ANYONE who does not know comedian Amay Bisaya?
The funny man from Bohol was usually associated with the late FPJ – the best president we never had – and later with former governor Vic Millora of Infanta, Pangasinan.
We bumped into him lately, this time brandishing his being a gubernatorial candidate of Bohol.
Amay, actually, is Roberto Reyes, and is running for governor against two friends, former Cabinet secretary Leoncio “Jun” Evasco Jr. and former congressman Arthur Yap.
The Yap-Evasco-Reyes collision is unsettling by virtue of the fratenal group they are in, but that’s the way it is in our kind of politics, a may-the-best-man-win affair all the time.
That’s precisely the reason we hate to dip our fingers in it.
***
Death, they always say, is like a thief in the night. While pondering this, we just heard our kuya Gene, the great and impeccable lawyer, Hermogenes Decano, has just died.
We were seized with an inexplicable sadness. We could only weep alone and send our deeply felt words of condolences to his beloved Alice and children.
We want to snatch a soulful thought concerning what we call life, in hopes of humanizing our daily existence:
A life that matters
“Whether you are ready or not, someday your life will come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, no hours nor days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or
Forgotten, will pass to someone else
Your wealth, fame, and temporal power
Will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you are owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and
Jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do-lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so
Important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from, or on what
Side of the tracks you lived at the end.
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or
Brilliant, even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.
So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?
What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;
Not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that
Enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
But how many will feel a lasting loss when you are gone.
What will matter is not your memories,
But the memories that live in those who love you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom, and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstances, but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.” (juanitomvelasco@yahoo.com/PN)
