Not sweating the small stuff
YES, it’s true. I’m now a certified blue-blooded convict, and no. It’s not a joke. Many a friend linked through social network thought it was a joke by the way I have been posting about it.
It’s not a joke if you’re asking if it’s a fact. But it’s one big joke, if you are to reflect on how it came to be.
But who am I to question the judgment of a judge, no matter how shot with holes the judgment may be. I’ve seen worse. Like senators continuing to deny they never realized that billions upon billions of the people’s money assigned to them to distribute went to the hands of Janet Napoles, and these same senators want us to believe that they are telling the truth.
During times like these, my mind wanders off and sings along with Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar’s “Trial before Pilate.” For the young ones who have not been acquainted with the awesomeness of this musical, this is when Pontius Pilate ridiculed Jesus when the latter said that he was merely looking for the truth. To which Pilate sang, “But what is truth? Is truth a changing law? We both have truths. Are mine the same as yours?”
At the background, the mob shouts, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
“How and why are you taking it all so lightly? An exasperated friend asked. “Why, will I be able to do anything on my own?” I replied.
You see, my friends, it’s a judicial action. I’m not even a lawyer. It is up to my lawyer to act. How, I don’t know. The word appeal has been repeated over and over again, and so I say it as well. We will appeal. How? I don’t know. Let the lawyer take care of that. Hey, that’s what lawyers trained for. Imagine if we all try to be the experts in every field we encounter, there will be chaos.
As I’ve said over and over again, I welcome the judgment because here finally is a face, no make that two faces-remember I have my former publisher, Antonio M. Ajero, as a fellow convict as well--that personify what those demanding a decriminalized libel had long been shouting about.
In this conviction, everyone will see the parody of how an innately repressive law can be abused and corrupted.
Do I like being the central figure in a parody? Definitely not. But sometimes, we just have to step forward when called. Accepting the conviction as it is, knowing that there is something very wrong about it, is like accepting abuse and corruption and letting them be, or worse, prosper. It’s like being silent even after Janet Napoles and her coterie of nongovernment organizations that have her housemaids and her housemaid’s grass cutter cousin as executive officers and board members have been exposed to be moseying off with our money to buy a Porsche Cayenne and a Porsche Boxter as a gift so that dear daughter can post them all in Instagram.
Will that ruling gag me? Nope. But don’t expect me to go shouting with a megaphone on hand. Simply because, that was never me. I’m Miss Cool as Ever, cucumber like, and there’s nothing wrong in going “Dumdidumdum” to emphasize the ridiculous.
But, let me let you into a secret. I’m spiritual. I get guidance and I get them well.
Thus, the evening after the conviction, I sought out wisdom and opened the Bible, as I always do when seeking out wisdom.
It goes like this. Ask a question, bother Him up there for answer, and then open the Bible. The answer will be there. This time, the Book opened to Isaiah 54.
“You’re going to need lots of elbow room for your growing family. You’re going to take over whole nations; you’re going to resettle abandoned cities. Don’t be afraid--you’re not going to be embarrassed. Don’t hold back--you’re not going to come up short.”
Now think. If in your deep prayer you open the Bible right on this page, what will you do? I don’t know about you, but I know what I will. Dumdidumdum…