.”

I didn’t point out that I just did. I took it that he meant I should ask a new question. And of course, that was what he meant.

And so I asked the first question that popped in my head not minding if it sounded trite or even beauty pageant-ish, “What’s the happiest moment in your life?”

Apparently, that was a hard one. He said he’d cheat.

Fine. Cheat away. There wasn’t any right or wrong answer for me. Besides, how can you cheat when there’s nothing to cheat on? The rules were as loose as loose can be. There weren’t any.

He answered that his happiest moment is an extended one. It would be the past three years and a half of his life as a father to his son. Cheating or no cheating, I was satisfied with his answer. It was beautiful.

Then he asked me back the same question.

Let me tell you something which I should have told you earlier on. During this entire conversation, we were both tipsy. We’ve been drinking free flowing beer the entire night. At least for me, the beer felt like free flowing. Music was blaring. My friends were all around. And this guy was just friendly to everyone.

So my tipsy answer to his question was: I try to make the present moment happier than the past. So now is my happiest. I’m happier this second compared to the last.

He thought it was good enough. But then again, as I said, we were tipsy. He was being agreeable.

Tipsy is a different feeling for everyone. It just so happened that we were both agreeable when tipsy.

So there… That was my answer. It was either bull or real. But it was most probably real. Without any inhibitions or any other thoughts in my head, that was what I said. And I thought about it only at the point he threw back my own question at me.

We were complete strangers and we discovered things in a few minutes of conversation. It started with a question he raised: If there were three wishes that you could have tomorrow, what would it be?

I learned that 1) he wanted to find a motherly figure but not a wife, 2) that he is fascinated by a particular lake (my semantic memory failed me and I can’t remember the name of the lake), and 3) he wanted to visit Turkey and experience their culture.

He learned 1) that I want to finish my thesis (he actually asked what it was and allowed me to finish saying its long title and showed genuine interest. That was when he learned about Developmental Psych), 2) that I want to earn good money, and 3) that I want to go to Africa. (I believe that we all came from that place until land masses moved and separated into seven continents through the years.)

Not minding how my answer sounded or how anyone would have thought of me with those answers, I just said the first things that entered my mind. Looking back, they make sense to me. They're short term wishes and not the ultimate wishes of my entire being so for me, they're important matters for now. Or at least for the next coming days/months. That's how vague "tomorrow" is.

Eventually, my boyfriend joined in the conversation. He also thought this guy was cool. Funny thing was that it was only in the end when I discovered his name because we were so engrossed in the conversation that our names seemed trivial.

His name, after playing it in my head, reminded me of a root crop in a marketplace. And until now I remember it well. Maybe it’s because of the connections I made when I heard it. Maybe that’s how my name-face recognition works.

Just like a little taro growing from underground, I think I got to the root of him with his three wishes, his ultimate happiness, and his main idea about humanity.

People should try getting tipsy every once in a while and see how they behave. With inhibitions gone, a lot of those little truths come out. I used to say that I need not be tipsy to speak my mind but I have to admit that sometimes I do stop myself from talking when I'm completely clear-headed. But that night, I didn't have any reason to. Let’s all rock like taros above the ground.