A BALATO of
P50 will be just fine with me.
So, I told my coffee confederates at Starbucks SM City Clark over the frenzied
betting for the grand lotto topping over P900 million.
They just could not believe that I could be so disinterested as to pass off this one-in-40-million-chance of becoming almost billionaire. With none of them betting less than a thousand pesos in multi-multi-combinations at each failed draw.
My greed is not only moderate but very manageable. So, I told them.
But with the winnings, you can buy lots of cars, said the espresso-dazed one.
So, how many cars have I had? Staring off with a 1981 Mazda 323 on to a 1991 Spacewagon, 1992 Pajero, a first edition CRV, a collector’s 1994 Crown Super Saloon, a vintage ’66 Beetle, a stock Avanza, an Andre Agassi-endorsed Sorrento. All gone now but for the CRV and Avanza, the Beetle I sold so reluctantly only last month. Currently there’s a 2008 Ford Wildtrak, a first edition Yaris, and a 2015 Mu-X.
They just could not believe that I could be so disinterested as to pass off this one-in-40-million-chance of becoming almost billionaire. With none of them betting less than a thousand pesos in multi-multi-combinations at each failed draw.
My greed is not only moderate but very manageable. So, I told them.
But with the winnings, you can buy lots of cars, said the espresso-dazed one.
So, how many cars have I had? Staring off with a 1981 Mazda 323 on to a 1991 Spacewagon, 1992 Pajero, a first edition CRV, a collector’s 1994 Crown Super Saloon, a vintage ’66 Beetle, a stock Avanza, an Andre Agassi-endorsed Sorrento. All gone now but for the CRV and Avanza, the Beetle I sold so reluctantly only last month. Currently there’s a 2008 Ford Wildtrak, a first edition Yaris, and a 2015 Mu-X.
No brand new, no Range Rover, no
Porsche or even just a BMW.
So what’s the need for those brands? My cars are as utilitarian. Where those luxe wheels go, they can take me too.
You don’t arrive in style as you’d do in them rich men’s cars.
So have you forgotten, style is the man? So, who really needs cars?
Winning the lotto can take you places, travel the world over and over. It’s the cappuccino imbiber talking now.
So, what have I been doing? Just this year, Kuala Lumpur for the umpteenth time, fourth time in Taiwan. Egypt, Jordan, and Israel where I got to renew my vows with the wife in Cana itself on the 40th year of our couplehood to boot! And Singapore once again this coming weekend.
So what’s the need for those brands? My cars are as utilitarian. Where those luxe wheels go, they can take me too.
You don’t arrive in style as you’d do in them rich men’s cars.
So have you forgotten, style is the man? So, who really needs cars?
Winning the lotto can take you places, travel the world over and over. It’s the cappuccino imbiber talking now.
So, what have I been doing? Just this year, Kuala Lumpur for the umpteenth time, fourth time in Taiwan. Egypt, Jordan, and Israel where I got to renew my vows with the wife in Cana itself on the 40th year of our couplehood to boot! And Singapore once again this coming weekend.
Tokyo twice last year – in June with
the media boys, in November for my son’s wedding. Tokyo and Kyoto with the wife
in 2014. Kyoto and Nagoya in the mid-90s too.
Hongkong-Macau more like revolving
doors, read: in-and-out since the late 1990s. Guangzhou too. Already paid my
respects to Uncle Ho in his eponymous city that was once-Saigon.
Spent more than one night in Bangkok,
Phuket and Pattaya as well. Cruised the Singapore-Penang-Phuket route too.
Did Dubai in 2012, and sidetripped to
Bandar Seri Begawan.
Angkor Watt and all those temples of
Siam Reap explored in 2016. Already hit Jakarta and some other islands in
Indonesia.
I have practically done the whole
breadth of the archipelago, from Aparri to the little islands abutting Sabah.
Aye, Kota Kinabulu, I’ve been there too.
All these without the benefit of
lotto, not even a balik-taya.
But your travels are restricted to Asia, lotto’s hundreds of millions can easily take you to America…
Sorry, but been there, both coasts six times, seven to include the territory of Guam. Disney and Universal, Broadway and Times Square, D.C. and Philly, Vegas and Atlantic City, SanFo and even those lovely enclaves in Rhode Island I called God’s own little acre, I’ve experienced them all.
To Europe then…
Post-springtime, Paris still blooms in romance. Bonn with its famed university and Koln with its magnificent cathedral have that quiet elegance. Brussels is aptly named Little Paris…
You’ve been there too?
Yes, and smelled six million tulip bulbs of all colors in Keukenhof Garden in Lisse, Holland, walked the cobblestoned streets of The Hague, visited Madame Tussaud but got frustrated at the closed Van Gogh Museum around Dam Square, and was blocked by a 300-pound, 6’8” bouncer from photographing the ladies of all races in various stages of undress encased in escaparates along the canal in De Wallen. Again, all these without having to win even just three digits in the lotto. They just happened.
Which means?
Which ultimately means I have no need for the lotto to live my life as I want to. Winning the lotto will just ruin it.
For as long as I can remember, I never dreamed of being moneyed. All I wanted in life since my childhood days are summed up thus: RTW – read, travel, write. Precisely what I do now. So why alter it, drastically and horrifically, with money?
As the Most Rev. Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz advised the unidentified lone winner of the P741-million jackpot recently: Pack up and go abroad.
Among Oscar’s personal sermon: "It's best for the person and his family to hide and go abroad. It would be better for him to hide than to risk his or her life here…This person is a pity because he should be very careful... because the money he will have come from a lot of people so therefore the money is not really his or her own because he did not work for it…The winner should also be careful about his safety together with his family because many will try to frighten and kidnap them for the money ... in short, the winner will lose because of these problems."
So why still desire that much money?
Desire is the root of all disappointments. A basic tenet from the dhammapada that can very well be the key to inner serenity, and in turn to world peace.
Finding resonance in John Lennon’s Imagine -- “…no possession/ I wonder if you can/nothing for greed or hunger/ a brotherhood of Man…”
And an affirmation in yet another nugget of Buddhist wisdom: “Happiness is not in getting what you want. It is in finding contentment with what you have.”
Oini ing bie. So, I am happy.
But your travels are restricted to Asia, lotto’s hundreds of millions can easily take you to America…
Sorry, but been there, both coasts six times, seven to include the territory of Guam. Disney and Universal, Broadway and Times Square, D.C. and Philly, Vegas and Atlantic City, SanFo and even those lovely enclaves in Rhode Island I called God’s own little acre, I’ve experienced them all.
To Europe then…
Post-springtime, Paris still blooms in romance. Bonn with its famed university and Koln with its magnificent cathedral have that quiet elegance. Brussels is aptly named Little Paris…
You’ve been there too?
Yes, and smelled six million tulip bulbs of all colors in Keukenhof Garden in Lisse, Holland, walked the cobblestoned streets of The Hague, visited Madame Tussaud but got frustrated at the closed Van Gogh Museum around Dam Square, and was blocked by a 300-pound, 6’8” bouncer from photographing the ladies of all races in various stages of undress encased in escaparates along the canal in De Wallen. Again, all these without having to win even just three digits in the lotto. They just happened.
Which means?
Which ultimately means I have no need for the lotto to live my life as I want to. Winning the lotto will just ruin it.
For as long as I can remember, I never dreamed of being moneyed. All I wanted in life since my childhood days are summed up thus: RTW – read, travel, write. Precisely what I do now. So why alter it, drastically and horrifically, with money?
As the Most Rev. Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz advised the unidentified lone winner of the P741-million jackpot recently: Pack up and go abroad.
Among Oscar’s personal sermon: "It's best for the person and his family to hide and go abroad. It would be better for him to hide than to risk his or her life here…This person is a pity because he should be very careful... because the money he will have come from a lot of people so therefore the money is not really his or her own because he did not work for it…The winner should also be careful about his safety together with his family because many will try to frighten and kidnap them for the money ... in short, the winner will lose because of these problems."
So why still desire that much money?
Desire is the root of all disappointments. A basic tenet from the dhammapada that can very well be the key to inner serenity, and in turn to world peace.
Finding resonance in John Lennon’s Imagine -- “…no possession/ I wonder if you can/nothing for greed or hunger/ a brotherhood of Man…”
And an affirmation in yet another nugget of Buddhist wisdom: “Happiness is not in getting what you want. It is in finding contentment with what you have.”
Oini ing bie. So, I am happy.
(An update of Zona Libre:
The Happy Life, published Dec. 2, 2010 in Punto!)
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