My brother's penchant for collecting paperbags has been very chronic which sometimes brings me to the borderline in terms of patience. He still insists on getting paperbags from the Concierge of a department store even if the line is very long, collecting all the receipts so he could present it to redeem more paperbags, even getting out of a long line waiting for a taxi just to go and get his paperbags.
However, all these made sense to me now. He is collecting these so he could use the paperbags for his yearly outreach activity. Every December, he would ransack his closet and bring out items which he has not used for the year and decides to give these items to people in the streets. He would then place these items inside paperbags and off he would go to the streets to distribute them.
This year, I joined him in his activity, bringing some of the stuffs as we went to Magallanes underpass, Makati, Ortigas, Quezon City, Greenhills in San Juan and even to Baclaran. Along the way, we would hand out the paperbags to those who have less in life. Even if some of the items inside these bags are practically not new, we see to it that the receiver gets the respect and value that they deserve. Bisan dili bag-o ang among gipanghatag, malipayon gihapon silang nidawat, especially since these were placed inside nice paperbags - the paperbags that my brother labourly collected.
The sense of fulfillment is beyond words but more than that, I realized with great pride that the reason for my brother's penchant to collect paperbags was not because he wanted it for himself - he wanted it for others. Indeed, "not only to ourselves are we born."
