If you spend half an hour everyday in front of TV at morning, afternoon, evening or night time, you will likely getting swept away by a flood of news. And what kind of news that make people open their eyes and ears so quickly after being woken up in the morning better than criminal news ? Sleepy eyes will opened quickly hearing words like “rape”, “murder”, “fornication”, and “sexual abuse”. Some people I know will choose to continue their sleep when they heard words like “economic review”, “political awareness”, or “celebrating the Month of Reading” and “A Day Without Smoking” from their TV. Okay, just kidding. But you get my point.
Some people will comment for sure, either by deep observation to the problem, or merely just lean to their pseudo-science theories. Students, teachers or social workers will discuss the cases, while others will bring those up at coffee-break when they already have run out of conversation. Another will prefer to react emotionally, while others will just watch nonchalantly and forget them after the news over, thinking about them as another world’s problems that completely out of their reach (as long as those are not happened to them or someone they know).
Speaking about that, I remember a short story I’ve read seven or eight years ago. It was Seno Gumira Ajidarma’s “Ratih”. The story was about a little girl, who saw a dead-body floating in the river near her house, and she tried to tell her parents and neighbours, but they didn’t believe her. Doesn’t matter the detail, but there was a monologue—thought of Ratih, actually—that made me quite thinking for a while. The point was, when she saw that body, already swollen and rot among the water-plants, still clad in his shirt and trouser and wore a wrist-watch, she thought “who was he ? What was his name ? What was his job ? What had happened to him long before he became like this ? Did her mother know that her son, her beloved son she gave birth and raised with so much hope, someday would ended-up as a floating dead-body in a river ?”
Now watch the picture of a baby I put on the top. I believe all of you have seen face like that. Cute, eh ? Everyone will agree about that; babies are the symbol of innocence. They are born pure, sinless, know nothing about the complication of human minds, passions, and lusts. Their faces invite nothing but smiles, “pooh-pe-doohs”, and several unbelievably super-cute names like “little-pooh-bear”, “honey-bunny”, “my little lamb”, and so on. But not for me, because after read that short-story, I couldn’t help myself to think like this when I see a baby : what will they grow up into ? How can we believe that people such as burglars, murderers, child-molesters, Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy and Ed Gein were used to be babies with cute face and moonlighted innocence ?
Intriguing, and kind of sad.
Some people will comment for sure, either by deep observation to the problem, or merely just lean to their pseudo-science theories. Students, teachers or social workers will discuss the cases, while others will bring those up at coffee-break when they already have run out of conversation. Another will prefer to react emotionally, while others will just watch nonchalantly and forget them after the news over, thinking about them as another world’s problems that completely out of their reach (as long as those are not happened to them or someone they know).
Speaking about that, I remember a short story I’ve read seven or eight years ago. It was Seno Gumira Ajidarma’s “Ratih”. The story was about a little girl, who saw a dead-body floating in the river near her house, and she tried to tell her parents and neighbours, but they didn’t believe her. Doesn’t matter the detail, but there was a monologue—thought of Ratih, actually—that made me quite thinking for a while. The point was, when she saw that body, already swollen and rot among the water-plants, still clad in his shirt and trouser and wore a wrist-watch, she thought “who was he ? What was his name ? What was his job ? What had happened to him long before he became like this ? Did her mother know that her son, her beloved son she gave birth and raised with so much hope, someday would ended-up as a floating dead-body in a river ?”
Now watch the picture of a baby I put on the top. I believe all of you have seen face like that. Cute, eh ? Everyone will agree about that; babies are the symbol of innocence. They are born pure, sinless, know nothing about the complication of human minds, passions, and lusts. Their faces invite nothing but smiles, “pooh-pe-doohs”, and several unbelievably super-cute names like “little-pooh-bear”, “honey-bunny”, “my little lamb”, and so on. But not for me, because after read that short-story, I couldn’t help myself to think like this when I see a baby : what will they grow up into ? How can we believe that people such as burglars, murderers, child-molesters, Hitler, Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy and Ed Gein were used to be babies with cute face and moonlighted innocence ?
Intriguing, and kind of sad.
No comments:
Post a Comment