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Dilatory tactics


“Laborare est orare; orare est laborare.”
Benedictine dictum

“If then you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches?”
Jesus Christ, as quoted in St. Luke 16:11

THREE delectable uses of tongue (sprout in the mouth or spout of the mind as language): (1) savor flavors, (2) induce a state of arousal leading to orgasm, and (3) offer orisons.

Dilatory tactics yata ang tawag sa mga binanggit. Aba’y dila-dila din ang tawag sa kakaning malagkit na may budbod na niyog, linga’t asukal—palitaw. Some manifestation, causing something to appear.

With a twisted sense of reckoning caused by many a bout of French kissing with consenting adults and sloppy wet smooches of my grandchildren… with tongue firmly in cheek, one of such dilatory tactics can be employed in a bid to rid jueteng, yes, that beastly diabolical numbers game that offers bettors 1:666 winning probability…

Naghahagilap na naman kasi ng buto ng lotus…tinutuhog na butil ng rosaryo, the sort that Buddhists use to say prayers…each bead is called in Sanskrit as malas—“malasin mo’t nagtitiis ng kalungkutan…” as the old Tagalog ditty ‘Ang Tangi Kong Pag-ibig’ goes, it means “lo and behold” contrary to the Hispanic connotation of rotten luck.

Such a rosary, so tradition holds, strings up 108 lightning strikes, see here, see here…capped by one thunderbolt bead, hear this. Fingering beads in cycles of prayer was never fraught with arson, was it not?

Say, beads of sacred basil are used to pray for peace and prosperity… coral stones to attain wealth… and lotus seeds for killing and retribution.

Tell that to the Benedictines and other Cistercian monks who implied the notion that work or prayer touches off palpable results… words made flesh to dwell among us. And pray tell that to the ancients, “if we can learn to offer pure thought energy for 68 seconds-- worth two million man-hours (or about 1,000 years) at a time, action becomes inconsequential!”

With such a lotus rosary, let us pray… prey… whatever.

Offer orisons, yeah, the word for prayers is oraciones in Spanish which translates as “sentences” and we can hand out death sentences left and right like nobody’s business, can’t we?

Natigok nga ‘yung isang kumandidatong kapural ng jueteng, pinaglalamayan pa lang nga, may kapalit na… tuloy ang ligaya. Dasalsal na umaatikabo para matigok sila, pati na ang kani-kanilang inaamutan ng biyaya… kabilang pati provincial news correspondents na hindi naman pinapasahod na matino ng kani-kanilang peryodiko?

Praise the jueteng lords who follow Christ’s counsel in Luke 16:9, “And so I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity.”

Sure, even the devil, such a hypocrite, can quote the Scriptures… forked tongue firmly in cheek.

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