Out of the box
WHAT’S in that balikbayan box? Only the blood, sweat, and tears of your dearly beloved OFW.
If a piece of the heart is not in it, expect an assortment of canned goods, T-shirts and jackets, rubber shoes, soap, lotion, an electronic gadget or two – only the very latest! – plus a ton of chocolate candies to sweeten the lot.
Every time a box arrives, it’s Christmas Day whatever the calendar says. Securely taped and bound to withstand a long journey and greedy eyes, it’s a parcel of joys and happy surprises, an affirmation of the love and care that a parent, sibling, spouse, or friend working abroad feels obliged – obliged – to send home. Love and care, plus a bit of guilt. What guilt? Guilty for being absent and far away? Guilty that the box could not be bigger, its contents not more lavish?
The balikbayan box is a metaphor of the Filipino expatriate’s ties to family, home, and the old country. Woe to those who would trample on such a sacred symbol!
And yet, thinking out of the box, are we not conditioning our young to believe that receiving those twice- or thrice-yearly boxes is their birth right, protected by the constitutionally guaranteed right to life, liberty, and happiness? That not receiving those boxes, stuffed to the brim and bulging with goodies, means they are not loved? A balikbayan box is filled and wrapped with love, therefore not receiving one is to be deprived of love?
Annette is single, works in a bank in California. Twice a year she fulfils her self-imposed duty to send her younger siblings the boxes of their dreams – she’s been doing this for the last 22 years! The siblings are grown-up now “but they’d feel bad if I stopped” – and it does not matter that whatever she sends them is readily available at Rustan’s, SM, S‘n R, Divisoria. You don’t have to be a balikbayan to know that 85 percent of the goods you buy in the US is “made in China”!
Next week, my friend is expecting three “official” visitors from L.A. They’ve asked her to schedule a trip to Greenhills, which they have heard so much about, and that’s where they intend to buy Frenchy and Italianate “designer” bags. No balikbayan box needed.