A Lesson From Two Boxes With A Louse Each In Them

One day, a father gave his son two boxes with different size. Each box contained a louse. The width of both boxes were about the same. The difference was at their height.

"Son, I have presents for you," he said.

The boy asked back his father, "What are these, Dad?"

"Open them by yourself, Son."

The boy opened one of the boxes, the higher one. When he saw the inside of it, he was a little surprised.

"Dad," the boy said to his father, "It's just a louse."

The father smiled at him. "C'mon!" he said to his son. "Let's go to the garden. Bring the boxes with you."

They walked side by side to the garden. The boy brought the boxes by his hands, each box on each hand. His father was still smiling at his son.

When the reached the garden, the father sat on a chair. He said to his son, "Come here, Son!"

The boy approached his father, then he sat on the grass.

The father said, "Open the boxes! Let the louses come out."

The boy then opened the higher box first and let the louse jumped out from the box. A few seconds later, he opened the other box and let the louse came out too. He watched the louses jumped.

For a moment, the boy didn't see anything unusual. But not more than 5 minutes, he noticed something which caught his interest.

The boy asked his father, "Dad, why was the height the louses jump different? The one is higher than another?"

The father laughed and then said, "I was right when I thought you will notice the difference this fast."

The boy's face seemed more confuse than before.

"Okay," the father started his explanation. "The louse that jumps higher must came from the higher box, while the other came from the lower one."

The boy asked his father again, "So this is caused by the box height?"

"You are correct, Son."

The boy looked like he was thinking of something. A moment later, he flicked his fingers.

"I know, Dad," the boy said to his father with his funny smiling face. "The height of the boxes creates a limitation for the louses. If I get the heigher louse into the lower box and I let it be for a while, when I let it out, it will jump as high as the other."

"Great, Son. Don't set a limitation on yourself. Let your dreams and creativity get higher and higher."

The boy hugged his father and said, "Thank you very much, Dad."

The father hugged his son back.

Politik Indonesia

Saya bukan orang yang 'melek' politik Indonesia. Padahal, harusnya saya peduli karena hal ini terjadi di negara saya sendiri. Tapi nyatanya saya memang ga terlalu tertarik dengan hal-hal yang berbau politik. Sayangnya, deadline yang lagi happening banget saat ini berhubungan dengan politik. Jadi, saya ga tahan juga untuk ga komentar.

Pertama, kasus dugaan keterlibatan Ketua Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK), Antasari Azhar dalam pembunuhan Direktur PT Putra Rajawali Banjaran, Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, kalau ga salah sekitar Maret lalu. Pendapat saya sederhana aja. Saya ga yakin kalau Antasari terlibat. Kenapa? Dengan kecanggihan lembaga KPK yang cukup berhasil membongkar beberapa kasus korupsi kelas kakap, masa iya KPK ga bisa mendeteksi keterlibatannya sejak awal? Kalau dibilang KPK mentutup-tutupi hal ini, kayanya ga mungkin juga. Kalau hal ini terjadi, berarti memang sudah ga ada lagi lembaga yang dapat dipercaya untuk menyelesaikan berbagai kasus korupsi di Indonesia. Dengan kata lain, kita memang harus mengakui bahwa negara ini memang masih bobrok dari segi hukum dan pemerintahan. Hal ini berarti juga kampanye yang selama ini didengung-dengungkan oleh SBY dan Partai Demokrat (yang inti iklannya kurang lebih ialah di zaman pemerintahan SBY, korupsi dapat diberantas) kurang tepat.

Saya (dan mungkin beberapa orang lainnya) jadi sedikit curiga ada permainan politik di sini. Bukan politik yang berkaitan dengan partai, tetapi politik untuk menjegal seseorang yang tidak sesuai dengan keinginan mereka agar orang tersebut tidak lagi 'mengganggu' kegiatan mereka. Kita semua tau bagaimana kinerja KPK hingga saat ini. Mungkin ada orang-orang tertentu yang takut kesalahan mereka tercium oleh KPK. Jadilah mereka memunculkan skenarion untuk melenyapkan Antasari. Semoga hal ini salah. Lantas jika salah, bagaimana yang benarnya? Kita ikutin ajalah perkembangan selanjutnya.

Kedua, proses Pemilihan Umum (Pemilu) Legislatif yang hasil perhitungan suaranya telah diumumkan tadi malam. Dalam proses pengumuman semalam, ada beberapa catatan yang perlu digarisbawahi, kalau perlu ditulis tebal dan diberi tanda kutip. Dari sekian banyak warga Indonesia yang terdaftar dalam Daftar Pemilih Tetap (DPT), hampir 30% ga menggunakan hak pilihnya. Saya memang ga tau peraturan yang berkaitan dengan proses Pemilu ini. Tetapi, kalau nyaris 1/3 dari warga yang terdaftar saja tidak memilih, apakah hasil dari Pemilu Legislatif ini dapat dikatakan valid? Memang tidak akan mungkin jika Pemilu Legislatif ini dilakukan lagi mulai dari proses pencontrengan hingga rekapitulasinya karena pasti akan sangat menghabiskan waktu, tenaga, dan biaya. Semoga hal ini bisa menjadi koreksi untuk Pemilu yang akan datang. Agar paling tidak jumlah populasi Golongan Putih (Golput : warga yang terdaftar dalam DPT tetapi tidak ikut memilih) dapat ditekan. Agar tidak ada lagi Kongres Golput yang diketuai oleh Sri Bintang Pamungkas.

Untuk Indonesia yang Lebih Baik!!!

Between "Do What You Love" and "Love What You Do"

This post is inspired by my friend's post (unfortunately I forget the person who wrote the post).

"Do what you love". Everybody usually picks this quote, right? Even sometimes it's not possible, but who doesn't want to only do what he/she loves? When you do something that you love, you will do it with full of passion and give all your effort to achieve the optimum result. Sometimes you won't mind to do it again.

Why do I say that? Because sometimes I experience it too. For example, when I took part in a sport team, either futsal or basketball, I always feel great. I even don't mind to delay another activity, so I can do it for as long as I want. Not to mean that I don't give a damn to another activity. I just don't want to miss a thing that I love. Heheheh..

But I don't blame people who prefer the quote "Love what you do". There are more challenges when you have to do what you don't really love. Why is that? Because you will need to push yourself harder in order to get great result as you expect. But I'm sure that when you are able to achieve great result in things you don't really love but you have to do, you will be more delightful. Am I right?

In reality, there's no possibility to choose one quote only. There will be things that we love to do and things that we don't really love but have to be done. We may do what we love, but we too have to love what we do. So, despite of what is your choice between both quotes, let's always give our best effort in everything we do. Insya Allah, when there's a God's will, we will be able to achieve great results too. Just keep trying and praying for the best.