Living Inside A Book

Break, breaking up, broken.

Divorced couple with children don’t even worth carrying the title of parents.

…was what I said on @retikanajma’s tweet (With a divorce you make children carry the consequences of the mistake they haven’t ever made, you labeled them ‘children of a broken home.’), just a few days ago. 

I have no regrets. Although there’s a warning that this is a completely subjective, one-sided accusation.

I accuse couples who decided to break up when there were children between them as reckless and highly egoistic. Not that it wasn’t their right to have a divorce, not that it wasn’t humane to be selfish. But parents are not people who sacrifice their children’s childhood and life for the sake of their egos. No divorce was ever made for the well-being of the children. No matter how you promised to ‘keep them happy’, children only get dragged around, houses to houses, siblings separated, either pretending not being bothered by the now-handicapped family or simply stop caring at all. 

And the creatures who cause this are not parents. They might be caretakers, but are they still worthy of the meaning of parents to their children?

If the so-called blind family-love is involved, that is. But, personally, I can’t accept that.

You shouldn’t have children in the first place if you can’t assure them a family. You don’t go marry someone and play happy family then cancel it as you wish when it doesn’t work out. Children are easily damaged and torn apart. They are not to be forced to adjust or think like a grown up when they still have the blissful right to be children. A crack in their childhood, the pieces might be reattached, the reality might be fixed, but the crack’s still there. The damage might be corrected, covered, buried—but it’s there.

It’s a lifelong scar that nobody ever wants.



And yes, this rant exists because I know exactly how crap that is.

Law, Like Love

Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,
Law is the one
All gardeners obey
To-morrow, yesterday, to-day.

Law is the wisdom of the old,
The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;
The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,
Law is the senses of the young.

Law, says the priest with a priestly look,
Expounding to an unpriestly people,
Law is the words in my priestly book,
Law is my pulpit and my steeple.

Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose, 
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I’ve told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.

Yet law-abiding scholars write: 
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times, 
Law is the clothes men wear 
Anytime, anywhere, 
Law is Good morning and Good night. 

Others say, Law is our Fate; 
Others say, Law is our State; 
Others say, others say, 
Law is no more, 
Law has gone away. 

And always the loud angry crowd, 
Very angry and very loud, 
Law is We, 
And always the soft idiot softly Me. 

If we, dear, know we know no more 
Than they about the Law, 
If I no more than you 
Know what we should and should not do 
Except that all agree 
Gladly or miserably 
That the Law is 
And that all know this 
If therefore thinking it absurd 
To identify Law with some other word, 
Unlike so many men 
I cannot say Law is again, 

No more than they can we suppress 
The universal wish to guess 
Or slip out of our own position 
Into an unconcerned condition. 
Although I can at least confine 
Your vanity and mine 
To stating timidly 
A timid similarity, 
We shall boast anyway: 
Like love I say.

Like love we don’t know where or why, 
Like love we can’t compel or fly, 
Like love we often weep, 
Like love we seldom keep.

W. H. Auden

Pungguk

Mereka telah menuliskan terlalu banyak prosa dan cerita tentang hujan, hingga layaknya secarik pesan ini hanya akan teronggok dan berdebu di sudut kamarku. Aku tahu, kamu tak suka sastra. Tapi hujan turun lagi hari ini, dan aku sudah terlalu akrab dengan ngilu yang menusuk-sesak bilik-bilik ulu hati. Maka, hari ini kuputuskan melihatmu lagi. Menemuimu dalam satu-dua kata yang kau ketikkan di kala lelah dan tiga-empat lainnya yang kauungkap karena jenuh. Dengan talu hujan di kaca jendela dan secangkir kopi seduh, aku menyimakmu. 

.

Mendengarmu,

.

katamu,

.

keluhmu,

.

kelakarmu.

.

..

…

Kamu tahu? Kita masih seperti dulu. Dua kemarau dan dua penghujan hampir habis di kota tuamu ini sejak kau tidak lagi tinggal di sini, tapi aku masih senang menunggumu pulang di tiap-tiap penghujung musim. Karena dalam ingatanku, kamu tetap saja anak lelaki bermata sayu yang dulu. Karena kamu masih seperti bulan, dan aku masih si pungguk yang merindumu.

.

Dan aku tetap saja rindu.

.

Aku masih saja rindu.

“Mereka mengasihani orang-orang yang mudah saja menghapus memori buruk dan melabeli mereka malang. Tapi apa yang bisa mereka dapat dari kumpulan serpihannya selain segenggam romansa percuma?”

Selamat malam. Selamat tahun baru.

Tidak Akademis, Tidak Penting!

Dikutip (dengan banyak sensor) dari tugas esai Bahasa Indonesia baru-baru ini:

Siapa yang tidak kenal prestasi SMA _____ dalam ajang Olimpiade Sains Nasional? Meski gaung yang terdengar di luar komunitas sekolah mayoritas baru berasal dari bidang tertentu, kompetisi delapan cabang ilmu sains ini merupakan ajang yang cukup diincar oleh banyak siswa. Penyaringan peserta yang ketat, pembinaan yang rutin, serta tuntutan komitmen belajar menjadikan persaingan antarsiswa di dalam sekolah sudah tinggi bahkan sebelum mencapai tingkat kotamadya.

Namun, perjuangan yang berat ini bukannya tanpa balasan. Ambisi untuk meraih medali di tingkat nasional boleh saja tetap menjadi nomor satu. Akan tetapi, jaminan bahwa sekolah meluluskan seluruh nilai rapot peserta olimpiade merupakan iming-iming yang tidak dapat dipungkiri. Apalagi bagi siswa-siswi SMA _____ yang harus berjuang keras untuk sekadar mendapat nilai, kebijakan ini seolah menjadi “upah” yang sangat menggiurkan. Akibatnya jelas. Murid pun berbondong-bondong bersaing hanya untuk mengamankan nilai-nilai rapot belaka. Jika cukup satu bidang saja yang ditekuni bisa membuahkan hasil keseluruhan, mengapa harus bersusah-susah menggeluti semua pelajaran?

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