ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR III
The hardest thing I’ve ever done
Is keep believing
There’s someone in this crazy world for me.
I need to be in love
– Richard Carpenter , Albert Hammond and John Bettis
For the folks like us whose age is more than 40 years and above, we knew Carpenters as one great band whose ditty include a pile of great songs that put us to sleep, lift our hearts and even usher in a tear or two.
One song that stands out of the heap of good songs is that one written by Richard Carpenter, Albert Hammond and John Bettis it is simply called I need to be in love. The opening stanza says
The hardest thing I’ve ever done
Is keep believing
There’s someone in this crazy world for me
The way that people come and go
Through temporary lives
My chance could come and I might never know
Released in 1976, it was in the Album A kind of Hush, the first lines of the song hits me as a song about chances (there is someone in this crazy world for me). It is about believing (the hardest thing the singer ever done) and hopelessness (my chance would come and I would never know). I realized its like the controversial PCSO Lotto numbers game.
I remember the late General Alfredo Lim winning the Sweepstakes game and read about how it came to be by way of an Ambeth Ocampo column, the later worked with General Lim and to date Lim was the prototype and inspiration why I continued buying lotto combinations because it is a form of pangaliya, pakimalooy ha Ginoo (Hail Mary shot) the bet is gauged against the millions of combinations extracted from the permutations of numbers.
But now this belief was shaken.
For years, I swear that I was a constant ally, believer of of the numbers game, knowing fully well that winning will be next to impossible but for a good cause my losing combinations will be forming part of the charity aspect of the system. One that would be transformed into ambulances, free medications or reimbursements of the same. Today however, it may not be the case, I don’t believe this bettor or anyone else could win, it is outright unbelievable and perhaps, impossible.
The view from below the citadel of PCSO is shrouded with murkiness and opacity. The edited picture is actually an exponent of the blatant deception that we have been dealt with. It lessen and erodes our trust and lead us to the conclusion that perhaps cynics are right all along, its not fair. It cannot be trusted.
After a long while my love affair to that number game ceased today. I am sure now after 15 years my chance will never come, and as the song goes, I know I don’t need to be in love.
