“I am more than caring; I am loving
I am more than interested; I am involved
I am more than tranquil; I am peaceful
I am more than success; I am free
I am more than human; I am the child of God”
(I Am More, William Arthur Ward)
Ramadhan has just begun. What are we seeking for? Time is the inexplicable raw of material of everything. Without it nothing is possible. Arnold Bennett goes to an argue that out of twenty-four hours in any given day, most of us work from nine to five -i.e. eight hours a day. Some of us might claim that we work ten hours. We make a fuss about the 8-10 hours we put in at work. But many of us, alas, do not give all we can to our work. We begin with reluctance and end with relief. And rarely do we work with full steam. So what remains?
Look at your surroundings! People today are used to asking for grant rather taking care of this world. You can apparently find it out in hospital, school, boardinghouse, and everywhere else. Costly bill, lacking in fee, more debt. Yes. Everybody is always looking for penny, but hardly wants to do charitable deeds. Consequently, the country is being left with many issues: unprosperity; rugged yet unhappy living; being uneducated; and so forth. The result is the nation’s unwell-being: insignificant unrests and crimes. Miserable! We are pretending to live in solidarity, but not showing compassion to those in plight. Then?
Devotion puts an end to pain. We do for the object of our love, do with joy, and pain merges in gladness when it (Devotion) endures for the sake of the one we love. Even-mindedness does literally enable us to think good, to speak good, and to do good. By taking leaf from every person, we learn to take the lesson from the air that lets the good and the bad breathe it, from the sun that shines on the honest and dishonest, from the rain that falls on the just and the unjust. That is the way to acquire wisdom.
Take a look on our former president, B. J. Habibie. Since young, his brilliance in aviation was magnificent. He worked in MBB Hamburg for 8 years (1965 – 1973), then returned to Indonesia. He took the duty and worked so very hard to build the aviation in Indonesia entirely -i.e. CN-235 and N-250. He had been devoting his whole life to arouse our nation through aviation. Not to mention he had to offer almost all the time with his family, especially Ainun, his wife. His strong will and determination to mend and better the whole country enabled him to forbear all the burdens, and fulfill an outstanding aviation in Indonesia. Again, he still wants do dedicate himself by building an R-80 airplane.
Another exemplary is Aurelien Brule -well-known as Chanee Kalaweit- an environment activist from France who has been living in Indonesia since 1998. His devotion to primate since childhood aroused himself to go to Indonesia; exploring the beauty of its fauna, saving extinct primates, notably Owa.
