The song is cheerful, the kid is cute, and the dad is a familiar cameo from the entertainment news I sometimes watch. =D The theme is not new but I'm happy that this one has a happy ending progresses to a happy direction.
As you pass through the entrance of the nearest station,
Daddy, who's a little braver than usual,
on your shoulders are the cheering voices of those you love.
I want to believe there is nothing sacred about love. That it is as commonplace as the smile you exchange with the nameless someone who works on the same floor. That it is as down to earth as the passion you pour into your art. That you can have much of it to give to many.
I want to believe there is nothing complicated about love. That it is as easygoing as extending your arm to a frail woman alighting from the bus. That it is as natural as greeting your elders at the dining table. That it can come and go leaving your heart as capable of it as before.
And then there is trust.
During the last forum meeting our big boss showed us an inspirational video which is interesting in terms of both message and delivery. The speaker is a fun guy, so when I found the link to that video I also clicked on his other presentation.
I'm sharing this one here because the message is something close to my heart, which also ties in nicely with the daily literary quote on my iGoogle today, as currently posted under the "Something XX" section at the right panel of this blog. (I update this section whenever I feel like it, so this line may become irrelevant any time at a future timestamp, sorry. =P)
The message delivery also involves the culture of my fascination, but that's a minor point. Really.
Being contradictory is fine at this point of time;
being contradictory is perfectly understandable.
I feel like telling the world with words I cannot find;
I feel like keeping precious secrets of bits so trivial.
Ah-h-h, the lightheadedness from minding every little detail,
the delirium from grasping what has not felt this real for a while,
how I am relieved at how much I am bothered:
are why it is simply sensible to utterly embrace this sentimental nonsense.
I was in a poetic mood today, and was googling for the original of a translated poem I recalled from a Sidney Sheldon novel when I came across this "advice" poem (reminiscent of Kipling's "If"), and was quite touched by it.
Haven't I always, always come back to this crossing every now and then...
---
Desiderata
Max Ehrmann, 1952
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
Oldies.. but believe me this is already the more (most?) contemporary rendition among them all. xD The version I first heard and liked is probably this exact one or similar. (Lesson learnt: internet links do not live for ever.)
It's a personal example of mental association that contradicts the actual meaning of the words, as I have, inexplicably, always thought of the phrase "心上的人兒" (lit. the person in my heart) in a plural sense, and associated this supposed-romantic-love-song with my family.
Probably it's how their faces in my memory are always smiling; how they are the ones I can count on to give me the sun in the dark of night; how I automatically think, whenever reminded of them, "do not be sad; I wish for your smile to stay that way forever" --- as I suddenly do right now.
(...with a truckload of links!)
We had an all-Indonesian lunch today. At one point we started talking about the science syllabus in Indonesia (getting more advanced nowadays than what we experienced in our high school days) and proceeded to reminisce about the early days we came into contact with computers (the 90s).
Oooh, nostalgic. =DDD
To think that back then we were happily using those flimsy 5.25-inch IBM floppy disks whose capacity I couldn't recall because file sizes weren't big enough to be a concern at that time. Nowadays we can hardly find a new PC with a 3.5in floppy drive, let alone those "A drive and B drive"...
Then there was Digger, the popular PC game of that time. (Even thinking about it now I can relive the panic at being chased around by those mice. (Oh yes I suck at action games even now.))
There was BASIC, our first programming language; mIRC, our first chatting experience (
*pops* asl pls
*types* m
*disappears*
). Before Winword and Excel there were WordStar and Lotus 123...
(Incidentally today too I just found this HCI comic about Lotus Notes from the same company.)
But even with these vivid recollections, our lives had (naturally) been so much more detached from computers that they are now, so we went on to appreciate Bobo, the hugely successful children magazine of our childhood. Probably because the memory was shaped during our most absorbent age, we could still recite the names of most recurring characters in that magazine. I have a very good impression about it in terms of being educational both intellectually and morally. I just had this similar reminiscence with my childhood hometown friend, and she said she would probably subscribe to it for her son after he'd grown a bit more. I hope it still maintains the same quality.
Randomly I was also reminded of Sanggar Cerita, the Indonesian version of audio stories that came in cassette tapes. I only owned one that was "Cinderella" by young Ira Maya Sopha (singing "Hari ini, hari ini, Ira ingin ceritera..."). To jog my memory I tried to sing the whole storyline in the shower (they had a summary song and a conclusion song and one at each main event), but I had blanks here and there. xD
There, there, enough reminiscing for now. ^^ I would call them "the good old days" but without undermining "the good nowadays" with all my present indulgences enabled by the technology leap, even if it means I'm constantly on watch for disk consumption while owning a total of nearly 750GB harddisk space...
