Sunday, February 11, 2007
Life is a deal or no deal
By Mai Gevera
My Turn
I HAVE long monitored Kris Aquino's Deal or No Deal, a show that gives hope to any lucky chosen player with the wish of hitting the million or millions inside the 26 briefcases held by equally lovely and sexy 26K girls.
Each briefcase contains an amount that could make the player jump in joy or sigh in grief. I may not be a regular viewer of the show but whenever I'm home early, I am tempted to join the roller coaster ride experience of the player with Kris, not to mention with the so-called "banker."
In real life, Deal or No Deal is a reflection of how we have to decide on each move we make, with some prices or some punishment at stake. In real life, I'm an unconscious player. Getting to play the game is a gift. It only shows that every man is gifted with freedom and it's up to man how to manipulate such power and bring it to its advantage.
The 26 briefcases are the choices to which I could exercise my freedom. These are clear manifestation of how man's life is a result of his choices. They'd say every individual is born with a destiny. No matter how he shapes his life, he still ends up with the shape he was destined to end up like. I hate hearing people moan about the kind of situation they are in and blame the creator for putting them into it. Life, actually, is a game that is never manipulated by anyone else but oneself.
Every briefcase has a surprise in it; it could make or break one's chance to happiness. This is the reason why every player needs to carefully sense the different vibes of every number. In life, man is gifted with high faculties. He can think, feel, smell, see, and touch. Other creatures lack some of these gifts, which makes man the superior creation by God. These faculties assist him to choose which move to make. These made God confident enough to pass on to him the responsibility of choosing because man is equipped with all the necessary tools to decide. Unlike the show that simply employs the sense of feeling and guessing to win the game, life takes a different path. In reality, man can use all his senses to decide. He could calculate probabilities, employ logic, or do scientific reasoning to arrive in a more desirable result. Life offers a more friendly mechanism rather than the game show. It is more challenging, reasonable, and realistic.
As the show runs with the idea of "hey it's a surprise", life too is full of surprises. Who would have guessed that Erap, a school dropout, would become a popular president of this country? Of course, even Erap himself never expected such to happen to him. If only I knew the list of happenings that confronted me in the past 24 years, I would have become the richest person on earth. But damn, I'm just a normal being just like anybody that would have to choose left or right before knowing which one is better. To simply put it, life is a maze that is neither controlled by player A or player B. Both players may have all the chances to call it one's game but both also have the equal playing field, so to speak. At the end of the game, both will have to agree that they have played a fair and tough maze. It's a maze, which is designed by neither of the two, but of a superior one. It's someone who's talented enough to make it exciting, kind enough to make it fair, and fair enough to award the winner and punish the loser.
Just like the show that only has one player in every game, life too also proves that living is not a competition with anyone. Life is one's own battle; it must not be a battle with another person or group. Why do you think the world is so complicated? Who does US wage war against terrorists? the administration against the opposition? Your mom against your dad?
Simple..it's because everyone treats anyone as his competitor. The poor hates the rich; the "trapos" battle against "trapos;" the rat fears the cat. Everyone treats anyone a threat for survival. This has tolerated anger, stress, and hatred to rule in everybody's heart. When we go back to life's premise, it must simply be a battle of an individual against himself. When you have chosen to open the briefcase with the 4 million, it's neither the fault of Kris Aquino nor the banker. Admit it, it is your decision thus it gives you no reason to blame anyone but yourself. But life is not about blaming. When you opened the biggest amount, you can't just call it off and bring home banker's offer, which might be as low as 1 peso. Even if all the big amounts are gone, one still finds 100,000 or even 1,000 (in the case of Manny Pacquiao) big enough to long for. This shows man's perseverance, as long as there's something to desire for, which makes him moving and kicking. That pushes him to shout for a "No Deal."
Calling for a no deal is always a risk. The money you have might just disappear in a second but it could also double or triple if you chose a better briefcase. Some would say it's "greed" that moves a person to go on with the game. They'd ask why can't you find contentment in 5,000 and still long for the million or millions. Why can't one feel happy about this amount when it could already buy him a decent lunch for his family and a week-long food supply? Why would he still forego the half million when it could already give him an enough capital to start a business? Simple...life is a risk. Everything in life is all about risks. Henry Sy never got contented with his coins and so he worked hard to fly paper bills anywhere he wants.
Gokongwei allowed to lose some thousands just to get millions. The list would go on but the point here is man's ability not just to grow and multiply humans but also "bucks."
I could go on with my analogy; relating Kris Aquino's show to this thing we call "life". But just like the show, it must end. The clock's hand would really strike the 30th point to signal the show's end. Like the show, let this writing also end.For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (February 11, 2007 issue)
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