Valuable lessons from a grain of salt

I just had a tough week. I got sick so I was kinda down in the dumps. Apart from the pain and inconvenience, I shudder at the thought of having to deal with the backlog of work when I get back.

To console myself, I turned on the boob tube and, lo and behold, The Greatest Show on Earth was showing on TV! I was ecstatic.

Barnum and Bailey? No, I’m talking about that other circus where slapstick is the name of the game.

Yes, that’s right. Congress is on the air again. And this time, it looks like we’re in for an extended run. Whoopeedee.

I’m sorry if I sound callous. I don’t mean to be cynical and sarcastic. The last thing this country needs is another skeptical writer who believes he has all the solutions for this country. I don’t have the answer to what’s happening. Nor would I try to offer one. Many people are doing that already. (In fact, too many if you ask me.)

But I do know one thing. I pay taxes. I ought to at least have the privilege to choose what to feel when my money is spent. Rather than banging my head on the wall and saying, "Darn it, I’m wasting valuable tax money with this endless hearings that seem to be going nowhere!", I just change my entire perspective by considering my tax money as "entertainment expense." With this attitude, I have a whole new point of view. Now, when I watch Congress and all their shenanigans and tomfoolery, I don’t feel so bad anymore. In fact, watching all of these pathetic proceedings puts a smile on my face. Which is poetic justice in a way because a lot of the comedians that used to entertain me in the movies and on TV are now in politics anyway. What goes around comes around.

A Different Perspective

I fully realize that this whole crisis is no laughing matter. Personally, I think the whole thing (i.e., GMA’s talking to a Comelec official, the jueteng allegations, etc.) is another sad episode in our country’s history.

But let’s get a grip of the whole situation for a moment. Does your world revolve around the "Hello Garci" tapes? Does it really have to bring your whole world crashing? Sure, express yourself and your indignation. But don’t ever believe it’s the end of the world and that the whole country is going down the tubes. We’ve been through a lot – martial law, political assassinations, multiple coup attempts, the ’97 Asian crisis, the Kris and Joey breakup, and we’ve all survived. We’re still alive. There’s no need to be pessimistic about the whole thing.

"Easier said than done," you might say. I know it’s not easy. I used to be an incurable pessimist myself. When I was 11, I browsed through an issue of Time magazine and saw a page showing the scale drawings of the hydrogen bombs of the US and the USSR. I noticed that the bombs of Russia were almost twice as big as those of the US. My Korean friend, Jae Whang, told me, "Rod, you know who the Russians will bomb first? The Philippines. Because you have two American bases here." You know, I got really worried when he said that. I prayed and prayed every night that the US would not somehow piss off Russia. The last thing I wanted was to have some peeved Soviet dude pressing the red button and reducing the Philippines to a smoldering heap in 10 minutes. I was worried sick. But almost 30 years have passed. The USSR has dissolved. Still no bomb. What was I so pessimistic about? Beats me.

What am I driving at? Well, let’s face it, as a nation, we sometimes get over-pessimistic about the situation we are in. Every time there’s news that the President did something, our knee-jerk reaction is, "Resign! Resign!" Let’s say she does resign. Then what? You still have to go to work the next day – work hard and earn a living to meet the daily expenses. And whether it’s Gloria, Noli, Nene, Susan or Rez up there, you will still have to work for your family.

Personally, I’ve taken doomsayers’ statements with a grain of salt. I think it’s the best way to go.

To "take something with a grain of salt" means to not entirely believe a certain story, or to view it with a healthy degree of skepticism. It means you don’t want to be too wrapped up with the story to a point that it consumes you.

The origin of this phrase dates back to Roman times. It’s actually a translation of the Latin phrase "cum grano salis," though there has been some debate about this. Etymologist Christine Ammer traces it to Pompeii’s discovery, recorded by Pliny in 77 AD, of an antidote to poison which had to be taken with a small amount of salt in order to be effective. Thus, to effectively get rid of the poison, you must always take the antidote with a grain of salt. With the passing of time, everyone seemed to bypass that explanation and trace "with a grain of salt" to the dinner table, where a dash of salt can often make uninspired cooking more palatable. The phrase first appeared in English in 1647, and has been in constant use since then.

With today’s technology, there’s a lot of information you can pick up from just about everywhere. Almost everyone – from politicians to pseudo-politicians to people who just want to be heard – are giving their own state of the nation address. We’re a democracy and people have a right to be heard. But just because everyone has a right to be heard doesn’t mean you are obliged to listen to everyone. You are not obliged to take seriously every sweeping statement about how bad the economy is. We’ve been hearing that for decades. But hey, we’re still around. We’re still alive and breathing.

Let’s take the "Hello Garci" thing with a grain of salt. By all means, let’s investigate the whole thing. But let’s not panic just yet. Stay calm. Continue working hard.

Take everything with a grain of salt. Because really, if you try to ingest everything, you’ll only end up getting poisoned.

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Thanks for your letters, folks! You may e-mail me at rodnepo@yahoo.com.