Member-only story

While Southwest Airlines was canceling flights

Jewel Allen
2 min readJan 11, 2023

Sometimes I wonder if our concerns are truly as important as we think.

Photo by Laura Ohlman on Unsplash

We exited the chicken fast food joint on a busy road in a Philippine town. Going over to the curb to wait for our hired van driver, I idly mused about the chaotic scene surrounding us.

Vehicles of all sizes and makes, jockeying for position in the clogged lanes. Rain-stained and smog-gray buildings. Not enough parking at the strip mall where we were at.

A high school friend told me traffic in the Philippines is so bad, you just learn to be resigned to it.

I stood there outside the chicken joint thinking how lucky I was I got a choice to come to America as a teen.

And that my kids were born there.

As I thought these very first world, almost clinical thoughts, my oldest daughter went over to a woman holding a sleeping toddler in her arms.

The woman was standing by a group of enterprising locals who appeared to eke out a meager hustle covering motorcycle seats with cardboard to keep them from getting too hot and charging cyclists for it.

My daughter held up her son’s too-tight sandals they no longer have him wear and gave them to the woman.

--

--

Jewel Allen
Jewel Allen

Written by Jewel Allen

I write about travel, country living and the author life. Once a journalist, always a journalist.

Responses (1)