Kuda Catur

Saya terkadang memiliki satu kebiasaan untuk mengamati hal-hal yang unik dan berbeda dengan hal-hal pada umumnya. Hal-hal yang memiliki ciri khas dan mampu menerobos hal-hal yang belum tentu bisa dilakukan hal-hal lain. Salah satu contoh akan hal tersebut salah satunya saya temukan dalam permainan favorit saya ketika masih kecil dulu: Catur. Ya, Catur menjadi permainan menarik bagi saya dan kedua sepupu saya pada saat itu. Padahal, ketika kami menginjak bangku SD, permainan catur seharusnya diganti dengan permainan video game seperti Playstation, Nintendo dsb.


Layaknya fans sebuah cabang olahraga yang memiliki seorang olahragawan idola, pastinya kami memiliki bidak-bidak catur yang menjadi favorit. Sepupu-sepupu saya selalu memilih Ratu sebagai bidak catur favorit-nya. Mungkin karena superioritasnya sebagai bidak catur yang paling kuat. Kendati demikian, bidak catur yang selalu menjadi favorit saya berbeda dengan mereka: The Knight-Kuda. Mengapa demikian?

Kuda tidak seperti Ratu (atau yang kerap disebut Perdana Menteri) yang memiliki jangkauan seolah tidak terbatas. Ratu dapat bergerak baik secara horisontal, vertikal maupun diagonal. Kuda hanya bisa berjalan membentuk huruf "L". Namun, justru langkah Kuda tersebut yang menjadikannya unik dan lain daripada yang lain.





Kuda juga memiliki satu kelebihan yang tidak dimiliki oleh bidak-bidak catur lain, bahkan Ratu. Kuda memiliki kemampuan untuk "meloncat". Ya, "meloncat". Gerakan Kuda Catur sangat flexibel dan berbeda dengan bidak catur lain yang harus "memakan" bidak catur lain yang menghalangi jalan mereka. Hal inilah yang membuat keberadaan Kuda Catur begitu diandalkan di dalam permainan catur itu sendiri. Kuda Catur bisa menembus barikade yang belum tentu bisa dilewati oleh punggawa-punggawa catur lainnya.

Saya mengagumi konsep Kuda Catur di dalam permainan catur itu tersendiri. Seolah keterbatasan yang sekian diimbangi pula dengan kelebihan yang sepadan. Seperti kuda catur, ada banyak hal yang berbeda dan unik di dalam cerita kehidupan. Itulah indahnya hidup. Individu belajar untuk bisa menjadi spesial, sama spesialnya seperti
kuda Catur.

Kuda Catur, teruslah "meloncat"! :)

In Which The Deep Heart Equals The Deep Ocean

Recently, there are some things that keep going through my mind: it's about the strength of our heart to carry on everyday things in our life. Yes, heart is stronger than we thought it could be. However, sometimes we find it hard to keep going through the problems in our life. A good friend of mine Ras Hanaria told me once that the heart of a man or woman is very deep that it equals the deep ocean. It means that whenever we feel bad about something, we should just let it drown towards the deepness of our heart; and then, proceed.

Dear fellows, sometimes it very hard to face things that happen in your life. My friend Ben C. Laksana has written about all this in his latest notes that human has choices towards that life. I couldn't agree more with that statement. Basically, every person in this world has options to do towards their life. We had every excuse in this life to make it worth going to; in every daily basis. It's just a matter of time and our courage to believe that our heart is not just strong but it also deep and knows no boundaries.

Forgive and forget, that is the so-called two 'F's that strengthen my statement about the deep heart equals the deep ocean. But the main part of this statement is before we are going to forgive and forget someone else towards their mistakes to us: we must forgive ourselves first. We must remember that we can't please everyone. We must remember that every person has their own flaws. Moreover, even though details are very important, we should always look at the big picture about ourselves. This is why I don't believe in the so-called proverb: "Nila setitik, rusak susu sebelangga". Humans are subject to flaws and all--which is something that human is the most perfect creature of God.

The deep heart equals the deep ocean. Just believe in your heart no matter what you are going to. Whenever something or someone did you wrong: put them into the deepest land below your deep heart. If you feel like you're going to be sat in misery about how they did you wrong, do it. And then? Proceed. I really hope that everybody who read this article may found peace in whatever struggling thing that they have on their life at the moment. My thoughts are with you all.



Proceed,
Amahl S. Azwar
18 Agustus 2009


PS: Dedicated to Yane Yulianne and Ras Hanaria.

In Which We Meets Mahel, Someone Who Recently Failed

“Arthur Abbott: Iris, in the movies we have leading ladies and we have the best friend. You, I can tell, are a leading lady, but for some reason you are behaving like the best friend.
Iris: You're so right. You're supposed to be the leading lady of your own life, for god's sake! Arthur, I've been going to a therapist for three years, and she's never explained things to me that well. That was brilliant. Brutal, but brilliant.”

In case some of you don’t get it, that was a quotation from one of my favourite movie: The Holiday. The scene told us when the character Iris (played by Kate Winslet) were taught by Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach), an elderly man, that she was supposed to be in control of her own life instead of hiding underneath someone’s shadows. The quotation came to my mind after I just finished reading the so-called book “He’s Just Not That into You” written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.

The book encourages the ladies out there to stop being so insecure whenever they lose their man: because maybe he’s just not that into you. Therefore, you need to take charge on your own life. See, at one of the pages Greg confess that he initially wanted to write a book entitled “She’s Just Not That into You” only to realize that it wouldn’t sell million copies. Well, that’s another story. Nevertheless, it showcases that the book could be apply on man and woman. Moreover, it’s not just about one the relationship: it also covers the rest of the so-called failure in your life.

Lately, there’s some sad news that I have to encounter: the last result of my thesis (I graduated, though), the resignation of my dear friend at the Coffee Shop etc. But reading the book and really analyze the hidden message behind it and concluded by the quotation I put above … made me realize that you are supposed to be the leading actors/actresses in your own life. About the last result of my thesis, it came to me that I should just shake it off and move on with the next steps of my life (Hey, I got too many A’s in the past. Some B’s won’t killed me). The resignation of my dear friend ought to push him in order to become the better person (He still lives in Bandung anyway, it’s not like someone written him out of the script).
Sometimes we got it the wrong way. When things don’t turn out the way we want it to be, we tends to blame others. When we fail, we thought that we are a failure. The fact is ‘failure situation’ only took two or three episodes from the entire series that God (only the best scriptwriter ever) written for us. My point is? Live life, love life.

XOXO

“Claire Colburn: So you failed. Alright you really failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You think I care about that? I do understand. You wanna be really great? Then have the courage to fail big and stick around. Make them wonder why you're still smiling.”

PS: This article is the first one for another blog of mine www.mcmahel.blogspot.com which basically more relaxed and not-so-political like the previous one www.amahlazwar.wordpress.com. Enjoy!