Yesterday's post went up earlier than normal. Have I finally put my procrastination to rest? Sadly no. It was already time to accompany Bapa to pick up Adek at the train station, that was the only reason why.
On the way to Manggarai, Bapa and I started having a conversation about the Communist party where I tried to probe how sensitive the issue is to my family. One thing led to another and we ended up maintaining this discussion till we almost made it back home..... but there's something in Bapa's story that knocked me off guard. I almost couldn't believe something that happened to Bapa's mother's father's brother's son actually affected me to a point that I was angered as if I was involved in the incident.
We Indonesians have this anecdote, "Every Batak is somehow related." While it holds true for the most part (I could try explaining why but it would be 7 hours long) and technically the person of interest is my relative too (given you, like Batak people, also agree that my father's mother's father's brother's son is still a family to me), the rush of emotions --all bad ones-- possessed me not because I feel related to him. But because I wholeheartedly believe that no one should have the life that he has.
Blood is thicker than water, but there's something even thicker than blood. It's called humanity.
We Indonesians have this anecdote, "Every Batak is somehow related." While it holds true for the most part (I could try explaining why but it would be 7 hours long) and technically the person of interest is my relative too (given you, like Batak people, also agree that my father's mother's father's brother's son is still a family to me), the rush of emotions --all bad ones-- possessed me not because I feel related to him. But because I wholeheartedly believe that no one should have the life that he has.
Blood is thicker than water, but there's something even thicker than blood. It's called humanity.
No comments:
Post a Comment