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Tonight, my mother finally criticized Duterte in the middle of our family dinner. She's a hardcore supporter of the dictator and at many instances, I've made her cry because of our disagreements. Tonight, I saw the power of intimate everyday activities in creating dialogue.(1/5)
We value protests, petitions, and lobbying that we forget the responsibility we have to listen and talk to our loved ones. Twitter is our place but for our families, it's dinners and parties, and for ordinary people, it's the plazas and the markets. (2/5)
Through food, our families feel ease to talk about problems in the family and in society. In fact, dinners can be a gauge of the states of the family and the country. What are you eating? What are you discussing? Do you regularly eat together? Is everything enough? (3/5)
In our last fight I told her, "Why is it when protesters complain, you dislike it? If they don't complain, how will we know something is wrong? But you go on complaining all day. I'm defending them because you might be in their position, someday." She was silent. (4/5)
My father, brother, and I are a bit at ease now with where she stands. The tears, the shouts, and the silences we've had in the past four years were perhaps worth it. I learned a lot too that it require patience, an open heart to change with them. (5/5)
P.S. I hope we do not undermine and belittle the importance and the power of small actions and gestures in regular everyday living to show people their resistance. Because they are the granules that lead to the formation of the grand, big, loud narrative of changing the system.
