By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
When Joe De Venecia ran for president, his communications team went around trying to come up with something positive about him they could accentuate. They reproduced his picture and went to kindergarten clases showing these to get some innocent reactions. When they showed the pictures to the kids, a good number of them started laughing and shouting “Mickey mouse! Mickey mouse!” because of his big ears. The communications team packed up their bags and went somewhere else to search for another angle of Joe De V. that elicited something positive.
During my elementary days, having a hair-cut meant white side walls which clearly announced to all and sundry my big ears. Luckily, the reaction from the older people in the village is I will have a very long life because of my big ears. I would giggle then not because of logic but because of the lack of it.
Another thing that made others comment that I will have a long life was a rumor started by somebody in Bontoc, Mtn. Prov. 20 years ago that I was dead, that must have been the work of somebody who was hit or by a politician whose corruption was exposed by this paper. Anyway, that caused a flurry of phone calls to me by family elders to verify the matter. As one explained to me, if that was not true, then it meant I will have a very long life.
So you see, what I am saying is not baloney but supported by age old wisdom, validated by historical recurrence over generations.
But really, my having suffered and overcoming a number of illnesses last year meant that I writhed in pain but I survived. Having gone through so much pain should mean I have paid for a lot of the original sin or cross I might have been carrying or might have committed in the near past or in past lives in the distant past. You see I am a believer of that. That God is fair and he keeps a record of the injustices for future reckoning of any mistakes or injustices we committed on others. The reckoning can come after hundreds or thousands of years. It is the reason why some are born abnormal or with incurable diseases or are just plain unlucky.
So I will go on with life now with the thought I suffered enough recently which would justify a better life in the coming years.
Let us manifest or pray for that. To repeat what I am trying to put across, God is fair and is just.
Or if I die early, no problem. It means my next life would be better.
Of course another reason we suffer is for evolutionary purposes like to develop physical and mental resilience or improvement such as immunity and better brain power. **
