[Review] After (Luc dan Aku) by Francis Chalifour

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like this kind of books. You know, the books that talk about pain, about how one deals with death and stuff. Especially, it’s a teen book. I don’t know why, but I enjoy reading books talking about teenagers. About how they deal with life and everything.

I have a certain feeling about death. It always gives me such a deep emotion. Either it’s family or friends. I need days, weeks, months, or even weeks to understand the fact that someone I know, care about, or love, pass away.

That is why, I understand completely how Francis might have felt. Especially since his Dad chose to die by suicide. Shocking.

It’s a great book for those interested in how people deal with death. Not only is there Francis’ story on how he sees his father’s passing, but also his Mom and Luc, his younger brother.

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I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan by Nancy Reagan

Reading this book, I learn a lot about how to maintain a relationship, a marriage. Couples must support each other, and be expressive about how each feels to his/her spouse. Knowing that your loved one cares about you so much and think of you a lot helps you survive the relationship, no matter what.

Well, Nancy and Ronnie were so much in love, which is a great base for all relationship. But, they were also able to maintain the love. It’s what more important. Because, many couples start with such a big amount of love but they forget to keep the love alive.

Reading this book, I feel like sending my hubby a letter, the way I used to before we got married. By the way, he kept those letters and handed them to me after we got married. Now, I am the one keeping them all. Men are not good keepers. Well, it’s okay, as long as he keeps his love for me, forever.

Privacy

Tell me, do you have a facebook account? Do you tweet? Or, own a blog?

I do. And, these days, I feel uncomfortable about them. Mostly, the first two. It gets just too personal.

I mean, blogging is different. Not many people blog. And, most people I know, don’t. And, they never took the time to check it out. So, so far, I’ve been having the chance to just express myself. And, those visiting my blog mostly are people I don’t personally know.

But, things are different with the social media and the so called information media — which I think, now has turned into social media anyway. My contacts there are people I know. Plus, they have both in one simple instrument to sign themselves in, mobile phone or even smart phone.

Or, some spend extra time getting online with their computer or notebook — just like I do most of the time, which I might consider to stop now.

Previously, I was thinking about getting myself a smart phone. But now, I’d rather not. I’m quite fine with my current mobile phone. I am not too mobile anyway. I can get online at home like 24 hours a day as I work at home and don’t go out much. And, with my plan to stop or at least reduce the use of social or information media, the smart phone would be useless.

I’d rather save the money to make my other dreams come true.

Back to privacy. Now, I feel like the social media grabs away my privacy. And, on the contrary, it fills me in with unnecessary information about my contacts which are supposed to be their privacy. Isn’t that weird? I personally find it weird.

At the era before social media existed, I was fine not knowing anything about those people I know. I was okay to only know things that they tell me. But, now, their not telling me seems to be a wrong gesture from their part. And, they seem to also think the same way about me.

Sometimes back, a friend of mine hide his/her FB. Deactivate, isn’t it, what they call it? I didn’t get it — especially because he/she told me that he/she had deleted the account. Why would you get disconnected from your contacts? They’re your networking.

But, hey, now I do understand. Things happen. Not only the good ones, but also the bad ones. So, if you decide to hide under your warm invisibility cloak just like Harry Potter did, I think, it’s acceptable.

Look, even in YM, I choose to be unseen anyway.

Talking about being invisible, I took a first step of my staying away from the big world of social media by hiding my wall at facebook. Inspired by my elementary school buddy. And, I don’t get online as much as I did.

We’ll see where this ends up at, where I end up, at this digital world.

[Picture by Stephen Eastop, Melbourne, Australia]

Alone

I eventually realized that, no matter what, you are actually ALONE. Not really ALONE, knowing that God is always with you. But, ALONE here means no other human being.

Hm…I myself even found it hard to explain — you should see how confused I get with this ALONE explanation on the next paragraphs. LOL.

I had this idea when I found out that the older people get, the more complicated they become. And, the complication, at the end, affects their relationship with others. Either friendship, family, or even marriage.

Why complicated? Because, the older you get, the more you have seen, felt, and thought about. It somehow creates a new you. Yet, this new you comes slowly, you don’t realize that you have changed.

These changes sometimes are hard to accept. People who know you prefer the old you. But, they actually have changed, too. And, they just don’t know it — just like you. And, you also wish that they remain the same. Just like the one you knew let’s say 10 or 20 years ago?

Is that possible? I doubt it. People change. And, yes, they get complicated, too. And, they get more unique.

Look at kids or teenagers. Watch a group of kids playing or teenagers hanging out. They act, dress, and talk almost the same. Because, they just haven’t lived long enough to witness the craziness of this world.

While older people, they have seen, felt, ant thought a lot — just as I mentioned earlier. And the way they see, feel, and think about things is not the same from one to another. At the end, this differences are what make them unique. And, at the end, alone.

I used to have a group of friends, we used to hang out together occasionally. But, now, each of the members has changed, each totally lives a different life from the other. And, hanging out together is not the same anymore.

But, it is simply my thoughts from what I experienced. Other people might go through different things and they turn out not to feel ALONE.

Or, maybe the word ALONE doesn’t fit this silly explanation. I don’t know. I think, I might need to search other word(s) that would go along with all my ramblings in this post.

And, by the way, none of them is important. Sorry, if you happen to read it. It’s just me, being confused. However, I’ve warned you on the second paragraph of this post. So, I’m not responsible of your being confused, too, reading all these.

Ok. Basta!

[Picture by: Belovodchenko Anton, Russia]

My Note on A Friend’s Passing

I wrote this to express my emotion on my friend’s passing. Writing did help the healing process.

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