Prudence and Madness

Yep, it’s worth P2000 only! But, it’s not a Starbucks Planner…

How did I get this one?

I actually did not have any plans of getting this one, as I’m targeting the Starbucks planner (which means saving money for all that coffee, convincing friends to get Starbucks coffee too and timing my visits to the coffee shop at around 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. or 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. until December 25). But my friends and I were at the TriNoma mall early tonight and my friend, Serj, decided to shop for Christmas gifts for his siblings at Powerbooks. He bought some stuff which amounted to P2000 and I *ehem* volunteered my Powercard (pushed it, actually) so that I could earn points from his purchase, since he doesn’t have his own Powercard. What I didn’t know is that if a purchase, either single or accumulated from December 1 to December 31, amounts to P2000 (for Powercard owners) or P2500 (for those who don’t have Powercards), I get a 10% discount on the purchase, if I’m paying it with cash, or a 5% discount, if I’ll be using credit card. Plus, I also get a free Read magazine and the Powerbooks planner.

So, I got the planner and my friend got the free magazine. Fair deal, right? Hehe.
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For most people, they would be spending this time until tomorrow praying to a supreme being that they get through Judgment Day whole and intact or that they get what they want in exchange for more fervent devotion or reparation of previous offenses.  Or for some, it may be a prayer just asking for support and strength.

While I’m also praying for the same (getting through Judgment Day), I’m not praying to a  supreme being.  I do not see the point in asking for help from someone who, in the first place, isn’t there.  Or even if that someone is there, I don’t think that someone would even be mindful of a lone person like me above all other persons in the whole “creation” just so that I can have guidance and support.  Rather than waste away time poring over someone who has found herself at the crossroads and has found difficulty along the way, if that supreme being is in existence, I think that being would rather focus his attention on those who have more need of him, those who are more helpless and lacking in spirit.

And I’m neither helpless nor lacking in spirit.

So, why do I pray?  Who do I pray to?

I think, for a better choice of word, I’d say I’m earnestly wishing to myself that I get through with this.  I worked for it and made hard choices.  There’s nobody better who could overcome such difficulties but myself because I, myself, is in it.  Only I can find my way out of there, nobody will do that for me.

So, to myself, I wish that, with all the hard work and the difficult choices made, tomorrow’s judgment will be all that I deserve.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Remember the little philosophical experiment I posted several days ago?

Okay, I’ll just repost the experiment here so you don’t have to go back and forth my site:

Life dependency

Dick had made a mistake, but surely the price he was paying was too high. He, of course, knew that level six of the hospital was a restricted area. But after he had drunk one too many glasses of wine with his colleagues at the finance department Christmas party, he had inadvertently staggered out of the elevator on the sixth floor and passed out on one of the empty beds.

When he woke up, he discovered to his horror that he had been mistaken for a volunteer in a new life-saving procedure. Patients who required vital organ transplants to survive were being hooked up to volunteers, whose own vital organs kept both alive. This would continue until a donor organ could be found, which was usually around nine months later.

Dick quickly called over a nurse to explain the mistake, who in turn brought over a worried-looking doctor.

“I understand your anger,” explained the doctor, “but you did behave irresponsibly, and now you are in this position, the brutal truth is that if we disconnect you, the world-renowned violinist who depends on you will die. You would in fact be murdering him.”

“But you have no right!” protested Dick. “Even if he dies without me, how can you force me to give up nine months of my life to save him?”

“I think the question you should be asking,” said the doctor sternly, “is how you could choose to end this violinist’s life.”

Source: The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher by Julian Baggini

Here are some of the reactions to this little experiment by some of my blog readers:
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