If's, Aphorisms, and More If's

I just had have a love affair with aphorisms, more particularly on the ones that start with the hypothetical word "if". Wanting to create a kind of intellectual upheaval among my peers, I posted one in the online community facebook.com. True enough, it sparked so much interest when I had it posted in our work chat.

I asked, "If Manuel L. Quezon were alive today, still, would he rather have the Philippines run like hell by Filipinos or like heaven by the Americans?" The question stemmed from his quite nationalistic pronouncements, that he would rather "have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heavens by the Americans, because however a bad Filipino government might be, we can always change it"--quite hopefully. 

Precisely, the question is hypothetical. Responses could go either way and there is no right or wrong answer. The strength of one's response lies would depend on how strongly one could defend it. Anyhow, the person is dead and we could no longer resurrect him from the grave just so he could answer this question. The question is for our minds to play and doodle with.

THE POINT IS REGRET

Would we rather say or do something that we would regret in the next ten, thirty, fifty or say seventy years? As it turns out, anything that comes out of one's mouth, unsavory or not, is so much bitter to swallow back. It was regret that caused Judas Iscariot to take his own life after betraying Jesus Christ. The saddest thing about regret is that we could never do something about the acts we have done or words we have uttered. We could only say "if only". "If only" is  the saddest phrase we have in the English language. "If only I could turn back time," so the song goes. 

So, would he (MLQ) have regrets over those past pronouncements? This is a non-issue. Out of the first question, I came up with two more questions. One is a bit confrontational and it goes, "If Manuel L. Quezon were alive today, how would he react to his wish becoming a reality?" Not that I would rather have the Americans rule the Philippines. In truth, I would still want Filipinos to rule us just without "the hell" in it. 

IF NOT REGRET

The problem with politicians is that they have the propensity to use strong words just to get their message across. In their attempt to sound mightily invincible against their enemies they tend to embellish their speeches with impieties. In the household where I grew up, we have an unwritten rule not to utter profanities lest the devil may hear  and appear before us. So we could never shout expletives like, hell and other cebuano profanities for it's like exhorting the devil and his minions to come for a visit. Could you-know-who have heard MLQ when he uttered those words? Scary as hell!!! 

Finally, I come up with the last hypothetical question regarding the subject. "If Manuel L. Quezon were alive today, what would you tell him?" Just another non-sense question, like the previous two, it is. It generated some rather funny responses. True enough, we could never take these questions seriously, or life as a whole. As the adage says, "Don't take life seriously, nobody makes it out alive anyway." However, of all the questions, I choose to answer this one. And my answer happens to be a song, "...be careful with what you wish for, 'cause you just might get it all."

Have a great day!

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Copyright © 2011 by Leonel Agir