A Tale of An Ordinary Man

Peter is an ordinary Australian man, from the ordinary town of Woy Woy, on the northern coast of NSW. He worked as a gardener at the town council, and as many Australian men do, after work, he spends many hours in the pub with mates.

He is back before midnight, to an empty home, empty of family, for they have long gone to pursue their own lives and happiness.

And Peter has been to Bali too, as many Australians have. There, he met an ordinary Balinese family from a remote mountain village, who embraced him as one of their own.

So Peter has taken this family to his heart, and becomes the guardian of a little boy named Wayan, who was struggling to stay at school, for the family didn’t have enough money to keep him there.

Fifty dollars a month is not much, to pay for a sense of family belonging, to nurture a better hope for a child’s future. A night in the pub would cost more than that, Peter thought. So ever since, he has helped little Wayan through school, and hopefully onto medical school, in the future.

As little Wayan blooms to be a fine young man, so does Peter’s heart, filled with quiet joy and contentment, that from such a far away place, he could manage to send a ray of hope, and make a different to his Balinese family.

But as all lives do, ordinary or otherwise, it succumbs to disease and decay sooner or later. Peter too, has been diagnosed with prostrate cancer. Unable to work and devoid of income, he can no longer afford to travel, to see his family in Bali.

But he can still joke, that besides death, this damned disease also brings a blessing. That is, to stop him from drinking, to save his beer money and fulfil his pledge, in looking after Wayan’s education. Now, he goes around town collecting used cans and other recyclables to sell, for Wayan is starting medical school, and surely need the extra money.

I cried when I saw Peter, to collect his fifty dollars to take back to Bali for his son Wayan.

“What are you crying about? You are not the one with the damned cancer”, he sneered. “Do you think my little Wayan will become a real doctor one day? I really hope he will. Not to come here to save me from this disease, because I will be long gone. But to help his own family and others in Bali. Anyway, I am glad we have given it a good crack, mate.”

I do not have an answer to Peter’s question. It’s such an ordinary question from such an ordinary man, about dreams of an ordinary family. I took his money to Bali for Wayan, and I see to it that he will become a doctor one day, not to save his dying Australian father, or to save the Balinese from suffering and poverty, but to save my own sense of humility, and appreciate the greatness of humanity.[T]