to a year without earning a penny, becoming a bona fide lumpenproletariat in anyone's book.This is not to parade my "suffering." I mean, woe to me! This is suffering? Tell that to the Palestininans. Try telling that to those in refugee camps.
There is dignity in destitution, I pep-talk. Money cannot buy happiness, I heard a rich kid's confession. Well, try giving part of your wealth to me and I shall show you delirium. Delirium, my friend. Not just plain, simple happiness.
A recent study conducted in Israel postulated that money can actually buy happiness and rarely will I agree to what Israel proclaims but to a certain degree, I agree. Money will afford me some of my guilty pleasures - body massage, CDs, DVDs, books, concert tickets, that dream farmhouse, an in-house chef, somebody on the payroll to read me bedtime stories, among other things. These are more than enough to make me deliriously happy.
In celebration of a failed economic system that glorifies money, let me post a stanza of John Updike's poem entitled, you guess it right, "Money":
It is freedom in action:
when you give a twenty-buck bill to the cabbie,
you don't tell him how to spend it.
He can blow it on coke, for all you care.
All you care about is your change.
No wonder the ex-Communists are dizzy.
In the old Soviet Union there was nothing to buy, nothing to spend.
It was freedom of a kind, but not our kind.
We need money, the dull electric thrill
when the automatic teller spits out the disposable receipt.
("Money" by John Updike, from Americana and Other Poems. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.)
(illustrations from www.exploding dog.com)
6 comments:
dyn, i read somewhere, whoever said that money can't buy happines does not know where to shop. talaga noh? *petra*
yeah, shopoholic na petra. i am more of a bargain-hunter, that's what my social class dictates, haha.
at talaga naman, tumutulo pa pawis at luha if I am able to find books sold for a song, well almost, for a song. pero sabi ng isa kong friend, books find you, not the other way around. is that true?
self-congratulating pa naman ako everytime I find gold in my treasure hunts. smug, contented, sobrang angas, tapos sabihin, these things ultimately find you and land in your lap. what about capitalist values like tenacity and hard work, do they even count?
oy, sucker for sale din ako no. dati talaga, i spent so much on books and cds and dvds...pero salamat sa library dito (one good thing about living here), nahiram na lang ako. in my mind though, i know what to get or what to spend on kung rick kid din lang ako...
as for capitalist values...naku, nakaron na ng divide sa utak ko. ayoko na isipin pa...dati rati, i would rant...national anthem ko pagdating sa office yung bullet with butterfly wings. how apt: despite of my rage, am still just a rat in a cage. pero day, ito na ang realidad ko so panindigan ang mga twisted choices sa buhay hahaha. kaya nga at one point, i told i feel like i have become existentialist. pero ayoko na i classify sarili ko. call me whatever you want i don't care. ang alam ko lang ngayon, we all die anyway...i don't know what's on the other side, so for now that am here, i will indulge in simple things that makes me happy (justifications LOL).
as for books, i read fiction din. i have drifted (sige awayin mo ako)...wala na akong care sa mga democratization chuchubels na yan...and reading your blog, di man ako mahilig sa mga psychology and self help books na yaan pero intriga ako ke Viktor Frankl. name pa lang nya, winner na hahaha...with a K! LOL...i'll go to the lib later...baka magkaron ako ng enlightenment reading that, at long last haha. thanks dyn! hug, petra (mas dapat ata sa akin yugn pilyang kuting hahaha)
ai, you reminded me again of our billy corgan gaga-ness, hehe. In "True Blood" fashion, ang opening verse ang gusto ko - The world/is a vampire. Hayup talaga Uncle Fester ko, ai si Corgan pala.
How I wish TC had music and book libraries but you gave me an idea. I will check if I can reactivate my alumni privileges and be able to borrow books. In the meantime, some friends' libraries are raid-targets. Pasalamat ka, ang layo mo, di kita mabibiktima, haha.
Si Manong Viktor naman, di siya elegant magsulat. hindi riveting ang presentation but I had to read him for a Lit class in college, no choice. Parang si Mang Tomas (?) Kuhn ni Prof. Carlos, must-read sa PS 299. Baka di mo siya magustuhan, di siya tulad ni Murakami. Siya favorite mo, di ba?
Anyway, try mo din. Malay mo, pilyang kuting, PK (pronounced as peke, for short). by the way, sent an erratum to your FS inbox, check it na lang. And tsaran!!!May FB account na ako, pre. Di na ako FB-virgin/naive, add me up, kung trip mo lang. Pati mga boys mo, hatakin mo rin, bwahaha.
John Updike: "In the old Soviet Union there was nothing to buy, nothing to spend.
It was freedom of a kind..."
Should a Russian then say: Oh, I miss the Old Soviet Union day--- when I was still free; there was no money, nothing to buy.
To be free from what? What is that? I can't make a connection. Money and freedom? Do we have to correlate them?
Or do I have to say, damn you aspirin, now I am no longer free, I am bound to entertain my headache. Money where are you?
Sometimes, a bored person wants to make meaning out of a meaningless nothing. Why? Does everything have to have meaning. Grrr... I still have to make a living you know, I don't have time to ponder on the meaning of my fallen strand of hair. I shall leave it to madame Auring.
By the way, Dyn, I like the article. But I cannot just make sense out of Updike's poem. But, in case you think I am already too utilitarian please remind me once in awhile that there is also some transcendental importance in abstracts and a fallen strand of hair.
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