Ignorant or Plain Stupid?

I took this direct flight to my hometown Davao early this year. This flight has been cancelled since probably because of low demand. Here’s how it went.

Almost, if not, all my fellow passengers are also heading back to our own respective hometowns. There was a woman along with her friend, and this friend had another friend -all three of them were seated in the same lane –behind mine. This common friend introduced both strangers to each other and started to do the basic protocol of a start-up conversation like: where are you from and all. I can sense from the way she speaks that it’s her first time going back home, probably after her first stint of work in Singapore. You know, the excited, giddy tone, non-stop talking. That. I braced myself for the possible noise and entertainment I’m gonna be hearing now.

You can’t say it’s eavesdropping right when you did not attempt to listen but then you still hear it. Yeah right.

Everything went the usual as how a flight would. By the time the flight attendant were almost done with their safety regulatory routine, the same woman behind me said, “Kadaghan ba isturya uy, ganiha pa na siya sigeg isturya” (Why is she talking so much?!). This is where my poker face happened. She then went back talking animatedly to her friends.

After five minutes, we’re taxiing away from the building heading to the runway. And it’s not the usual small airport we have in Davao. She blurted out “Unsa man ni? Ganiha pa man ta sigeg tuyok-tuyok. So di na ta mularga ani?” (Are we just going to turn round and round?).

After a couple of hours, the pilot announced that we’re gonna fly low now and start to prepare for landing. This alert is usually 25 minutes before the actual touchdown. A couple of minutes after the announcement she said, “Abi ba nako muabot na ta, ngano dugay man kaayo?” (I thought we're getting there but how come it's taking so long?).

What would Jesus do?

There's a big difference being ignorant and stupid. An ignorant person simply doesn't know yet (and that doesn't mean he's dumb). But a stupid person is ignorant at the same time assuming he knows things without wondering why.