Choose to be healthy, happy and good in 2021

By Al S. Mendoza

 

LIFE is choices.

That’s an adage as old as gambling.

Gambling is that old?

Of course.

Didn’t Eve gamble in the Garden of Eden?

As the book said, Eve was seduced by the snake up an apple tree teeming with fruits.

Frail of judgment, Eve fell for it.

Succumbing to bahala na, Eve fancied the apple, took a gamble and had a bite of it.

Boom!, the course of history was altered forever.

Didn’t curiosity kill the cat?

But Eve wasn’t entirely to blame.  The world was new.  Life lessons weren’t in vogue yet.

Still, she broke the law.  And God, being forever upright, had to act.

And even as poor Adam was not around when the snake was seducing Eve, God also punished Adam

He drove the couple out of Paradise.

Had Adam been around and seen the snake with its evil design, he would have killed it and eaten it with Eve.

Pedro has a better, if not funnier, tale for it:  Had Adam and Eve been of Chinese descent, they would have immediately eaten the snake instead of the apple.

Aren’t the Chinese noted for eating everything that moves—including bats?

That is why the COVID-19 arguably came from China, in a wet market in the City of Wuhan known to sell bat meats and other exotic species from the wilds.

Look what the coronavirus-carrying bats have done to mankind: millions now are infected by the pandemic, with more than 1.5 million lives lost worldwide since the outbreak in March.

And while we are it, let’s look at things with a broader perspective.

Instead of sulking and wailing, get up and face the coronavirus head-long.

The least we can do is follow the minimum health protocols so that even if I may sound a broken record here, I’ll say it again, anyways:

1)  Wash your hands as frequently as possible with soap.

2)  In public, wear a face mask and, yes, a face shield, too, for fiercer protection.

3) Never ever touch MEN (Mouth-Eyes-Nose) with your unwashed hands—at all times.

We’ve fought the virus with those three “little big reminders” for almost a year now and, even if only for consolation, we’ve been gaining victories little by little.

In this battle, we are all front liners.

No one can afford to be mere bystanders, kibitzers or uziseros because all of us are soldiers duty bound to confront head-on the COVID-19 scourge.

One life saved is saving mankind overall.

Many of us have been staying home for most of 2020, staring at the woeful world go by from our windows in stark silence, our heartbeat, alas, the only sound giving us the music of courage.

No, let us not treat the fast-fading year a forgettable episode in our worldly existence.

There was, still is, destruction, but in the rubble, amid the ruins, will rise a stronger person in all of us—indestructible despite the snake’s venom during our time of near-vulnerability.

As always, there should be hope, and the coming year offers a renewal of love amid sadness, faith in God amid seeming helplessness.

May 2021 bring you good health, restored happiness and wisdom to do good at all times.

To be better or bad?  Your choice, fellas.

Happy New Year!

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