death do us part

In this country there is no "mixed" cemetary. Typically people of different religions are not buried in the same place/area.. For sure death people are not buried next to each other. Husband and wife of different religion would not buried next to each other. Hence in that case death do them part. 

I could not understand the logic behind this custom. Of course there would be a good explanation somewhere but still the logic would sound strange to me. Why do we have to separate dead people based on their religion ? They are no longer living so it doesn't really mater for them. 

Looks like the living care so much about this separation. Why so ? One explanation that came to my mind is that cemetary could be seen as place of worship. Or at least place where God exists. In our place of worship God would present and for sure the faithful would be convinced that this God is THE GOD that they believe, worship and pray to. Other God -if exist- is not invited or even would be driven away. 

Following this logic would be understandable that the living would want to have THEIR GOD to be present in their cemetary for the reason that they want to have the dead be accepted by their God to be ushered to their heaven. It would horrified if the dead met the wrong God on the other side and were judged wrongly and went to hell simply by mistaken ruling. One might wonder if such Omniscience God would make such fundamental error judgement simply by forgetting to check the religion of the soul.  

I guess such argument wouldn't be applicable for the cemetary of Atheists.  

Memento Mori

This morning five people died and numerous injured in a deadly traffic accident when a lorry ran over six cars and ten motor cyclers. No one of them woken up knowing that today would their last day on earth. All life has its end and yet no one would not a minute thinking that today might be the day. 

The philosopher Democritus trained himself by going into solitude and frequenting tombs. Indeed visiting cemeteries would  remind me of the inevitability of death. Someday I would not exist in this earth and eventually people who knew me would also perished and hence my existence would ceased completely if not for some obscure record somewhere which no one would even bother to find out.

Strange that such importance escapes our attention almost completely. We live as if  we are immortal. In Catholicism people would mention their dead when reciting Hail Mary prayer  

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

In the spirit of Memento Mori, I try to always recite that part slowly and mindfully. I pray that Mother Mary would remember me always, now and at that hour

Amen

 

  

The shifting 'soul' of a city

Recently I went to the place where my junior high school was. The city looks different. The house that my parents rented is now a Bank. On the street where we lived there are many restaurants, stores, etc (there were none back then). The city has a new big shiny malls. However this new mall sucks out the life out of the stores in downtown area. The downtown is now look like ghost town. Old and rusty. The streets are cleanly sweep daily but it has lost its vigor. As if the city has one soul only. That soul now resides on this new mall at the (then) edge of the city.

Looks like this shifting 'soul' is not unique to this city. In the city that I am living now, the capital of province, the old downtown is also relegated to dusty old place, not even able to shadow its long gone glory. Newer generations or new comers wouldn't be able to guess that this place used to be the main magnet of the city.

Not sure if the 'soul' of the city would remain in this new centrum, only time could tell if a new centrum would emerge. I might not be around to see that, but at least I have seen in my life time the old magnet dimmed to be replaced by a new one. I guess I wouldn't be far off to guess that in the future a new magnet would pop up elsewhere. 

The cliché that change is the only constant is really a cliché, nihil novi sub sole, there is nothing new under the sun. Generation come and go, new centrum rises and abandoned. Only the sun would witness this silently until it too had to go. By that time this place would be very cold drifting aimlessly through space. 

 

The 8th wonder

It is said that Einstein once said “Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world” It implies that your money would always grow more - ad infinitum. Now this quote does not say anything about the not haves. What would happen to the not haves when the haves getting richer?  Is the size of the pie limited ? 

The pandemic has made the world's wealthiest far richer but has led to more people living in poverty, according to the charity Oxfam. 

The above news implies that the size of the pie is limited. Hence the more some get, the poorer others would become. This reminds me of the social critics of Rhoma Irama, the Indonesian King of Dang Dut in his song 'Indonesia'  

Yang kaya makin kaya (The rich gets richer)

Yang miskin makin miskin (the poor gets poorer)

Rhoma sang that the root of this economical gap is corruption 

Selama korupsi semakin menjadi-jadi (as long as corruption is rampant) 

Jangan diharapkan adanya pemerataan (do not expect for economic equality) 

I guess no one would deny the impact of corruption to the problem of wealth distribution in one country. But is it applicable in global scale? I am no economist but I sensed that the economic system is could have some loopholes and flaw that would eventually support this inequality. 

It is possible that the rich people have found loopholes in the tax regime so that they did not pay enough. etc. In any case I sensed that the pie is limited and the recent pandemic has made the slices for the poor people got smaller and smaller. And once the money was redistributed to the rich  it would what Einstein once said : the 8th wonder of the world 

 

Silence of Straw

Somehow I would like to reduce my social radius to minimum, the smallest reasonable that is possible. Looking back in time when I was in my University years I was actively involved in many organizations, mostly related to Catholicism. In my campus and my local church. I was convinced that it was my calling to contribute to Catholic communities where ever I was. 

When I moved to another city due to job, my wife (who shares the same passion) and I were active in our church. When maintained the same passion even when we moved to other countries. However after my 55th birthday last year I see things differently. I want to lead a simple quiet life. I am sure the Catholic church would still be there, just like it has always been whether I am involved or not. Suddenly I see those activism as meaningless noise. 

Looking to the rearview mirror I could see that there was nothing I changed in the church. No one pray more because of me. No one have deeper faith, no one converted to Catholicism. Nothing. I was only noise. And no more

I remember I inherit this passion from my Mom. My Mom and My Dad were very active in church (my Dad was converted later from Protestantism). They both had passed away many years ago (My Mom 2014, Dad 2001). I doubt that I lost this passion because of the passing of my parents. 

I do not think I could explain this change of heart. Of anything the experience of St Thomas Aquinas when we famously said mihi videtur ut palea. All that I have written seems like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me

I am no Aquinas, but I see all my activism like straw

Our imperfectness

I followed this person on twitter - he is a doctor living in US. His tweets are informative and I refer to  his postings for Covid related information (Some of his tweets are in Indonesian. He claimed that he does not speak Bahasa Indonesia at all). I am not sure how to react to this tweet. Is he a hypocrite or a mere imperfect person ?    

I would say he is imperfect. See above. He used his mistake to re-emphasize the thing that he preached: Masks work! We could also see that we human could just lower our discipline when we are among family or people that we assumed are safe. But of course we could never tell

 

Alas he took this opportunity to underline his credential. I would see that this thread as example for all of us. Fall down seven times, stand up eight. From spiritual point of view as Christian we could see the lesson of aiming for perfection. Yes we all made mistakes, weak and imperfect. But those are not reasons to give up. 

Keep walking on. If you fell, stand up and walk on

The best story ever

When I was in my elementary school one of my favorite past times was reading stories. Gramedia the leading publisher had this story books series called "Cerita dari Lima Benua" (stories from five continents). I love many reading many of those but to me the best ever is Leo Tolstoy'  What Men Live By. Gramedia titled the book as "Simon dan Malaikat" (Simon and an angel). I have been searching for this book but no luck. When I knew that in fact the story was written by Tolstoy and I could find it online I could not tell how happy I was

To me Tolstoy wrote to confess his philosophical/religious view about God and humanity. I was no older than twelve when I first read the story but it had made a deep impression to my childhood brain. I was not sure why Gramedia has picked that title (Simon dan Malaikat) which to me did not give any clue what the story all about. I remember the cover depicted Simon (wearing ushanka, that unique Russian hat) and the pale angel lying naked with half his body covered with snow.

I remember I was also fascinated by the illustration (I think those drawings were by Dwi Koen). I am sure one of the reasons why I love this book was the illustrations. I adored Dwi Koen's drawing.  Anyway when I finished I experienced that moment of awe, similar when the singer mesmerized the audience to complete silence. 

Tolstoy was a genius

PS: I would want to spoiled the reader by hinting the plot of the story here. I would not want to steal that awe moment from you