Father-Daughter Relationship

Last night, I read a message emailed to me by a relative. She's somebody close, or used to be. She had moved far away, and somehow she would made any reason not to go back home, even for a short visit. We've been having this three parties conversation online with a mutual friend for some time. Her father had been telling her that people should cut their sleep time because you don't really need that much sleep. She didn't agree with him of course, and I didn't either.
But, by the third exchanges, it seemed that she actually wanted to talk about her father. The sleep time wasn't the issue here. She got a bit emotional talking about what her dad said.
I know her father. He can be overbearing. He only hears what he wants to hear. But, I mean, who's perfect? Nobody's perfect. She's definitely not perfect. Besides, being a parent is one of the most difficult things in the world! There are no guide books, there's no course on it. There's no one proven single formula. And I can't believe that in her age of almost forty she still couldn't accept her father! I felt angry and sad at the same time.
I felt angry because, despite having lived overseas for a long time (you're supposed to be more objective when you are far away, right?), and despite getting the most education, she can not rise above her disagreements with her father and just accept and love her father just the way he is.
Well, last night I wrote to her that she should get past that emotional stage with her dad. I don't want to preach her about acceptance and all that. I know that she would be very defensive.
I also get another idea about all this. Sometimes parents don't realize that what they say and do matter a great, great deal to their children. Or maybe it's easier not to see that? Because when you do realise and understand that, IT IS BIG.

Feeling Grateful

Yesterday, I went out to have lunch with my 4 sisters-in-law. The husbands of three of them are my husband's brothers, and one is my husband's sister. I was the one who asked them to have lunch. It's just a fact that my family is the one who has the most money (unless one of them has some treasure stashed away...).
At the weekend before yesterday, our big family has some kind of formal traditional event in my house. The event went well, and after that we all had a good time, singing and dancing. So I thought, why not prolong it a little bit more? Especially since my husband's sister that lives in some other island, is still here in jakarta.
So, we all met at a pretty nice restaurant. We were exchanging info about how we got there, when one of my sisters-in-law told us that it was much cheaper for her to meet us at the restaurant. If she goes to my house first, it would cost her sixteen thousands rupiah, but if she goes to the resto it would only cost her eleven thousands!! I was speechless. She was talking about less that twenty thousands rupiah!! I would throw around that kind of money without thinking..
Of course, I felt pity for her. But, it made me realized that I'm so blessed. So blessed.

Tuesday,
It turned out that there are more people out there in Jakarta who try to stick to the rules, who try not to throw trash around, who are just exasperated at the way jakartans seem to enjoy breaking rules.
One of these people wrote an article in jakarta post. He/she was on the verge of giving up. He believes that Indonesians can dream big and can do much better. One of his friends even suggested that he should relax his standards, to not hope for much, to just enjoy 'indonesian way'.
So, I write him a letter (I'm not sure if it will be printed) through the newspaper to just hold on, to be strong, to not give up to 'indonesian way'. I told him that Indonesia needed people like him.

2nd Posting

I've noticed that there are a lot of people that, I don't know, don't seem to have self-confidence, peace within themselves about who they are or what they do.
Last week, I had a friend who told me that she just got back from office (I already know that she is a housewife that has mlm business). And she asked me why I only read (!)while waiting for my daughters doing their piano lessons. She kept on talking and she told me that she just closed a deal with a prospect (mlm language). My first thought was, Who cares?? This was not the first time that she talked to me about her mlm stuff. Really, it's getting annoying..
Every time I talked to her, she always told me about how busy she was.., that she hadn't come home since morning (it was in the evening), that she just got back from this place and that place.
Is her self-esteem that low that she had to keep telling that to the world???
I don't know..maybe I'm the one who's too content with my life. Is it wrong?

My First Posting

This is my first posting and I'm simply testing the blog.