The Prophet's Maggots

Remember the Prophet Job (Ayyub) Peace Be Upon Him?

The summary of his story went like this:

Job was a pious and wealthy man. He had everything that man can ever want, and was actually grateful for it. So one day, the Lord tested Job’s faith by taking away all of his worldly assets: children, houses, animals and even his physical health, just to see how Job would handle the stress of it all.

One of the ailments that befell on Prophet Job was a sore boils; symptomatic in his rotting flesh. So bad the stench his body gave that nobody other than houseflies came near him and his mourning wife. In turn, the flies infested their eggs in his flesh, and maggots grew and fed on him.

Simply put, Prophet Job’s test was to decompose alive.

Legend has it that Prophet Job took the time to the pick each and every one of the maggots on his flesh, put it aside, before performing his ablutions and offer prayers (again, in thanks to the Lord).

Here’s the kick in the story. After prayers, the Prophet would then crack our common sense by returning each and every maggot back on its original feeding ground: the Prophet’s body.

So, maybe the Prophet had a strange taste in pets as he preferred them wiggling and wriggling on his decomposing body. But here’s what I discovered a while ago:

Maggot therapy (also known as maggot debridement therapy (MDT), is a type of biotherapy involving the intentional introduction by a health care practitioner of live, disinfected maggots (fly larvae) raised in special facilities into the non-healing skin and soft tissue wound(s) of a human or other animal for the purposes of selectively cleaning out only the necrotic tissue within a wound (debridement), disinfection, and promotion of wound healing. [Source]

Eventually, when the tests were over, Job taught us that it’s not his wealth that made him so thankful to the Lord, but it was the other way around, that his faith in the Lord was what got him all his worldly assets in the first place.

And back.

What does Job’s maggots have to do with us?

Prophet Job had a lesson to teach; and that’s pretty obvious and classic. Then again, so did all the maggots in this story. That they weren't there just to spite the Prophet in his ritualistic removal and replacement on his flesh.

Now, between maggots and the Prophets, where can you see yourself in terms of enlightenment and usefulness?

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PS: For what it’s worth, I’m only half-good in retelling stories. So there.

The Failing Heart

“Look at all the buses now that want exact change, exact change. I figure if I give them exact change, they should take me exactly where I want to go.”

-- George Wallace

…If Indonesian public transport is a vascular system, and passengers stand in for blood passing through the vessels, then during the Summer and Holiday seasons, the system slides to near arrest.

Platform, Jakarta

“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” ~ Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

The text in red says:

VERBOTEN
WALKING ON TRAIN RAILWAY

And they’ve only realized it since 1992.

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POSTSCRIPT: In the background, the Istiqlal (Independence) Mosque, one of the symbols of Indonesian pluralism: "The design, submitted by Frederich Silaban, a Christian architect, with the theme: "Ketuhanan" (Indonesian: Divinity)." [WikiSource]

What Summers are For: Photo Essay

Summer brings good company over food,

Sends the blogger to the kitchen,

To gather even more company over more food.

After that, you can either start hopping on something to make more room in your stomach for more food,

Or just pass out on any available surface until hunger strikes again.

POSTSCRIPT: My Aunt and her entire tribe are arriving in Denpasar, Bali, on July 9. My mom, Anggi, my uncle Ario and the Timekeeper are arriving on the day after that - Inshallah. That’s 13 members of the tribe in Bali - for 5 days. My head’s popping; I can’t imagine cooking for that many people. Isn’t that just awesome?

The Thing with (In)convenience

“Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy”. ~ Groucho Marx

Let’s talk about rice.

In the old days, people ate and lived communally; the landowners ate the same rice grown by the farmers, the same rice cooked by the women. The people in the kitchen cooked to keep the farmers healthy, so that they could eat healthy produce too. The common connection in everything gave motivation to excel in every person’s part of the process.

BTW Indonesia is an agricultural country, maybe that’s why they have so many names to rice, depending on which stage it is. Just like the Westerners have so many names for processed milk, and Eskimos for snow.

A plate of rice prepared by someone loved, may it be slightly burnt or liquefied, still feels better than something from a restaurant. Understanding the connections, knowing where and for whom our efforts was going, gave meaning and hopefulness in the things that we do.

Or, how about this: You might still remember you grandma’s hands folding cake dough decades ago, but you can’t remember the taste of a baked bread from the supermarket – even if it has turned into poop by the time you’re reading this.

It’s much less convenient to cook your own food than take away, but people still do it anyways. And for good reasons. The elders used to say that the love in the hands that prepare the food is what makes it so memorable, so fulfilling. How would it not, when it is parts of their souls are added into the ingredients.

The thing with convenience is that it cheats on efforts, cuts back on the energy, time and money spent on creating. Convenience cuts back on the soul spent in creation, making the pleasure in the end products short lived and shallow. Simply put, instant gratification lead to instant dissatisfaction.

So, how would you prefer to have it served?