Chivalry is not dead

Among the old, that is. This morning, heard mass with my husband. The mass had just begun when in came this frail old lady who had a cane. Helping her along was a houseboy who brought her to the door and slung her bag across her shoulder. Then he simply left her to fend for herself.

As she grabbed the door knob, I became nervous. It was apparent she had poor balance but the boy had just left her there, making me wonder: was that what she had ordered him? Or is he anti-Catholic? Uncaring? what? Because, again, he left her there.

Taking one quivering step at a time, holding a cane in one quivering hand at the end of one quivering arm, she made her way to the last pew in church, no not to settle there but to hold on to it for balance. Then she ever so slowly, all the while seemingly about to fall, wended her way forward.

After she took a few steps, an old man, who looked like a foreigner or mestizo at the very least, crossed the center aisle to reach her and led her gently, her hand on his arm, to the front row. He smiled as he did. So there, chivalry isn't dead, but it is only among the old that it seems to live on.

For how many young men this days bother to give their seat to a lady in a crowded church? How many?

Has the world become such that the motto of everyone is "survival of the fittest", or maybe "to each his own." Sad. Sometimes, I tell my son or husband to help when I see someone in need. Sometimes they hesitate. Shy daw sila. Oh well...