17 June, TIM, Jakarta
Aku mendengar lagu Helen Reddy dinyanyikan oleh seorang perempuan muda, Julia,
Dia bilang, lagu ini sangat menggambarkan sosok Aung San Suu Kyi. Dan aku setuju.
Hari ini, 19 Juni, perempuan kuat yang bersahaja itu berulang tahun yang ke-60, dan aku ingin menuliskan kembali lagu itu disini saat ini, untukmu Ibu Suu Kyi.

I Am Woman

I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back and pretend
Coz’ I ‘ve heard it all before
And I’ve been down there on the floor
No one’s ever keep me down again

Oh Yes I am wise
But it wisdom from the pain
Yes I’ll pay the price
But look how much I’ll gain
I have to, I can do anything
I am strong, I am invincible
I am woman!

You can bend but never break me,
Coz’ it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I’ll come back even stronger,
not a novice any longer
coz’ you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul

I am woman, watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my loving arms across the land,
But I’m still an embryo, with a long long way to go
Untill I make my brother understand

Oh yes I am wise
But it’s wisdom from the pain
Yes I’ll pay the price
But look how much I’ll gain?
If I have to, I can face anything
I am strong,
I am invincible
I am Woman!!

Semalem nonton Mr. and Mrs. Smith di TIM bareng Dinda. And I enjoyed so much the chemistry between Jolie and Pitt, it's so strong!. That's why!!!
and this guy Pitt, uh, He's hot!!!

the little prince and the fox

Yes,
it's a quote from beautiful book called The Little Prince, by Saint Exupery. The story concerns a small boy who lives on a star. He has nobody or nothing on the star except a great baobab tree and a couple of volcanoes. He's a very delicate, sensitive, wondrous little boy. For instance, he loves sunsets because they're both beautiful and a little sad.

One day a little seed comes, and he watches it grow into a rose. He watches intently as it blossoms and becomes a gorgeous flower. He has never seen a rose, and along with becoming beautiful, the flower becomes very vain (as sometimes beautiful things are). She preens herself, and she says, "Protect me from the sun," and " Protect me from the wind," and she is litarally driving him mad until finally he decides that he doesn't understand her at all. He leaves her and flies down to other planets to gain wisdom by finding out about love, life and about people. He encounters some pretty strange things.

On earth among others, he meets a very wise individual, a fox, and the little fox says to the little prince, "Tame me." The little prince says, "Well, I don't know what that means. What does it mean to be tamed?" And the fox tells him how to form relationships with people, how to get into people, how to care. The little prince says, "If I tame you, remember that I can't stay with you very long. I've got to go away." And the fox replies, "Indeed, when you do, I'm going to be very sad, I'm going to cry." The prince asks, "Why on earth would you want me to tame you if it is going to cause you pain?" And the fox says, "It's because of the color of the wheat fields." And the prince says, "I don't understand."

......I do not eat bread. wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat.....

And so they began the ritual of taming, which is the beautiful ritual of getting into each other. The fox finally saysa to the little prince after the little prince has been his friend for a long time and finally must go away....

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near....
'Ah,' said the fox, 'I shall cry'.
'It is your own fault,' said the little prince. 'I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you...'
'yes, that is so,' said the fox.
'But now you are going to cry!' said the little prince.
'Yes that is so,' said the fox.
'Then it has done you no good at all!'
'It has done me good,' said the fox, ' because of the color of the wheat fields.' and then he added:
'Go and look again at the roses. you will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of secret.'
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses.
'You are not at all like my rose,' he said.
'As yet you are nothing. no one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world.'
And the roses were very much embarrased.
'You are beautiful but you are empty,' he went on. 'One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you- the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that i have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that i had listened to, when she grumbled or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. because she is my rose.'
And he went back to meet the fox.
'Goodbye,' he said.
'Goodbye,' said the fox. ' And now here is my secret, a very simple secret. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.'
'What is essential, is invisible to the eye,' the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

(Living, loving and Learning, by Leo Buscaglia, p.88-91, A Fawcett Columbine Book, New York)

This posting dedicated to Ellen, and to all who loves this beautiful book : Little Prince.

Keluhanku atas sendi lutut kaki kananku makin menjadi, karena makin terasa sakitnya ketika harus berjalan, ketika mau berdiri dari duduk, atau saat mau jongkok. Maka pergilah aku ke dokterku di RS Borromeous, yang di Bandung itu lho, ofcourse. Sempat diprotes Dinda : kenapa mesti di Bandung sih..? emang nggak ada dokter bagus di Jakarta? Gua ketawa-ketiwi ajalah, nggak perlu gua jelasin toh alasan lain yang menurutku extremely urgent : masalah hati. heuheuheu......

And the doc said : "kamu kelebihan berat badan, coba dikurangi ya...kasihan sendimu..."
Sendi-sendi lulutku nampaknya sudah kerepotan menahan beban sekian bulan sejak beratku naik secara konstan....karena aku ngemil, karena aku takut merasa lapar, karena aku takut kena peptic ulcer yang buatku menyedihkan itu...

Jadi, gua punya alasan cukup bagus untuk diet. Gua bisa terima saran itu karena pertimbangan kesehatan. Bukan karena harus langsing for the sake of beauty!!!
Gua juga bisa terima alasan itu karena sejak menggemuk ini memang gerakanku rasanya jadi melamban....

ya, why not? gua kan bisa pake lagi jeans gua yang numpuk di lemari karena nomornya-29-32. Huh, kau tahulah jadinya ukuran celanaku sekarang berapah?
(sumpeh, gua pernah punya lho jeans no 27-28!! percaya nggak?.....)

Tidak perlu bingung
Begini saja,
berapapun jarak kita
kan kukirim untuk mu
setangkai cinta
setiap hari
setuju ?

-Rieke Diah Pitaloka-

sehelai daun gugur di jalanan kota Ghent saat hujan, June 2004..

setahun yang lalu,
sehelai daun gugur, melayang dan jatuh
dijalanan,
di kota Ghent yang cantik

sehelai daun gugur menahan langkahku
membiarkan angin lebih lama menerpa
dan kulit wajahku semakin dingin