What Is Love?

I came across this http://thoughtcatalog.com/heidi-priebe/2016/06/we-dont-always-end-up-with-the-loves-of-our-lives-and-thats-okay/ and found it relatable to me, or at least used to. I remember thinking of someone as the love of my life but couldn't end up with, and still cannot. The only difference is now I am not sure if the person is truly the love of my life. I may now have fallen in love with someone else and this new significant other of mine is probably the love of my life, or not. No one can ever know.

The article eloquently describes how it feels to have found the love of life but end up separated, and how it's okay.

Grey's Anatomy Season 06, Episode 01-02 (Good Mourning & Goodbye)

"According to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, when we're dying or have suffered a catastrophic loss, we all move through five distinct stages of grief. We go into denial because the loss is so unthinkable we can’t imagine it’s true. We become angry with everyone, angry with survivors, angry with ourselves. Then we bargain. We beg. We plead. We offer everything we have, we offer our souls in exchange for just one more day. When the bargaining has failed and the anger is too hard to maintain, we fall into depression, despair, until finally we have to accept that we’ve done everything we can. We let go. We let go and move into acceptance.

 

In medical school, we have a hundred lessons that teach us how to fight off death, and not one lesson on how to go on living."

 

"The dictionary defines grief as keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret. As surgeons, as scientists, we’re taught to learn from and rely on books, on definitions, on definitives. But in life, strict definitions rarely apply. In life, grief can look like a lot of things that bear little resemblance to sharp sorrow.

Grief may be a thing we all have in common, but it looks different on everyone. It isn’t just death we have to grieve. It’s life. It’s loss. It’s change. And when we wonder why it has to suck so much sometimes, has to hurt so bad. The thing we gotta try to remember is that it can turn on a dime. That’s how you stay alive. When it hurts so much you can’t breathe, that’s how you survive. By remembering that one day, somehow, impossibly, you won’t feel this way. It won’t hurt this much.

Grief comes in its own time for everyone, in its own way. So the best we can do, the best anyone can do, is try for honesty. The really crappy thing, the very worst part of grief is that you can’t control it. The best we can do is try to let ourselves feel it when it comes. And let it go when we can. The very worst part is that the minute you think you’re past it, it starts all over again. And always, every time, it takes your breath away.

There are five stages of grief. They look different on all of us, but there are always five. Denial. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance."

Iman Di Tengah Kesenjangan Nasib: Memamerkan “Tuhan”

Below is my article published by IndoProgress. It uses Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian). The English translation of the title would be Faith In The Midst of Social Gap: Showing Off "God"

Original publication by IndoProgress: http://indoprogress.com/2016/03/iman-di-tengah-kesenjangan-nasib-memamerkan-tuhan/

Image from: Pinterest

DI ERA media sosial saat ini, banyak orang berlomba-lomba mengeksibisikan beragam lapisan kehidupannya. Kita bisa menemukan berbagai kiriman status dan foto, dari yang menunjukkan perasaan sedih dan kecewa, sampai pencitraan rupawan sebagai penanda bahwa hidup ini indah dan patut untuk disyukuri.

Why I Choose Not To Believe

(This is originally my post titled "The Life Battle of Our Own, and Mine Especially", but then has been sent to Magdalene with some revision, and got edited and published)

original publication in Magdalene: Why I Choose Not To Believe

I’ve seen many of my friends or acquaintances put up fights against some gross injustices that oppress them or things that are important to them. They defend the rights of homosexuals, or advocate equal rights for women, or champion vegetarianism and ethical treatment of animals. They bravely speak up in public space against an unjust government, or fight for interracial and interfaith marriage. Each of them rumbles against society, against a world that imposes unjust values on their lives.

Gravitational Wave: Its Philosophical Value and Our Civilization

In case you still haven't got it, please be informed well that lately human race has finally discovered gravitational waves, a phenomenon 100 years ago was hypothesized by a great scientist, Albert Einstein. Gravitational waves are ripples in the curvature of space-time which propagate as wave transporting energy as gravitational radiation. They cause matters distorted following the distortion in space-time because of the radiation.

Just watch the video below if up until now you still can't comprehend what in universe the gravitational wave is.

Terrorism, School, and Morale

Part of this post was also published  in The Jakarta Post national newspaper page 8 on Readers' Forum with title "Terrorism, school, and morals"

On Thursday, January 14th 2016 the All-Girls High School Santa Ursula located in Jln. Pos no. 02 Central Jakarta had all its students of 10th and 11th grade day off because the 12th grade students would have to be defending their scientific paper as their final assignment.

My little sister is an eleventh grader studying in All-Girls High School Santa Ursula. She lives nearby in a dormitory of Santa Maria located in Jln. Batu Tulis Raya no. 30 Central Jakarta. Although it was a day off for her, her friends and she had to attend choir practice in school for an upcoming school event.