Bermalam di Masjid Salman ITB

seperti biasa, foto yang sama sekali tidak berhubungan dengan tulisan yang dimuat

kemarin, 20 maret 2018, saya dan seorang teman bermalam di masjid salman ITB, karena ada suatu perlu di keesokan harinya di gedung CRCS ITB. daripada harus berangkat pagi-pagi sekali (dan belum tentu juga terkejar waktunya) saya pun memutuskan bermalam saja di sana. toh boleh, kata orang-orang di internet (dan beberapa teman yang memang pernah bermalam di sana).

Review: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First thing first, I am actually not into history and that kind of stuff, until I read this magnificent book. I am also not really used to English-written books as it is not my first language and I have to check dictionary quite often, but overall, this work isn't that hard to understand for a non-English speaker (and someone who are not really used to reading English-written books) like myself. Harari has also a quite good sense of humor in this book, making it unboring to read. I can't stop reading once I started. In the book, Harari referred the mankind in several ways, i.e. Homo sapiens, Sapiens (as the title of the book says), human, human-being, mankind. I don't know if the different referration has to do with difference in the state of the Homo sapiens that he means, e.g. the human as the biological species, as a social being, or as just a natural coincidence, etc.

lagi kesambet

hidup ini memang penuh dengan persimpangan. ada beberapa cabang di setiap saat tertentu dalam hidup ini, dan kita harus memilih satu di antara banyak cabang yang ada. kita tidak akan pernah tahu apakah cabang yang kita pilih adalah yang paling baik bagi kita, yang paling aman, paling menguntungkan bagi kita, sampai kita telah melewatinya.

life is full of intersections. there are several intersections at every particular point in life, and often we have to choose one amongst them. we will never know whether the path we have chosen is the best, the safest, the most beneficial to us, until we have gradually crossed it.

dalam setiap persimpangan yang telah kita pilih, terkadang hasilnya tidak sesuai dengan apa yang kita harapkan. tak jarang hasilnya malah jauh lebih baik melebihi harapan kita terhadap jalur yang kita pilih tersebut. bagaimanapun juga, kita adalah yang paling bertanggung jawab atas pilihan kita. kita memiliki kendali penuh atas pilihan kita, dan tentu saja kita harus bisa menanggung semua resikonya.

for any path we have chosen, sometimes the result doesn't meet our expectation. often the resultant is exceeding high above what we have hoped over the decision we have taken. after all, we are the most responsible one for every decision we make. we have the full control over our own decisions, and inarguably we are the one to endure any subsequent risk.

hidup ini memang penuh dengan ketidakpastian. masa depan masih diselimuti kabut gelap yang menyebabkannya abu-abu. tapi justru itulah, kita tak boleh putus asa. masih ada harapan di setiap kegelapan, asalkan kita mau menyalakan lilin atau tidak. masa depan kita adalah milik kita, artinya kalau bukan kita sendiri yang memperjuangkannya lantas siapa lagi.

life is full of uncertainty. the future is likely covered by dark fog, causing it to be grey. yet that shouldn't make up upset about it and desperate. there will always be a beam of hope in the darkness, depending on us to light the candle or not. our future belongs to us, meaning that if it's not up to ourselves to fight for it, then who.

terkadang, kita mengambil keputusan-keputusan bodoh hanya agar terlihat hebat di mata orang lain. mengikuti kesenangan dan emosi sesaat untuk akhirnya menyesalinya di kemudian hari. tidak masalah, asalkan pada akhirnya kita menyadari kesalahan kita tersebut, dan mau belajar untuk memperbaiki diri dan jangan sampai mengulangi kebodohan yang lain di kemudian hari.

sometimes, we take foolish decisions just to make ourselves look impressive to others. we follow temporary emotion and indulgence just to regret it on the following days. it is okay, as long as we realize our mistake and are willing to learn from it to be a better version of ourselves and prohibit ourselves to repeat that foolish mistake ever again.

karawang, 25 januari 2018

疲れましたね