What do you want from life

Title

Creator

Mason, Jason

Language

English

Source

February 11, 1970

Year

1970

Subject

Goal (Psychology)

Ambition

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

DEADLINE What Do You Want from Life? By John Mason By Jose De La Cruz Official Family Planning President Marcos has finally up and done it — cut down on the population ex plosion which had plagued his official family. I refer to his cabinet, and the trim ming of the number of secretaries from 26 to 15 — possibly less. What better ex ample of family planning can there be? The “decabinetization” (no relation to de-Stalinization, de-Americanization or de-constipation) of the Chief Executive’s oliice has long been overdue, and the President must have finally realized that too many dr*\w<-s ran rpml the cabinet. Mai,ur«lly, arc problems which we ordinary ’uns must face. The biggest is proper identification, as the secretary of a department last week could be the secretary of another department. Take the case of Johnny Ponce Enrile. A few days ago, he was doing justice to his department. Now, he is on the defense, and taking it from everyone who feels that Our Cover Erlynn Bernardez is more than beauty and brains — she’s also a Bayanihan folk fl an cer. The 18-year-old charmer from UP has just returned from the US as an exchange scholar of the YFU (Youth for Under standing). She’s pursuing her UP studies, majoring in AB Psychology. Colorphoto of this popular campus fig ure was taken by a Bayani han colleague—Edgar B. Soller, Midweek cartoonist. he might be a “hard-liner” against Com munism. That he is highly qualified for the job, there is no doubt. But it will take quite a while for us who are slow on the ball to start calling him Mr. Defense Secretary instead of Mr. Justice Secretary. The same is true with former Defense Undersecretary Alex Melchor, now execu tive secretary, and with Finance Secretary Cesar Virata, formerly head of the BOX and undersecretary for industry. Of course, there are many more cases — and before the month is through, we should have the complete Revised Cabinet List to memorize for our children’s cur rent events lessons. There is one good thing about it, though. Henceforth, we were made to un derstand, there will be no more positions elevated to cabinet rank. This means we’ll have ’ess names to memorize, and less cas bearing number 6 car plates to guess the owner’s name. However, I wish the President would do something about changing the titles of his official family, since he had revamped it, anyway. It can be disconcerting, the way we call them secretaries. (A case in point is the time I went to one of the departments and asked for the secretary. (A sweet young thing came up to me and introduced herself as the secretary. Now, I am not one to pass up the oppor tunity of batting the breeze with sweet young things — especially if the little woman is not around. (But although she appeared to be wellstacked in all departments, my business was to interview only the department head, if you get what I mean. (It turned out that she was the secre tary of the secretary, and I began to won der if she in turn had another secretary. (Luckily enough, my business was not urgent enough to spell the difference be tween national survival and catastrophe, so the interlude was not exactly unpleas ant. But what if every moment counted? The nation could have collapsed because of semantics.) I wish the President — and the public — will call department heads “ministers” (even if the word can be mistaken for simple “mister”). Naturally (again), I hope the sugges tion will not be taken to mean I am seek ing to become a delegate to the forthcom ing Constitutional Convention. I ani too partisan for that, dear demonstrating stu dents .. I believe In democracy. Anyway, whatever they may be called now or in the future, let’s hope the mem bers of the revamped cabinet solve once and for all the problems of this nation. We can’t afford to have revamps every once so often. Love and marriage go to gether like a horse and carriage, runs the song. Well, the horse has finally bolted. In a social survey, thou sands of couples were ask ed: “What is the vital in gredient for a happy mar riage?” Love came limping in well down the list. Most of the men quest ioned voted for “good cook ing and good housekeep ing” as .he most important, cualities in a wife. And the women listed “a good pay packet,” “faith fulness and steadiness,' and “kindness and conside ration” as the most ideai characteristics in a hus band. Only a tiny minority gave love the Numbe: Jne prior ity. Usually it ranked as an “also ran” — along witn “intelligence and common sense.” The survey — to find out what most people want from life — was made in America. What do married people want from life? It can be summed up in one simple word: Happiness. But one man’s idea of nappines, can be another man’s Pur gatory. As lar as the Americans are concerned, Happiness equals Money. Cash in the bank means Instant Bliss. Asked to define what constituted -hrppiness, ’ 99 out of 100 Americans ans wered: Plenty of money." Peace of mind and content ment came in a poor se cond. And, aftei that, the favorites were given as a good family life, reliable friends, and a satisfying job. That dear oid answei “good health" — which most people used to put above everything else — came fourth in the list, to the astonishment of the researchers. It wasn’t surprising that, the pollsters came to the conclusion that “most peo ple overestimate the power of money cc bring happi ness.” But just now would 16,000 guinea-pigs questioned have set about buying hap piness with a cheque-Dook and a ball-point pen? More than 5,000 of them plumped for a “let’s-getaway-from-it-all” holiday. But not one could say what he would do when he gov back. Another 5,000 said they would buy “something practical” — like new fur niture, a new car, or a new lick of paint for the house. Only 13 per cent thought, of luxuries — fur coats, diamond rings, hi-fi sets or a nanny foi the children. Right down at the tag end of the list were the people — seven out of 100 — who looked forwaro to spending the lot on “having fun.” Once the holiday is over, the house nas been repain ted and the new car in the garage, wha< then? Most peop.'c were ncr,ut.s of the idea of a lifetime ot leisure. Only cne in four dreamed of spending the rest of his rears sitting by the sea in e deck-chair a drink in one hand, a book in the ot»v ■ In fam, most ot them said they would hang on to their jobs once the novelty of big-money windfall had worn off. And 75 per cent went further. They said they would continue working be yond retirement age. Let’s say you won £1,000 on a lottery. You would certainly correspond to the results of the survey if you decided to save the lot for a rainy day invest it or put the cash down as a deposit on a house. So much for the cash-inhand side of happiness. Now for the question of a long life. According to the figures, the thought of living to 100 appeals to only half the population. The ocher half would de finitely not want to live that long. But .c was when the re searchers questioned wo men that some of the od dest facts appeared. An enormous lot of wo men said , they would be a lot happier If they could “wear the pants” In the household. The Canadian Institute of Public Opinion — Which tackled this aspect of the survey — discovered that most women secretly envy men. They think they lead "more interesting” lives. Twenty-nine per cent said they would change piaces, given the chance. But only six pei cent of the men envied their wives’ lot. As a sidelight, the inter viewers asked all their sub jects: “What is the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your life?” Nearly everyone answer ed: “Not getting enough education.” Judging oy all the ans wers, it looks as though the ideal “happy person” is a young, male egg-head with a fortune in the bank, a regular job, and a wife who keeps the house spick and span and is a dab hand at crepes suzette. — LENFS Wednesday, reuiuury 11, iy/u Herald Mid-Week Magazine Page 11

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