Running On Empty

My dad loved cars. In his heydey, he had several good marquees. I remember the Peugeot, Triumph, and even a Karmann Ghia. But being such a young child then, I can barely associate any memory with those vehicles. Aside from the badges, I have a faint recollection of their colors. The Peugeot was probably black or dark blue. The Triumph may have been green and white, while the Karmann Ghia was almost certainly gold.

The family business was logging, which, for a while, was very profitable. But like most things, it eventually came to an end. Things ended just as a dictatorship was taking shape. Of course it did not help that over on the other side of the world, a fuel crisis was about to erupt. Over in Asia, the struggle was for rice, which was underproduced that year, resulting in rationing and famine. Everything seemed to be figuratively tight. And this was about the time I started being aware of the rest of the world. I was seven.

That year also saw an onslaught of several hurricane-strength storms, the strongest plunging Manila into darkness for one entire month.

Somewhere around that time, my sister had to be picked up somewhere and brought home. I tagged along for the joyride with the Triumph, and pretty soon, we were caught up in knee-deep water and slow-moving traffic. We eventually managed to get close to the house when the Triumph's fuel indicator lit up. We hit empty with a couple of blocks still to go. The engine died. My brother kept at the starter as if he was privy to a miracle. After a couple of tries, the engine came back to life! And although we were just barely at "idle" level, the Triumph eventually got us home, safe.

That Triumph "running on empty" was a miracle for me, a seven year old. Over the years, I would remember that situation, and that Triumph, that ran on empty because it had to. Over the years, I had to run on empty several times as well, because I had to. Last year, I also had to run on empty throughout the year, because my emotional gas tank went dry sometime before that. Now I face that same prospect again, but this time with regard to my professional future. Let us see how far I can go this time.


Jesus Paul C. Yan
for The Paul Yan Chronicles