and they wanted to know how to make love...

Ulat buku.

Suka membaca buku.

Ulat bulu.

Suka mengusik.

Ulat tiket?

Suka makan tiket?

Entahlah. Itu kena cari sendiri. Takkan nak kena beritahu semua kan.

Tiba-tiba teringat pada simpulan bahasa kita orang Melayu. Sebab, sekembali dari kedai buku, melihat harga buku di negara kita ini memang mahal belaka. Kalau jenis macam saya, gaji seciput, tapi berkeinginan besar membaca buku kepunyaan sendiri kerana kepuasan itu lebih lagi terasa, memanglah sempit sedikit.

Saya kira harga buku di negara jiran terdekat di hujung selatan kita lebih murah. Ish, janganlah buat tukaran matawang tu. Memanglah mahal kalau dinilai dengan duit kita. Tapi, kalau kita adalah penduduk negara tersebut, bekerja dan hidup mati di situ, buku paperback yang sama seperti di sini berharga lebih kurang 17 dolar Singapore sahaja. Sedangkan kalau kita adalah penduduk negara Malaysia bekerja dan hidup mati di Malaysia, buku paperback yang sama seperti di sana berharga lebih kurang 30-39 ringgit Malaysia. Ha... tak ke banyak bezanya tu.

Dah .... , pegi le jadi rakyat sana!!

Bukan begitu.Ini masih tanah tumpah darah ku . :) Bukan tidak bersyukur hidup di negara bertuah ini. Tapi , cuma agak musykil sahaja. Itu ajelah. :)

Sambil itu hendak berkongsi buku yang baru saya mula baca. Bukunya nipis sahaja. Tertarik membacanya kerana tertarik dengan penulisnya. Beliau mengalami quadriplegia, kelumpuhan dari bahagian leher ke bawah akibat kemalangan pada tahun 1979 dan sekarang merupakan seorang kaunselor serta penulis. Bukunya berkisar tentang pengalaman dan pandangannya tentang kemanusiaan.

 Ada satu kisah yang menarik  dalam buku tersebut.

...., and the experience of treating them ( a pair of couples) simultaneously taught me a lesson I have never forgotten. Both couples were dealing with quadriplegia. The first couple  was in their early twenties and recently married. The young man had been studying to become a state trooper when he was in a car accident and became quadriplegic. They were devastated. The man became bitter; his young wife became severely depressed. The relationship broke up.

That same year, I worked with a couple in their sixties who had been married nearly forty years. The husband was driving a construction truck that turned over, and he broke his neck. As it happened, the fracture was in exactly the same place as the younger's man, so their quadriplegia was identical.

My therapy with the older couple  took just a few sessions. They wanted to know how to make love. The woman wanted to know if it was okay to leave her husband alone when she went grocery shopping. She talked about feeling guilty when she went out to the movies with her friends. We discussed some of the practical steps they would have to take to deal with his quadriplegia.

And that was all.

To the older couple, the accident was an event in their lives. It didn't change who they were and how much they loved each other. To the younger couple, the husband's quadriplegia shattered their lives. Both couples dealing with the same physical challenges, but quadriplegia meant something vastly different to each of them.

We don't say that one couple is strong and the other is weak. We can't even say that one of the couples is more resilient. The different is in the size and shape of the "I". For the older couple, like most people blessed with wisdom, the "I" is smaller and softer. And the accident is just an event. - Learning from The Heart : Daniel Gottlieb, pg 16-18.

Bahagian penutup tu, yang saya suka sekali. Nak translate malas lah pulak . Minta maaf banyak.

Kebijaksanaan berhadapan ujian dalam hidup. Saya kira itu inti pati yang ingin disampai. Ujian sebesar mana pun, jika kita boleh melihatnya dengan cara yang positif, ia akan menyemarakkan lagi hidup dengan keindahan. Dan kebijaksanaan itu biasanya terlahir dari kematangan kita yang terkumpul dari pengalaman hidup bertahun.

Ha, ini bukunya.

Harga RM 30.50. Bagi saya mahallah juga, sebab bukunya nipis saja.

Itu baru satu cerita dari tulisannya. Buku ini menghimpunkan kisah-kisah tauladanlah dilihat dari kaca mata dan perspektif penulis sebagai orang yang punya pelbagai upaya ini.

*selamat bercuti dan bersantai semua. Alhamdulillah sedang hujan di luar tingkap rumah.

:)

~cikgunormah@klcitizen~