Hope without Action is like Prayer without Belief

It's funny how I torture myself nowadays, I've been training so much that it actually hurts to walk now. I told myself, run even if you don't want to, walk if you feel like you can't run anymore, if needed be, crawl because there's no way you can't do 3k a day. If there was a miracle pill for losing all this weight, I would've already taken three boxes, but there's none, so let the torture ensue. The plan is to make 10k a day easy and breathless. It'll be some time before I reach that, but it can be done. I know it. Or so I think I know it. Or so I pretend I think I know it.

I'm procrastinating work right now because I'm really sleepy. Although the work is downright brainless, I have yet to muster enough strength to concentrate on them numbers. I rode the public commute today so kill me if I'm a little tired. Yey for another 8am deadline.

Voting yesterday, even though it took forever, was like any other time I exercised that right to vote. Voting used to be so ideal to me, like I really thought through my choice, envisioned a better country, etc. etc. I grew up in a family that equated adulthood into two things, driving and voting. If you can do, and choose to do both, then you're an adult. I think it's because I had siblings who suffered and marched the first EDSA. They after all, we're up students, it ran in their blood. It worried my parents so much that they grilled the third generation to value national freedom as adulthood takes over.

Now, I take on a different view, it was the first time I voted strategic, like I didn't so much think about who I wanted in office, rather, I thought who to give my vote to so as not to make the other candidate win.

Through a friend who diligently follows the news, I was able to surmise a fair appraisal of the campaign trail, the personalities and wealth representation of the candidates, the idiosyncrasies of the techniques for winning. My incessant fear of vote buying, blatant cheating and extreme violence were appeased by the efforts of many volunteers and cleaner safekeeping forces such as the pnp and the other men in uniform. Another friend emphasized that the reason we're so paranoid about cheating is because we've gotten so used to it as the social and moral norm that we no longer trust people to have "non-cheating" as status quo. Let me rephrase that, status quo has become: cheating is good, losing is bad. Whereas the true status quo should be, let the results stand for themselves because we trust the system that has put power into place, cheating is not an option.

Is automation regenerating the true morality of this country?

Again, three hours of my life down the drain, just to get a purple-d forefinger. What kept going through my mind was: automation reduces cheating, automation reduces cheating. After the vote, I kept thinking, how will I get this purple ink off my damn forefinger, do I just wait to outgrow the nail, do I get a manicure, do I soak this in some solution until it fades?

Ah, but a purple finger is a purple finger, we're in it for the long haul. I actually find Commissioner Melo entertaining to watch, he's really trying to keep up with the technology that the younger commissioners are so used to. Again, I can imagine a whole crew of incorruptible geeks, mindless of the greed so many are so used to, protecting the technology from the hands of the self-righteous and as a result of which, tirelessly reinstilling a feeling of hope for the Filipino people.

Yes, Ab, I voted for Allan Reyes, I guess, I'm fascinated by the fact that he still used the same picture he used years ago in his campaign posters. And for that he earned my vote, points for persistence! Remember how we can't get over the fact that his campaign song echoed in our ears long after the elections were over.

So sure, I'm beginning to trust the system again, elections have a way of gathering hope, let's just hope that hope translates into some meaty action. Hope without action is like a prayer without belief.

It's like my 10k a day goal, I'm hopeful that I'll reach my goals simply because I started walking a couple of weeks ago and now I'm running again, I hope that I won't have to revert to crawling anytime soon.