A Picture that is Worth More Than a Thousand Words

A famous song says, a picture can paint a thousand words. But I guess the picture above—which I took just this morning in front of a pharmacy here in Manila—speaks more than just a thousand words...not just to me but maybe to everyone who might see it.

A sack of goodies or garbage. That was the first thing I thought when I saw this. But I was wrong since it's actually a child peacefully sleeping, trying to cover up his entire body with an XL size T-shirt. How he did it was so creative—he twisted himself to fit in like a snail in its shell. 

As I silently went around this sleeping kid, I started to get overwhelmed with some questions that began to pop up in my head. At first, I asked myself how he managed to sleep in fetal position. Is he the same kid I usually see here? Does he still have any existing parent? Or might he have been left alone at a very young age? You know, basic and superficial questions.

Though this isn't my first time to see a scene like this, most of the time I neglect to even bother myself with some triggering questions.

Suddenly after walking away from the kid, something just lingered in my mind like a throbbing headache. There were more unstoppable questions that kept on coming in more than what I was expecting! Until I started to look into a bigger picture. I realized such imbalance in the society which I could not do anything to balance it though. I suddenly remembered these corrupt government officials who promised that they would help reduce the poverty rate which in contrary, they just don't really care because they love money more than the people. This also evoked these authorities who have showed graphs and charts of our country's economic status saying we are now progressing but (sigh) do they really go out of their homes to see what is the truth behind these graphs?

I don't want to look at any graphs or charts no more. It is very objective, boring and has no emotions at all.

I believe in what I see. Because for me, reality is a picture that is worth more than a thousand words.