lixie's dinner

A plus or a minus makes it even or odd

rigorth — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:44:36 +0000

“We seem to be made to suffer. It’s our lot in life,” C3PO (Star Wars IV: A New Hope).

I often ask, how some people can be much luckier than the others. They can enjoy living in a penthouse and drive a Bugatti Veyron; they shine and dine so fine and live like kings or queens. They can be in Vienna in the morning, enjoying Apfelstrudel and a cup of melange. In the afternoon, they may be at the Riviera Country Club, California, playing golf in the US’ 5th top golf course. And in the evening, after a two-hundred-and-sixty-dollar dinner, they might be at Kabuki-Za Theater in Tokyo, watching Kenuki. Later that night, they are in the first class cabin of Japan Airlines on the way back to their residence.

Meanwhile, in some other parts of the world, people are suffering, dying and fleeing from a civil war or religious conflict or political persecution or natural disasters. Some are worried about what they’re going to eat for the next day; some others think about their children’s future, thanks to the war (Does the future even exist?). There are those who are busy looking for a shelter to protect themselves from the wilderness of nature, like rain or thunderstorm, or from another human. Their only shelter, which is never like a penthouse, has to be abandoned. They are left with nothing but hopelessness.

To quote Anakin (Skywalker) from Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, “The biggest problem in this universe is nobody helps each other.”

“Time you started thinking
And don’t just sweeten up the taste
Brother shoots brother
But meanwhile you’re fixing up your face,” Imbruglia (Don’t you think?).

To all my Dulcinea

rigorth — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:00:37 +0000

Maybe I should be ashamed of myself or of you (for posting this), but…ah! Unrequited love―a bittersweet delicacy, like dark chocolate. It has inspired a lot of great writers, including Shakespeare and Goethe. And, here’s a poem from Abraham Cowley, “But of all pains, the greatest pain/It is to love, but love in vain.” Well, I guess all girls (women) are my Dulcinea.

Several months ago, I wrote:
“I am giving myself false hopes,
but I cannot resist
your beauty, your smile.
I dare not reach you.”

Love…sorrow…chagrin!

“Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,
too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like thorn,” Romeo and Juliet.

At least to me, all girls (women) are my Dulcinea. Isn’t love sweet?

Thoughts

rigorth — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 02:30:54 +0000

MYOB

I always wonder why some people won’t mind their own business. They like to interfere in other people’s life, although it is not a nuisance to them or to other people. They enjoy criticizing, being sarcastic or giving innuendos that say that some people are “too nerdy, geeky or sophisticated.” Again I wonder, why should it be their concern if some people enjoy deep conversations?

Roller coaster

Being in love is like being on a roller coaster, and hearing something that you don’t want to hear is the same thing. Some people love to hear what they want hear, and I admit, I like that too. However, there are times when I don’t enjoy it.

These days, I’ve been hearing things that I don’t want to hear. I can have a mental breakdown right now, but I’ve been trying to get tough in this rough situation. Isn’t that what will make us a man? I know that some of us are never ready for the worse, but, given that I was a pessimist, I’m always ready for it. So, when I hear things that I don’t want to hear, I never feel like I want to skedaddle or, worse, commit… (Better not say it).

There’s a phrase “Don’t count the chickens before they hatch,” but I like to do that in the worse case scenario. I like to ask myself, “What if this happens…? And then I won’t be… If that happens, then that will also happen. In that case, this won’t result in that. So, this will just be…” Even so, there is still a part of me that always thinks positively. It gives me control and the will to live; after all, “Tomorrow is another day.”

My father has always told me not to give up easily. In life, we will always get through some problems, so get a grip! “Things happen for a reason,” he said.

Childhood

I don’t know if it happens to everyone, but when I was little, I used to “believe” that the world was flat. However, the world that I envisioned did not cover a lot of “strange” places. It covered only as far as a city called Jatinegara, a city in East Jakarta, from my home in Pondok Bambu, which was the other side of the world. It made “perfect” sense, because Jatinegara lies in the west and Pondok Bambu is in the east.

I often heard the name of the city, Jatinegara, because my father used to mention it over and over, considering he shopped there for his tailoring supplies. So, I figured, because I never heard him mention any other name, Jatinegara was the edge of the “world” that I envisioned. I never thought about the sun, the clouds, the night sky, the stars and the moon, because it seemed like the city, Jatinegara, was what mattered to our family.

I still remember clearly when I had that thought. I was three years old then. I remember, I was in front of our house while on my may way to our neighbor’s. However, my vision about that “flat” world didn’t just end there. I had it for a while, but, maybe because I was three, I never bothered to ask my parents about it.

Wired civilization

Somehow now, because of technology, the world is neither flat nor round. The world is like a cotton wire roll. We, humans, are kittens, entangled and trapped. Some are strangled and “died” through time. We just don’t know what is right or wrong anymore, because, my friend, in this wired world, there is no law. We’re free to do whatever we want.

The human race is not getting better. In terms of technology, we are much better than our ancestors, but in terms of morality, who is much better than the other?

It’s not for me to judge, but, I think, technology is making us humans more arrogant. I’m all for technology, by the way, but the arrogance? We’re committing suicide little by little.