The drooping-eyed man did nothing by the roadside

Man sitting by the roadside with doing nothing — Man with drooping eyes

As I wandered through the residential streets of Vigan, I noticed a man sitting idly in one of the narrow lanes. Dressed in a tank top, he watched the people moving along the cobblestone street with an expression that seemed vacant—or perhaps it only appeared that way because of his drooping eyes. In the heavy afternoon heat, his posture looked like a full-fledged commitment to the art of “doing nothing.” In Southeast Asia, what might be dismissed as laziness elsewhere can often be the most practical wisdom. To ward off the oppressive heat, ice or fans are of little use compared with the simple courage to remain still.

When I raised my camera, the man’s face did not change, yet there was a subtle air of satisfaction behind his gaze. For a moment, I wondered if he even saw me, but then came the uncanny sense that he was watching me quite intently. In the Philippines, people often place chairs outside their homes or on a street corner, cooling off while observing the flow of their neighborhood. This man was doing exactly that. His roadside seat had become less a place to rest than a private observatory, a personal balcony from which to watch the passing world.

Vigan on Google Map

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