Dream, dream

Dream, dream....
There are 2 Pixar movies, that left a deep imprint in my heart, in particular about dream.

One is UP. In the story, Carl idolizes the famous explored, Charles. As the matter of fact, his love story, marriage life revolves around his dreamy obsession of that Charles and the place he explores.

They have a happy love life. Very happy, indeed. They love each other till they grow old and his wife passes away. They plan to go for the adventure, but they never make it happen, as they do not have enough money and the saving they have is always used for something important.

But, when old Card has the chance to explore and finally he arrives at the place of his dream and the idol he admires, the dream is shattered to pieces. The idol is not the hero he imagines, and at the end the happy place is not the place of his "initial" dream.

It's the same for Coco. Little Miguel has a dream to be musician, even though music is curse in his family. His idol is Ernesto de la Cruz, who later he thinks is his great great grandfather. 

He gets a chance to meet him, in the Land of the Dead. He enjoys the basking of fame and sense of importance for a while. Until he realizes who the man that he thinks is his great-great grandfather really is. Until he realizes who is his real great great grandfather and what really matters in life. At the end not even his passion, fame, success matter - he realizes that family and love matter.

Such a beautiful plot. 

There is one thing needful above all our dreams. Seek that one thing first and all other things will be continuously increasing in your life.

Fearless in Divergent

I just watched Divergent and as usual there are some insights I can pick from movie. 

In the movie there was a scene where Tris had to pass a simulation test how to overcome his fear. If she were a dauntless she would need to confront the object of her fears. But because she was a divergent she was able to recognise that it was not real and instead of fight against the object of fear she simply shrugg them off. 

I used to have a lot of nightmare too, but after a while I could recognise it was a dream and tried to control the dream or tried to wake up. Not all the times though. 

Same thing in life. There are 2 ways to overcome fear. You could fight the object of fear. Brace your selves. Brave yourselves. Make up your mind. Hardened your heart. Take heart, be strong, be courageus, take bravery. Fight your fears. 

Another way is to take control of your mind and step into the real reality that none of your fear is real. None of it? What?? You may ask, gotta be kidding! The situation is real!

If you step into God's reality and His perfect love and you completely trust Him - there shall be no fear. You will find that the object of fears in life are not real because Someone has already overcome it. 

It's faith. Some would call it insane too. 

And today I just read a fearful news that average people may not have enough to survive in their retirement ages in Singapore, one of the most wealthiest country. 

Fear, fear not? 

Brave yourself? 

Trust Him?

About Time and Logotherapy

One of most profound quote from Victor Frankl is this: "Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time."

It is beautifully described in the movie "About Time" in this monolog:

1. Tim Lake: We're all traveling through time, together, everyday of our lives... All we can do is do our best to relish this remarkable life.
2. 
   
3. The truth is, I now don't travel back at all, not even for a day. I just try to live everyday as if I have deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it... As if it was the full, final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.

Actually I had Frankl's book for long time, but I can only appreciate when I watch the movie....

Our paradigm defines our meaning of life. The faith and the life itself.

Time Travel

What if you could travel back in time? How would you relive the moment you had in the past?

It would be a very very complicated life. And interesting one.

I suddenly now see the book of Revelation in different light. God is immortal because he is not inside or under time. He is outside time, he is eternal.

This is the big secret, the moment we become His child and born again, we are born again into eternity and become immortal too! We actually have already been outside the time, while still spending the rest of our mortal life inside the time.

Then what is the book of Revelation for?

The book of revelation is a picture, oh a victorious one, about us, in future! Yes, it's in the picture. 

So, it is as if, the life we live now is we come back from the future.

What do we have in future? What do we have in the book of Revelation? Who do we live with in that future? What happen to us in that future?

Imagine if you have (perfect tense here) lived in that kind of future, and you travel back in time to today, how would you live your life?

What would you want for your life today, with that knowledge from future?
How would you want to re-live your today? What would matter to you?

It's gonna be interesting :)

PS: Inspired by "About Time" 

Dedicated to my wife - I love you so much, you are my best moment in life, my most treasure, the reason I am happy to re-live my moments... 
Happy Valentine, Love!

Written from Hong Kong

Eksposisi "One Day More - Les Misérables" - Part I

Dari seluruh rangkaian film-musik Les Miserables, babak lagu ‘One Day More’ ini adalah salah satu yang paling berkesan.

Satu hari lagi. Apakah artinya bagi manusia? Apakah yang esok akan bawa? Babak ‘one day more’ ini mengisahkan pergulatan tiap sosok anak manusia melihat hari esok. Kuatir. Gelisah. Harapan. Takut. Mimpi.

Inilah juga salah satu kekuatan keindahan novel karya Victor Hugo ini, rangkaian cerita yang beralur banyak. Kaya akan kisah hidup manusia dengan masing-masing pergumulan mereka.

VALJEAN

One day more! (Satu hari lagi)

Another day, another destiny.(Hari lain, nasib lain)

This never-ending road to Calvary; (Jalan tak berujung ke Kalvari)

These men who seem to know my crime (Orang-orang ini seperti mengetahui kesalahanku)

Will surely come a second time. (Tentu akan datang lagi)

One day more! (Satu hari lagi)

Satu hari lagi. Bagi Jean Valjean, esok adalah ketidakpastian, setelah sepanjang hidupnya dia ditindas, dikejar-kejar oleh ‘hukum’.

Jean Valjean dipenjara selama 19 tahun karena mencuri sepotong roti. Sekerat roti saja, yang dia curi untuk menyelamatkan nyawa keponakannya yang kelaparan. Setelah dia menyelesaikan masa 19 tahunnya, dia masih harus melapor setiap tahun sampai akhir hayatnya dan membawa stigma surat sebagai narapidana. Sebuah belenggu yang sama saja membunuhnya pelan-pelan.

Apa yang salah? Bukankah hukum memang seperti itu?

Mata ganti mata.. dan hati menjadi batu – demikian lirik lagu yang Valjean nyanyikan.

Valjean berubah karena bertemu dengan seorang bishop di sebuah kapel sederhana. Setelah diusir di mana-mana, sang bishop tua mengajaknya masuk, memberinya makan, dan memberinya tempat tidur. Dini hari, dia mencuri perangkat makan perak dan melarikan diri. Polisi menangkap dan menyeretnya ke hadapan sang bishop. Di luar dugaannya, sang bishop malah menegurnya, “Mengapa kamu pergi terburu-buru sampai kelupaan membawa tempat lilin dari perak ini? Bukankah sudah kukatakan bawa juga ini, sudah lama benda ini diam di sini tak berguna, tentunya lebih berguna di tanganmu.”

Bukankah berbohong itu dosa? Secara hukum agama maupun secara hukum negara, andaikan sang polisi tahu, tentu saja dia akan terjerat masalah.

Sang bishop memberkatinya dan berpesan agar perangkat perak ini dia gunakan untuk berbuat jujur dan bahwa dia telah mempersembahkan Valjean bagi Allah.

Selama hidup, tidak pernah saya bertemu dengan pendeta, pastor, rohaniwan Kristiani yang mau berbuat seperti itu. Maukah seorang pendeta yang mapan, menerima seorang buronan, memberinya makan dan tumpangan? Kemudian ketika keesokan harinya, dia menemukan orang yang ditolongnya tertangkap basah dengan barang berharga yang dicuri dari rumahnya, bukan hanya dia mengampuni, bahkan menambahkan dengan barang berharga terbaiknya dan memberkatinya? Akankah ada orang yang mau mengambil resiko dengan membohongi polisi, untuk seorang manusia yang tidak dikenalnya sama sekali?

Saya tidak pernah bertemu seumur hidup saya dengan rohaniwan seperti itu.

Saya sendiri tidak mampu berbuat seperti itu. Mudah-mudahan suatu saat saya bisa menemukan manusia seperti itu.

Inspektur Javert adalah kebalikan dari sang bishop. Dia percaya bahwa tugasnya untuk menegakkan hukum adalah tugas Illahi. Hukum adalah hukum. Orang yang bersalah pantas dihukum seberat-beratnya. Hukum harus ditegakkan di atas segalanya, dengan pengorbanan apa pun. Di matanya, orang seperti Valjean adalah sampah masyarakat yang tidak punya harapan. ‘Fallen from grace’ – seperti lirik lagunya mengungkapkan. Hukum tidak mengenal belas kasihan. Hukum di atas belas kasihan. Hukum bahkan tidak peduli esensi kebenaran, karena mereka berpikir dia di atas kebenaran.

Bukankah mudah kita lihat di sekeliling kita, orang-orang suci yang melaksanakan tugas, perang, misi Illahi, walaupun itu menindas belas kasihan. Dengan nama hukum atau nama Tuhan atau nama cita-cita atau ideologi atau sesuatu yang mulia, tetapi melupakan belas kasihan dan menyisakan kekejaman. Bukan hanya segerombolan orang, bahkan juga negara. Sebuah negara super power yang selalu mengkritik negara lain akan hak asasi manusia, misalnya – tetapi memiliki kamp penyiksaan yang keji, yang dibangun di luar wilayahnya (untuk mempelintir hukum).

Dalam kerohanian, hidup dalam hukum penuh dengan penghakiman, ketakutan, karena hukum tidak pernah puas. Alas, pendeta lebih senang menggunakan hukum di atas mimbar untuk menekan, menakuti jemaat karena mereka akan lebih mudah dikendalikan untuk kepentingan sang pendeta, atas nama hukum Tuhan.

Bishop Myriel adalah gambaran kasih karunia. Karena yang dikehendakinya adalah belas kasihan dan bukan hukum.

Valjean mendedikasikan hidupnya untuk membesarkan Cosette, putri Fantene, seorang bekas karyawannya yang berusaha dia tolong. Valjean tidak tertarik akan politik, belas kasihannya pada Fantene tulus dan tidak ada romans di antara mereka. Dia tidak memiliki ideologi yang besar dan ‘mulia’ seperti untuk mendirikan negara baru, yang dia lakukan hanyalah belas kasihan yang sederhana.

Dan hukum tidak pernah melepaskannya dan selalu mengejar-ngejar hidupnya.

Itulah saat babak “one day more” mulai. Esok bagi Valjean adalah sederhana. Esok adalah untuk tetap hidup. Hidup yang dijalaninya seperti yang dipesankan oleh sang Bishop, bahwa jiwanya telah dipersembahkan kepada Allah.