157 LAST IN, FIRST OUT

157          LAST IN, FIRST OUT

“Yes! There is nothing like neutrality!” is the comment of Fr. Eliseo Mercado on my post of May

There is an accounting method for inventory and cost of sales known as “Last In, First Out” (LIFO) where “the last items produced or purchased are assumed to be sold first; allows business owner to value inventory at the less expensive cost of the older inventory; typically used during times of high inflation.” The term is used along with another concept, “First In, Last Out” (FILO), “a method of inventory valuation based on the assumption that goods are sold or used in the opposite chronological order in which they are bought. Hence, the cost of goods purchased first (first-in) is the cost of goods sold last (last-out). FILO is the same as the last in, first out (LIFO).”

But that is not the context of my story. It has more to do with what my grandmother reminded me as a child, that as people grew older, the oldest memories became more vivid and were recalled more often than those that happened more recently. Whether that had scientific basis or not, it must have stuck in my mind because I remember it, as I remember the smell of her skirt, as it swayed away with the wind after urinating near the bougainvillea, standing. I remember it, like I remember her smile, and her teeth painted in flaming red by the mixture of plants she chewed.

So that, by the time I took an Accounting subject in college, my definition of terms got mixed up, and somehow, I associated LIFO and FILO with the story of my grandmother, that people were prone to remember older memories more than recent ones, “First In, Last Out”. I got a passing mark, but my teacher kept smiling every time he remembered how I explained away my average performance in his subject. Perhaps that was the only reason I got a passing mark. He was a big man with a big heart, who had the habit of sitting on the table, where his bohemian testicles unabashedly rolled and danced as he swayed his body, with one foot dancing rhythmically on the right-hand edge, as he excitedly explained the mundane methodologies of Accounting, oblivious of the mirth his body language caused.

Utit ya limmoob, ununan umpaway

say ibabaga na pusok

nalinguanan mo ak la naani

ta ummamaseken ka lan maples

et diad panakar na panaon

mabetbet mo lan nanunotan

ira’y immunan inarom

tan nalingguanan mon tampol

no anto'y natan

Last in, first out

my heart tells me

you will forget me soon

because you are getting old too fast

and in the passing of time

you will often remember

your first loves

and easily forget

what is now