By Jan Vicente B. Pekas

Whenever an object starts to fall beside us, most often we reach out our hands and try to catch it. A natural instinct of not wanting a mess or the refusal of letting our ears be violated by a shrieking sound. It could also be the pre-emptive action of embarrassment we may bring to ourselves, especially when we are out in public. After all, we don’t like bringing too much attention to ourselves, lest our inner thoughts start barraging us with the word “Kababain” over and over.
But they are small events we have all gone through. The bottle falling off is the culprit much of the time or a phone that got too slippery inside our pockets. They are like the sun which gets the beautiful brown skin burned and turn red.
The bystanders are who we worry most when the spotlight is turned to us. Like an un willing performer who had been suddenly thrust in, we aim to get it over with quickly.
We are not only the performers but we become the bystanders for a good amount of our lives. We try to blend in with the crowd and fit in. Safety in numbers as they say, always the safer bet to side with the majority. Unfortunately, the good actions don’t always come into fruition by hiding among people.
We get too immersed in society’s standards we forget the only being who we ought to please. We forget that the right to judge others does not exist within the many eyes who watch over us. No matter how expensive or humble one looks, we all have red in all of us, and no amount of luxurious wool or leather we try to cover it up changes that fact.
It is never easy to side against the majority. What we think to be the correct decision can be viewed as false, but truth is, the correct decision is sturdier against any words that may try to bring it down. The brave men and women who brought much needed change to places crawling with depravity, all the mouths in the world could not convince them to revert back to being a mere bystander. No, they took center stage and chose to side with goodness.
We all start off as mere bystanders as we start to learn about the world. The regrets we hold inside is heavy, but deep down we know the only remedy is to do better next time. Judgment is reserved to no man, but the will to do better is universal.
Small actions to do good is a thousand times better than standing like a statue. Change within us and outside is caused by actions no matter how small, we know this because indecision is something we are familiar with.
We also know how to put our foot down and charge on a head despite all that drive us backwards, because we have a stronger being that pushes us forward, not towards the comfort of a thousand words but to the single goodness.
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