For a Cup of Coffee

A lady pretending to be a courtier tried to save her 'servant' in the latter-day France, an old man who is unscrupulous and was chained, and doomed to be sold in America as a slave and approached the coachman for the release. "I wish to address the issue of this gentleman. He is my servant and I am here to pay the debt against him." said she.  

"You're too late, he's paid for." retorted the man.  

"I can pay you 20 gold francs." the lady insisted. 

But the coachman seemed to ignore the lady. Never giving up hope, the lady grabbed the donkey's sheaf and said "I demand you release him at once or I shall take this matter to the King." 

"The King is the one that sold him." said he. The coachman was right. The slave is now the property of foreign land who bought him.  

The woman denounced that 'he' is not property at all, and that it is ill-mannered to chain people like chattel. For the nth time, the lady demanded the release for the old man. But the coachman, which also happened to be the 'middle-man' in layman's term harangued her, "Get out of my way!".

The prince of the France who is parenthetically approaching saw the exchange of tirades. He then meddles. The coachman insisted that he was just following orders and that it is his 'job' to take the man with the rest of the other slaves who were prejudged as robbers to the coast, where the ship is waiting to send them to America.

"A servant is not a thief, Your Highness and those who are cannot help themselves." as the heavily opinionated woman claimed. 

"Really? Well, then. By all means, enlighten us." The Prince of France was surprised by such wit of a woman.

"If you suffer your people to be ill-educated and their manners corrupted from infancy, then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded, Sire --- but that you first make thieves and then punish them?" discussed she.

The prince was convinced by such and the old man was released, for 20 Gold Francs and for a ten-minute arrogance to be found out later by the him that the lady has quoted Utopia, her only possession which her father gave to her.

The lady was startled, and didn't know what might gonna happen after the immodesty of citing a proposition out of a book which only the members of the royal court have the access.

"The Prince has read Utopia?" asked she.

"I found it sentimental and dull." the Prince quipped. "I confess, the plight of the everyday rustic bores me." added he.

"I gather you do not converse with many peasants." the lady presumed as she is regaining the pride to pursue the conversation to a royal. The Prince proudly answered "Certainly not, no! Naturally.", that they --- the royal family has adopted the custom of nature not to talk to the peasants.

"Excuse me, Sire, but there is nothing natural about it." the lady intruded.

"A country's character is defined by its everyday rustics, as you call them. They are the legs you stand on. That position demands respect." continued she.

"Am I to understand that you find me arrogant?" asked the Prince.

"Well, you gave one man back his life but did you even glance at the others?" as the lady finishes the conversation.

***

If you happen to know, that was a scene from Ever After and it really talks a lot of sense.




Today, I visited my favorite convenience store and bought myself a cheap cup of hot coffee. The evening was so cold and drizzles come periodically. When I was about to exit the store, two boys were in the outside who beg coins for their supper, struggled to grab the cup. I was ready to give it away but the store guard, and the people on a nearby busstop were alerted by that incident. They caught the littler boy, while his older brother (I surmise) managed to ran away.

The commotion heats up and the people in the scene were telling me to report the 'robbery' in the nearby police outpost as they made their reasons that grand thieves start in their childhood and that, we should not tolerate their 'crimes'. 

Others even remarked that these children are the future "problema ng gobyerno" (plague of the government). I heard them.

Maybe, at some point, they were right. Whatever. But I differed. All of this --- for only a petite cup of coffee?

I was looking at the boy's eyes, and my heart melts. I let him go. And I realized something "...that the government first make thieves and then punish them."