Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Learning to Be

This semester I'm teaching one of my favourite classes: Critical Analysis on Indonesian Mass Media. We were talking about Frankfurt School's Erich Fromm and his idea on 'to have or to be'. We talked about how in a capitalistic society, we have a tendency, that we are built, to possess. That in purchasing things, consuming things, we have no other notion than to possess everything else in life.

It extends into how we treat our loved ones. That they, too, are our possession. That if they are not within our reach, they are not there.

I see my son and how he's growing into his own person. I imagine the day when he decides to experience his own journey and make decisions I might not have expected him to. And I refer to Fromm's idea that he is not mine.

Nothing is essentially ours.

What we have is the experience. The journey, so to speak. It's a depressing thought, to think that everything is temporary - but it inevitably is.

And I think only by letting go can we truly be.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

awesome;tulisan ina keren2 ya...:)
kebebasan pers dan berekspresi yang bersinergi dengan kebebasan berfikir memang harus diimbangi dengan 'hati nurani' ya....
*khawatir dengan opini2 yang justru meresahkan masyarakat yang belum siap menerimanya*

Unknown said...

A thought Gibran would be proud of! For your children are arrows, and you are the bow...

adearmando said...

Inaya.
Hidup saya mungkin mengajarkan terlalu banyak hal.
Salah satunya, seperti kamu tulis, nggak ada yang permanen.
Ketika saya melihat anak2 saya, saya sudah siap-siap untuk kehilangan mereka.
I love them so much... Tapi aku tahu suatu kali mereka pergi.
Karena itu saya memutuskan, menyayangi mereka dengan sepenuh hati.
Dan sadar bahwa yang terpenting adalah bukan bahwa mereka akan mencintai balik saya dengan cara yang sama.
Yang penting adalah mencintai mereka dengan sesungguhnya.