A Letter I Received with a Package and THR for This Year’s Eid
By: Jacob Ereste
Freelance Journalist
Activism is a choice of attitude….not a job that calculates profit and loss, therefore activists tend to come across as homeless, poor because they dare to sacrifice for their own interests….
But it also does not mean that activists are not good at making economic calculations, for example activist Yudha from Cilengsi came to Jakarta just to join an action that he considered urgent to do….clearly he has calculated the cost and snacks for food and drinks so that he can overcome it so as not to be kapiran or overslept…
Then what values can he get from economic calculations, except for social values that express his moral and social responsibility as a citizen of the nation (not a citizen) which is very likely not done consciously by everyone, including those who have already been carried out by the imitator claiming themselves as activists…
*footnote:*
Initially, the letter I received with the package and THR for Eid this morning, I thought was part of Lailatul qadar in another form.
So I wanted to call it a kind of “Essay Poetry” like the literary genre in the garden of Denny JA and friends who have built the spirit and elan vital of creativity and ethos of literary work that does not want to give up or die in vain in the midst of political strife that continues to be noisy, as if balancing the noise of the Indonesian economy which is increasingly worrying.
Like the footnotes of the attached writing above, at the same time I want to prove that everything continues to move and change, even like a rice field snail or a reaction to the harshest criticism from the people, but still does not change the choice and policy to gain advantage from any opportunity.
Because for an official who has held an important position in this country, it will be considered unlucky or even stupid to still want to live in a simple and modest pattern. Especially to the point of not having a private villa in the Puncak Bogor protected forest.
So being an activist and simplicity are choices of attitudes that do not need to be changed, a kind of venting of revenge against poverty that actually does not need to be a burden on life, and also does not need to be spread to others. Because the choice of a firm and unshakable attitude is part of real spiritual toughness and intelligence, but is often considered by many people as something supernatural.
Banten, March 22, 2025
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