Thursday, April 30, 2015

Letter to a friend

You write, paint, and play musical instruments! Wow! What a Renaissance person!

I only scribble à la stream of consciousness style. Now and then I am seized by the Poetic Music and express myself in verse/rhythm and rhyme. Sometimes I even sing and dance solo in the privacy of my condo. Yet somehow I have an exceedingly high opinion of myself because I fancy that I can reason well, am honest and not a hypocrite like so many scumbags and assholes around me. Wittgenstein, a hero of mine, was also very arrogant. He, too, was into the search for fundamental questions in thinking, logic, and language functions. 

I am brushing up my Spanish for the upcoming trip in October to Barcelona (where the people speak Catalan, a language much closer to southern French [official French nowadays originated from the Île de France region which covers Paris. France, like Spain, has many dialects], than Spanish [actually a dialect from Madrid called castellano] . I can make myself understood in Spanish, but comprehending it is still shaky with me) and Madrid. Reading it is not a problem. I can read novels in Spanish and French. 

I'm looking forward to the boxing fight on Saturday between Mayweather (black) and Pacquiao (Filipino). Mayweather is the heavy favorite to win, but I just placed a bet (small amount of money) on Pacquiao. I normally don't bet on sports or gamble on any game (except poker which the casino is not involved other than taking  "tax" on the game) in the casino, but I admire Pacquiao. I bet on him for sentimental reasons. I am a sentimental, not a cold-blooded money, guy. Pacquiao is very religious. He is a Christian and already an elected politician in the Congress of the Philippines. He could be the President of the Philippines someday. He is that popular. Although I am not a Christian, I admire Pacquiao for  living his Faith and for his loyalty to his friends who grew up poor with him. He has a huge entourage on his payrolls. The fight is the biggest payout in boxing history. The players are going to share the $300 million purse. It is expected that Pacquiao will give away half of his share to charity. I don't know boxing, but ever since the fight was announced months ago, I have put myself in Pacquiao's position and mind. That has made all my problems seem so small. Boxing is a very dangerous "sport" (ironically called "sweet science"). Boxers die all the time in the ring or shortly afterwards due to brain injuries. One must be very skilled and very brave to want to make a living off boxing. Right now these two boxers are the two best in the world in their weight class. 

I always try to emulate from people who are better than me, intellectually, physically, or morally. Wealthy people never impress me. I used to be well off, but I was not happy. Now I have less money than what I used to have, but I am happier and much wiser. The reason why I associate with Omar and Arthur is that although they are not wealthy, they are not stingy. I hate misers although I am not a generous person. I am only a fair person. 

One must be special, good, and kind in order to have a true pride of oneself. Otherwise, the pride one has of oneself is just commonplace, banal, and cheap. Lying is cheap. Bragging without substantiation is cheap. Disloyalty to friends who are kind to us is cheap. 

One must not be cheap. All my life I have struggled against being cheap. I look down upon cheap people. 

Enough words for today.

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