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Amore... mangare, dormire


MATINDING sakit daw ‘yang pagreretiro… retreat o pagsuko ang katuturan nito. Kaya yata kalapit ng Retiro ang La Loma… at Manila North Cemetery.

Hindi na nagsusulong ng pension fund payments ang mga hinayupak… kaya pala kahit pumalo kayo sa edad-65, ‘yung karampot na pension… maghihintay pala kayong datnan ng ika-30 ng Pebrero.

‘Yung kainuman nating Ricardo Trinidad, dating estudyante ni Sifu Shakespeare Chan sa bengkiam kung fu, retirado rin… bumalik sa pagsusulat… nakakapanlumo kasi ang halaga ng tinatanggap na pension, hindi kayang isagupa sa umaarangkadang presyo ng bilihin.

Nakatanggap din ang abuelo ko ng katumbas ng P2 milyon na retirement pay noon… mabilis na nahulog ang katawan nang hindi na abala sa gawa… how true, work is one of the necessities to be content, hearty and healthy… most of his money defrayed for costs of hospitalization and medication… pati pagpapalibing. The lump sum was a send-off.

It pays to make money, small sums will do… make love, twice or thrice a week for those in their 60’s to keep the systems inundated with oxytocin plus a mélange of happy hormones to shoo away assaults of crankiness and idiocy… nagiging gunggong ang hindi na kayang magdilig at madiligan… and make sense, ah, that’s what we’re here for. Am I being sensible?

‘Yung anak na sumablay sa pag-aaral noong tuloy-tuloy lang ang kita, ‘ala na tayong magagawa kung hindi nagpahalaga sa itinustos sa kanila… meron namang nairaos na makapagtapos, ‘di ba? Mission accomplished.

Lipas sa katanghalian ang ating edad, but we go not gently into the night. May init pa, merong liyab ng libog sa puson at balintataw… ubra pang isingkaw na tila kalabaw—‘to lang daw ang tumatanda-- sa kahit anong kayod, kahit inut-inot kikita nang kaunti… ang talagang kaba ng mga mapapasukan, bihasa’t dalubhasa tayo sa ating dinaanang gawain… kailangang matumbasan ng mas magandang suweldo ang ganoong kakayahan at karanasan. Now, that’s validation—kahit karampot pa rin ang aasahang sahod, stipend or consultancy fee.

Aah, amore… “All things work for good to them who love God.” Or as the prophet Jeremiah would have it written of God’s promise (truly duly kept so unlike a politician’s), “Doom for the man… who makes his fellow man work for nothing without paying him his wages.”

Ah, binibigkis tayo ng mga trahedya… isa na naman sa ating hanay ang pinatay nitong Hunyo 15, para ba namang napakadaling itumba kapag peryodismo ang kabuhayan…


Terrible grammar: In sentences, we use the passive voice a lot more, averse to a more active mode…

‘Tis about a death sentence.

What was it in the Scriptures that we don’t subscribe to? “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven… A time to kill and a time to heal…”

Gone is a season of pig me and pygmy, now is a season of P-Noy…

Uh, who’s preachin’ or bitchin’ about healing?

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