//December 07, 2010//

“Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon character from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, Dec 6th of 2010, there should be no human faces on facebook, but an invasion of memories! This is for a campaign against violence on children.”

Rupanya, tren baru ini sudah berjalan lumayan lama dan mungkin kita yang ada di Indonesia sudah ketinggalan jaman.

Cartoon Characters as Facebook Profile Pictures – ABCNews

Tapi aah, biarlah disebut latah kartun. Gerakan ini sungguh memikat (saya tidak bisa mencari kata lain). Kenapa banyak orang yang melakukannya? Menurut saya, hal ini bukan semata hanya latah atau ikut-ikutan, ada emosi yang kuat ketika semua orang kembali mengingat-ingat, mencari di deretan sel abu abu mereka, memori indah yang sempat terukir. Bagaimana dengan setianya kita menunggu tayangan-tayangan tersebut, dan memilah-milah mana yang paling kita favoritkan. Sungguhnya saya sangat menanti-nanti, profile picture apa yang akan dipasang oleh teman-teman saya. Pilihannya beragam, mulai dari superstar papan atas (Doraemon dan Dragon Ball) sampai para pendamping yang terlupa (Dash Yankuro dan Candy Candy). Saya malah mencari-cari, siapa yang akan memasang foto dari Yoichi Ajiyoshi si Anak Cita Rasa (Born to Cook, ada yang ingat, anyone?) atau trio Rantaro-Kirimaru-Shinbe (Ninja Boy). Saya pakar di bidang ini, dan saya tidak pernah malu untuk mengakuinya. Sampai saat inipun rasanya saya bisa menyebutkan semua tayangan kartun di masa itu.

Saya sendiri memilih untuk memasang gambar Bart Simpson dan catch phrase-nya yang terkenal, “Eat my short, man!”. Saya ingat sekali menonton kartun ini sampai malam hari (jam tayangnya dipindah ke malam hari karena ratingnya yang memang bukan untuk anak-anak). Walaupun dulu saya tidak mengerti kelucuan dari film yang cenderung sadis ini, anehnya saya tetap tertarik untuk menontonnya.

(*) Jumping Jack Flash is a well-known-slash-famous-song by Rolling Stones. Yeah, fyi :P

//December 06, 2010//

The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The Alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned.

At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story. He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

“Why do you weep?” the Goddesses asked.
“I weep for Narcissus,” the lake replied.
“Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus,” they said, “for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand.”
“But….. was Narcissus beautiful?” the lake asked.
“Who better than you to know that?” the Goddesses said in wonder, “After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!”

The lake was silent for some time.

Finally it said:
“I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.”

“What a lovely story,” the Alchemist thought.

( Prologue of “The Alchemist”, celebrating this last week THREE YEARS in the New York Times Bestselling list.)

This is my second time reading the story although I already read The Alchemist for couple of times. The first one was my first time reading The Alchemist, the book was my friend’s and unfortunately my copy of The Alchemist doesn’t contain the prologue (the Indonesian version of The Alchemist was re-published by another book publisher company). And yeah, it’s kinda felt incomplete for the rest of the story.

//December 05, 2010//

Lapangan kerja makin sedikit, budak uang semakin banyak. Giliran ingin membuka lapangan kerja baru, tidak pernah ada yang percaya bahwa hal tersebut bisa terjadi. Harus punya backingan orang kayalah, harus kerja keraslah. Semua pekerjaan juga butuh kerja keras. Tapi angguk-angguk saja dengarnya, memang jadi orang biasa itu butuh kerja keras. Kerja keras untuk meyakinkan orang lain bahwa pada dasarnya semua orang itu biasa. Jadi luar biasa itu proses bukan bakat. Yah kalau ada yang bilang bakat, silahkan ucapkan Alhamdulillah karena Anda diberi berkah.