Morning I

Last night, everybody talked about their inspiration for what they doing now: fighting for their idealism. Yes, the inspiration comes from their mommy. Me too--but I'm speechless, I wanna cry. So, I keep silent. This note for completing the conversation. Actually, I love the way my mother grow us up. She is ordinary person and we are ordinary family--but she is extraordinary mother. She teaches us how to handle everything about house-hold by her-self--we can't pay for assistant to finish this stuff. So, she makes a task for everybody in the house. My brother has to wash plates, my other brother did nanny's task--he play with our little sister and accompany her, and I sweep the floor everyday. This task will be changed automatically--when somebody leave home for study and something like that, the other one will replace him/her. I wash plates when my brother continue his undergraduate, and so does my others brother/sister. This is public task--we have personal task also. We have to wash our clothes by ourselves when we are in junior high school. We just have one choice: we did it. If we don't, we can't go to school while the uniform is still wet or dirty, for example. It's includes about ironing too. For first, I think this is a necessity; nobody assist us, so it's a must to do everything by ourselves. But, when I meet many friends from several regions and family, I changed my minds. They got the same condition, but the treatment is different--almost the women is the busiest people in the house. Wow. I know then that my mother doing something so -called equality before woman and man. I don't know what's in her mind when she decide to share the task for every children--but it's a great idea to do several works without making different between woman's task and man's task. Then, when I meet many person concern on feminism and gender issues, i know what have mother done is a part of feminism, although she never study about that. The challenge now is on her chilren's hand: how to practice feminism in real world. It's ashamed when we, the children, treat women as a half human being while we know about feminism well. Finally, thank's Mom for everything you've done. So sorry for everything we've done..

Doa dan Pidato Berbahasa Arab

Pada sebuah acara ifthar gathering (buka bersama) di sebuah masjid di tanah Paman Sam, saya dan istri saya terpisah tempat duduk akibat membludaknya jamaah yang hadir. Saya berada di dalam masjid sedangkan istri saya di luar masjid bersama ibu-ibu lain dari Indonesia.

Seorang pengurus masjid yang berasal dari Arab Saudi memberikan sambutan. Maklum karena kebanyakan yang hadir dari negara-negara Arab sana ya...sambutan awalnya dengan bahasa Arab. Kebetulan saya duduk berdekatan dengan jendela masjid sehingga saya masih bisa melihat istri saya dan teman-temannya yang berkumpul sendiri.

Ketika sambutan pengurus masjid itu disampaikan, saya melihat mereka kok menengadahkan tangan dengan gerakan mimik mulut bersuara amin. Rupaya pidato pengurus amsjid tadi didengar oleh mereka seperti doa, maklum kebanyakan ibu-ibu dari Indonesia yang hadir itu kebetulan tak paham bahasa Arab.

"Sorry.....ya," kata saya kepada istri dan rombongannya pada saat ifthar tiba, "yang tadi itu sebenarnya bukan doa tapi pidato."

Begitu menyadari apa yang mereka lakukan, kontan mereka tertawa juga.

"Wah, kita dibohongi orang Arab," sahut salah seorang ibu.

Sumber; 100 Anekdot Ubudiyah, Sukendra Martha, Yogyakarta: LKiS, 2005