Mendoza: At 33, Pacman has the world on his fingertips

Saturday, December 17, 2011

THIS is for the thirty or something.

When you turned 33, what have you already done, achieved?

Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.

Have you fathered a child, planted a seedling, written a book?

This is no bragging right, but I have done all three. No big deal there, though.

For one thing, there’s nothing gargantuan about accomplishing life’s triple treat.

It’s the easiest to make love. Just love with all your mind, strength and heart and that’s it. Love begets love.

Digging a hole for a coconut seedling does not require calculus. A bolo or “bareta” will do it. A cup of salt and a pinch of sugar, sprinkled around the hole, will complete the rite.

And writing a book?

Well, I concede this should require a bit of a challenge.

But I also concede it isn’t a big deal doing it, completing it.

There is nothing that we can’t do.

We couldn’t swim to America and then the ship was invented. It took us almost three months to get there.

We couldn’t reach the skies and then the airplane was invented. America was within reach in half a day.

We simply gazed at the moon and then we invented the space ship to pave the way for “the big step for mankind.”

When Roosevelt heard a general say it’s impossible to get back at the enemy after Japan bombed the Pearl Harbor, the President, crippled and wheelchair-bound, stood up and said, “From now on, I don’t want to hear any one from my generals say, ‘It can’t be done.’”

Manny Pacquiao was a frail, skinny 108 pounds when he turned to professional boxing at age 16.

A dozen or so years later, he was a multi-titled world champion.

And turning 33 today, Dec. 17, Pacquiao already owns an unprecedented eight world crowns in eight weight divisions—the heaviest being the 154-lb diadem.

He is a billionaire, the owner of not one but two mansions. A third is to rise soon at Makati’s Forbes Park, the bastion of everything that represents wealth, fame and might.

He has a doctorate, honoris causa, is a lieutenant colonel in the Army.

And, yes, lest I forget, he is also a lawmaker now.

Happy birthday, Congressman Pacquiao!

(alsol47@yahoo.com)