DAVAO MIGHT NEED ‘EVAN ALMIGHTY'

When I turned on the television this morning, an official of San Roque dam in Luzon was being interviewed in “Umagang Kay Ganda” and along the course of the interview, he blamed “Pepeng” for bringing in too much rain that compelled administrators of the dam to release a month’s equivalent of water rushing to the plains of Pampanga and nearby provinces leaving thousands of people weeping, homeless, hungry, cold, dead and billions of agricultural and infrastructure left worthless.

It came to my mind, some years ago I have seem a movie which resembles this type of event. I’m talking about a 2007 American comedy movie Evan Almighty, starred Steve Carell. Though this is another modern-day retelling of the Biblical story The Noah’s Ark with a witty twist, explicit messages of the story cannot be ignored.

The story follows Evan Baxter (Steve Carrel) a television anchorman-turned congressman where throughout his congressional campaign declares he will change the world without explaining how he will do so. And then soon after he was elected relocates his family to the outskirts of the city and God (played by Morgan Freeman) reveals to him that a devastating flood is coming and the Earth will be cleansed again. Through series of resistance and struggles Evan Baxter finally gave in and accepts the responsibility to build a big ark and through the course of his building the ark his rapid physical change caught the attention of the townfolks, and his skeptic family has been trying to figure out whether his actions are driven by delusion or divine intervention. To make the long story short, the deluge came after an ill-designed dam of another congressman burst and floodwaters came down rushing, and all of those who deride him were saved in the ark.

Although if you analyze the depth of story well enough it is not really about the flood waters but about a man discovering faith and figuring out his priorities. But then, noting our situation today we can take its blatant meaning that we should not wait for another rushing water to leave us helpless and vulnerable. I’m not telling we should build a big ark for us to be saved, (pero, baka pwede rin) but then we should be zealous about what is happening around us, Davao City is chewing over building a dam somewhere in Tamugan. I wonder if there will be one more ‘Evan Almighty’ that will change the way we see things and will be instrumental to save us.

And So the latent and greatest lesson of this story? The way to change the world is not really building a big ark but by doing one Act of Random Kindness ("ARK") at a time. (Poster from www.wikipedia.org)