Acts Of Love vs The Economics Of Love 

(The Resurrection of an extra-ordinary brother)



So tell me, when last did you do an act of love?

Everyday, I try to do it for the living and the dead. Yes, by writing this blog, it is an act of love for my dearly beloved extra-ordinary brother who has passed on.

I tell you truly, this blog begins with a prayer

~ O My God, I love you above all things, in my heart and in my soul. I love my neighbor as myself. I forgive those who have injured me and ask pardon for those whom I have injured~

Heaven must have called his name in 2014! He was the eldest of three siblings, born with physical and mental challenges to an extended family environment not without 'resource-trap' challenges. Yet, I remember his distinctive capability and capacity to love. 

Each morning, he would obediently walk to school. Autism, attention deficit disorder, down syndrome with distinguished physical outlook, characterized him and led to his lack of interest and early drop-out.

This early drop-out enabled him to freely work voluntarily for all other members of his family. It's also 'the struggle' according to his earthly mother. Within this struggle or 'straddling years' as I coin it, he'd become everyone's playmate. To those integrated within his networks, #cucumberlady #porkman #beefman #watchman #tallboy #shoemaker #blueboy #lassytruck #tailorman & so many others whom I cannot recall, there was an unforgettable bond. Not a day passes by without a shout-out from his comrades, his associates in the business of commerce.  To me his younger sister, he tried to be protective (in his early life) even though ironically, he needed protection (more in his later life). I say this, in memory of our childhood days within our garden, when an insect would suddenly appear out of nowhere and while my sibling ran, I stood and screamed. This extra-ordinary brother stayed with me, held my hand and led me out of the garden into safety indoors. An act of love!

There were days when he was my babysitter, when life demanded more time from our parents. Like silly kids, we saw him as the ugly duckling, from public comments like long-chin. We sometimes mischievously hid his toy ie a bunch of keys. While he did frantic searches and screams, he would be scolded by our parents for screaming and we would foolishly giggle & grin. This extraordinary human brother baptised with innocence was born without malice, evil or ill-will for he never knew how to get even, the way the ordinary human was gifted! Counting on, in the early days of business, life was difficult and even moreso for an eldest child of immigrant parents, having been born mentally and physically disabled, creating ever increasing parental challenges. Working for Maslow's low level needs of food and shelter, everyone was able to benefit from his spirit of co-operation for hard work. Daily, he fed the chickens & the ducks so families can have a meal. Daily living meant filling bags of salt, sugar, rice and flour for mum and dad to weigh and package aside for when shop re-opens the next day. Nightly living meant re-packing the refridgerators with bottles of beers, sodas and packets of milk and juices. Sundays meant cleaning from inside to the outside of even the public urinal. All the while, everyone else attended school with lessons, home-work and minor chores after school hours. No one was given the luxury of extra-curricular activities due to limitations of resource availability, prioritizing and the notion of equal opportunity for all family members.
My line of focus now shifts from the 'acts of love' to the 'economics of love'.
These simple sacrificial acts of love given and received by him was all-inclusive. Most people who crossed his path accepted him for who he was. Moreso, opportunity cost and savings resulted from his innate desire to serve. He was happy to give and to serve and he was indeed an architect of this contagion of happiness, visible through his network. His challenges opened opportunities for family members. Through wage savings, cost benefits realized profits, thus breaking grounds to enable a crossover into the halls of professional lives.
There were no changes to the price of his love! The quantity demanded of his love varied with different folks and if a small percentage unfamiliar may have looked with indifference, the price of his love created win-win for family and community. Most folks within the community knew him then, and the price elasticity of his love was perfectly elastic. This price level was not measured monetarily since it remained the basic needs of food and shelter, by whomsoever would take him as his own. Whatever you gave him to eat or wear, he never complained. He grew up under a huge hot galvanized shed once owned and used by the Portuguese as a shop and an abode, as best as I can describe those initial living conditions. The condition was humbly Christ-like, in that whatsoever you did for my brothers, you did for me!
Changes came naturally with time. The transformation came through cultural changes in adopting and fusing eastern and western values. The gradual disintegration from extended family to nuclear family settings created scenes of division and brought on even greater mental health challenges for him as an individual as he grew in self-awareness of his own limitations and dependency syndrome.
I do not beg to differ with the theory of the indifference curve and it's practicality with the budget constraint. Each family member would have different levels of satisfaction according to utilitarianism. And, the welfare of the society is dependent on the strength of each family's output, as they too, seek to spread their wings, for generations to come!

Upon his death, we do not to seek to judge, but the song "I will serve you" from 'Missionaries Of The Poor', a collection of songs by Fr Richard Ho Lung, was played most appropriately at his funeral to his memory and in his honor.