Creating meaning out of tragedy?

 
It’s crisis makes reality, real,                                

Intensity, intense.        -William Everson                

Boston, MA, USA

November 2013

 

Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues,

 

            How do we find or create meaning out of tragedy?  Sometimes Americans ask me if it is dangerous to live in Indonesia.  We have exotic dangers there, like: active volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, mass violence, terrorism, pirates, elephants, tigers, huge spiders, little mosquitoes. The only ones that scare me are the mosquitoes.  I’ve had dengue fever twice.  Violent crime is rare where we live in Yogyakarta.  I always thought that if I died unexpectedly in Indonesia it would be from a traffic accident.  Those gentle Javanese are like wild cowboys when they drive.  Motorcycles drive without lights at night, sometimes carrying whole families, there are huge potholes, chickens, old farmers on bicycles, no speed limits and hardly any signs to warn you of danger.  “Right of way” is a foreign idea and traffic lanes are just for show.  People drive like a school of fish.  The little fish just move out of the way of the big guys.  In Indonesia you stay alert at the wheel or you die.  After returning to the US a friend wrote:  “I miss driving with you in Indonesia.  Driving in America is so boring.” 

 

            OK.  Boring.  But safe, right?  Well, not exactly.  Farsijana and I just had an accident in California that should have left us dead.  As we drove through the night from one heavy day of meetings to the next, our rental car struck a cement highway divider, flipped and rolled, spun around, slammed into a wall and burst into flames.  Just like in the movies.  A pickup truck with two young men, whom my wife says were handsome and sweet, stopped and urged us to get out of the car because it was on fire.  I woke up Farsijana and released her seatbelt.  We both made it out of the car.  And we walked… away.  Except that Farsijana’s back started to hurt and at the hospital the doctors discovered she had two fractured vertebrae (T-11 and L-4): in other words, a broken back.  The miracle is that she can expect full healing.  There is no injury to her spinal cord.  The down side is that she has to wear a body brace, like a suit of armor, or a turtle shell, for 12 weeks.  In three seconds our life was changed.  Farsijana says she is a Mama turtle.

 

            Farsijana is an expert on finding meaning.  In the mythology of native peoples, the world rests on the back of a turtle.  Her spine is broken so that she can have a turtle shell and carry the world on her back.  She also likes ducks.  When she first went to Holland in February 1996, Farsijana thought she would die of the cold.  How can you live in a refrigerator?  But ducks, swooping through the air on a snowy, birthday morning convinced her that if God blessed ducks to have fun in the ice, so could she.  She took off her shoes and danced in the snow. 

 

            Last month in New Mexico, Farsijana bought a Navajo blanket with the Chief Joseph design.  Chief Joseph was a brilliant warrior who endured incredible hardship leading his people to find a land where he could live in peace.  His courage and longing for peace touched even his enemies.  He said, “It is cold and we have no blankets.  The little children are freezing to death… my heart is sick and sad.  From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.”  Farsijana clutched her Chief Joseph blanket wherever she went.  By a cold river she saw ducks playing.  She reached into the water and pulled out a yellow stone.  On it she saw the image of two ducks:  her image of survival in hardship.  Everything is linked in the imagination.

 

            Can we find meaning in an accident that brings pain and radically rearranges our lives?  I must confess I am not so sure.  I don’t know why it happened.  The best I can do is a rather feeble admission that we are meant to slow down.  During the two days before the accident we had 8 meetings (lectures, sermons, seminars) and were rushing, on little sleep, towards more.  But the accident seems like a rather extreme way to get our attention.  Why was I, the driver and author of the schedule relatively unscathed?  Now I have to learn to be a nurse instead of a professor.  Farsijana, who loves to serve, has to learn to be served. 

 

            Farsijana sees a different reason for the accident.  She has been working for months on a campaign to get Indonesians and Americans to care about the injustice suffered by the people of West Papua.  After she got out of the hospital, we stayed for a few days in the home of Charles and Katherine Farhadian in Santa Barbara.  We stayed in a room full of Papuan art and there she read Charles’ book of stories of Papuan suffering at the hands of the military.  She said, my suffering is nothing compared to the suffering of many who have died in Papua.  For Farsijana, the accident happened so that she would stay in that room, read those stories and sleep with Papuan spirits.  Ducks, turtles, stones, blankets, Chief Joseph, falling leaves, smashed up cars, fractured vertebrae, a room with paintings and the suffering of the Papuans are all part of one story in Farsijana’s creative mind.  We believe God preserved our lives because there is still work that we must do.

 

            The gift of faith is precious in our cynical world.  Even more precious is the gift of love.  Expressions of love and care for us have flown to us from Christians, Muslims and unbelievers in America, Indonesia and elsewhere.  The Presbyterian Church (USA) makes our work for peace, justice and reconciliation possible.  Many of you, who read this, participate in supporting this work through your gifts and prayers.  For this we are profoundly grateful.  Thank you and may God’s blessings be upon you this Christmas.

 

            Salam hangat,

            Bernie and Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta

 
P.S. Farsijana’s reflections in English and Indonesian can be seen at:  http://farsijanaforpizza.blogspot.com   and http://farsijanaindonesiauntuksemua.blogspot.com 

 

Bringing PIZZA to Boston

Bringing PIZZA to Boston

 

Drawing symbols on sand inspires the new meaning of PIZZA (1)

By Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta

Drawing symbols of compassion and peace on the sand of the Medicino's beach on the Independence Day of USA (4 July 2013) 

Bringing PIZZA to Boston? Sounds strange! Is not the United States is the birth place of innovation PIZZA. PIZZA in various forms can be found in the United States. Providing  a title like this is actually to mock as if there is no PIZZA in Boston. Maybe the people in Boston would be upset if know that the title of this story was made by an Indonesian. Who is that person? What did she know about PIZZA? I have to be ready to meet with the people who will cast a glance to check me and said: "You know what to PIZZA".

On the day of our vacation for celebrating the Labour Day, we visited  to Cape Cod, in the southern part of Boston. We went  to Cape Cod to see the beach and touched the cold water of the Atlantic ocean. We stopped at Race point where I fell in love with the beach. The sand is like sand in the eastern to the south part of the island of Bali,  around Amed to Seminyak. But the size of sand in Race Point is medium, larger than sand Seminyak, but smaller than the one in Amed beach.  The similarity of these three sand at Race Point,  Amed and Seminyak are formed from broken coral beads with golden color.

I took sand from Race Point home because I am going to paint again using it.  At the time when my elbow of the right hand dislocated just before my last art exhibition in last May 2013, I got a revelation to paint with sand. The next day after my right hand was casted, in the morning during my pray hour, I was shocking with  a voice saying: "The sand .. sand ..". The voice  came twices  with the same fragment: "Sand ... Sand .." Still shocking, I ran out of bed immediately to find where I put  jars of sand from Amed and Seminyak. That day, I painted my first painting with sand and colored cement to give the title The Dancer of Life. This painting visualized my poem with the same title as posting at my blog “Indonesiaku Indonesiamu Indonesia untuk semua” which means My Indonesia, Your Indonesia Indonesia for all.  

But what to do with PIZZA? Well, those two words are different but the first letter begins with "P". PIZZA original Italian language but has become a world language because of the popularity of PIZZA HUT. “Pasir” is Indonesian for "sand".  I could imagine a more in depth look at some of the characters are similar in quality between “Pasir” and PIZZA. But I do not want to impose any similarities at PIZZA and Pasir. They are different because PIZZA is food and being sand is a thing that can not be eaten. The idea of ​​the sand is often taken to be used as a decoration in food, such as grain brown. Character of the sand, with grains that tiny nature can be seen in foods like PIZZA.  

PIZZA is a very good food with a lot of preparations to be made before the various components to combine together. The sand is needed for physical development. Making PIZZA  likes taping the grains and pieces from a variety of selected foodstuffs with dough and cheese.

The idea of ​​"bringing PIZZA to Boston" came when I stepped on the sand at the foot of Race Point. Sand appears as granules can release me from the bonds so until amazingly, I could telescope between the cracks of the salty Atlantic water on earth to understand the actual meaning of PIZZA. Sand and water unite humankind to live in the islands and the continents scattering. On the sand when I carve the symbol of love at Race Point, on the east coast in Massachusetts and peace symbol on the sand at the beach on the west coast of Mendocino United States, I immediately know about the new meaning of PIZZA. United States does have PIZZA but they require both a symbol that I carved the sand from west to east, which is a symbol of peace and compassion. The second symbol is there on the new meaning of PIZZA I will explain it slowly without haste, like a character from PIZZA themselves are made with love and a touch of high art. Like grains of sand, the meaning of PIZZA will be released in time little by little and then unite.

 

Drawing symbol of compassion on the sand of Race Point in Massachussets in September 1st,  2013 on the Labour Day

 

 

 

 

 

After the energy of silence to the PIZZA

After the energy of silence to the PIZZA
By Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta.

I am grateful to be ready to live here. Two weeks before Labor Day, we enjoyed our times together to prepare our home and family members for welcoming the new life here. It is very important  for my spirit, mental health and physical life.

When I was young to study in Holland, lived many years in Amsterdam, I enjoyed the change of weather without adding responsibility to myself except focusing in the finishing of my dissertation. I used to live in Syracuse, Upper New York and New York City but no time to unite myself with a particular activity to cultivate nature because of the attention to another job in a short time of my living there. Now I have the free time to write and do what I believe should happen before I reflect on.

So when we arrived at the Walker Center where  our current apartement is located, I immediately asked about the handling of kitchen waste. Actually I have done in Yogyakarta for five years to rotate our kitchen waste on our yard around home.  My practices of organic disposal came from my experiences living in Berkeley, California. So turns out here in Boston,  kitchen waste with other waste are mixed. Even in the United States, each state has its own rules. Environment awareness is starting from the West Coast of the United States such as California that there is no snow in winter therefore natural process of disposal still works. But this argument is also quite weak because it turns out I was told by my new friend, older than me to be right to call her "mother" who works  as a gardener, that in earlier times in every home provided  metal bins to accommodate organic waste. After full, farmers came to take them  then processesed by burying directy on ground.

Why am I paying attention to waste, why is exaggerating? Organic waste is not juts about kitchen waste, although this is where women gives their time to spend for caring family. Waste is as a very sensitive word to me.  Experiences then and now are the remaining bits in the memory. I want those experiences together, reprocessed to become a source of strength for the growth of an experience that will ccome in the future. My friend, mother Wanda came to help me when I was cleaning the field being used for growing organic waste, while cutting the long stalks, she was imagining the place as she said when the spiring and summer comes this land will be blooming with flowers around her who might be reading a book on the terrace to see and to smell the life.    Experience that would happen was incubated started with impregnating  memories in the act of preparing the land .

 

When we were preparing our home to get ready before the arrival of the new season, we have to look at the shops . There are large stores such as Target, Cosco, Walmart, Home Depot. These stores are huge malls which theorytical are seen as symbols of capitalism .   Although I know the age of those shops which are beyond my age, for example Walmart was built in the early 20th century.  The long histories of shops with symbols of capitalism I have to appreciate because of that I let myself down there looking for needs to be equipped for day -to -day life. These shops provide items that have not been used, which I will pass on to someone who will take them when we left Boston. To deal with the fall and winter, we need thick jackets. We looked at the small shops that sell mainly secondhand goods. Also, the kitchen items that do not exitst in our rental house we can get it here. Recycling existing principles as seeds in planning to transfer our stuff to someone who will accept it or make a donation to the secondhand stores,  have started to apply now.

On the sidelines looking for a source of recycling activities in the stores, I was in the early days wanted to find quickly the natural garden  where we can walk or run.  It is there. USA is very good on this natural protection! Now we can jog at  the combination of distance of the two parks which is approximately 6 miles length without being distracted by the vehicles. I am very happy because my  husband left his computer to start jogging again. Pak Bernie finished the ING New York marathon in 2005. After his dream fulfilled, starting very rarely ran.  We hope to run together now!  By training my marathon in Numerbega and Auburndale Parks, I hope will continue to run even if my dream to participate marathon bringing the awareness for USA’s people about situation of human rights in Papua has been reachedd.

Coming directly on my mind is to what extend I can prepare deep on the issues that relate to Papua to discuss some important topics on the developmental policies to be effected to the people of Papua, raising questions relate to the indigenous management of natural resources, discussing right education for children in the highland or remote sites, building understanding on how road which relates to the opportunities for the accessibility of Papua and their risk due to  the disaster unpreparedness for the transformation in the areas. I know I can list long thoughts on the issue. Papua has been my passion to be advocated. However, since I am here in the State which gives me the access to share the important issues of Papua on the the particular abusive human rights by the Indonesian militarism to the indegenous people in the areas. Strengthening Militarism in Papua helps to protect the interest of foreign especially Freeport which is the biggest American mining company in the world. Freeport has depleted the area of Papua since the 60s to now .

Some strategies have grown in my mind to address the issues of Papua.   Several meetings have been done but I need to have more lobbying to work with the experts on Papua and civil society to bring this case to the tables of USA 's legislators . The way to go is a long one. On top of that, I am preparing myself to run a Marathon in Washington DC for my campaign on justice in Papua. Since we arrived in MA, I have enjoyed the energy of silence. After two months of the journey on the great American road trip, from the West Coast to the East Coast, arriving to our new home was a big relief for me. Friends at my FB were those whom I shared the entire journey as they appeared in the form of pictures with comments. Smartphone has changed our life especially myself who could share lots of pictures from our trip as stories to my friends and families on this FB network. Travelling needs updates and moves so fast. Memories from the current experiences are captured to be shared directly before the new stories take attention from the old one. Waiting too long gets spoil and dismisses! On the other hand, those stories need to be reflected continually especially on some important aspects to answer the question on how to make efforts to learn from the USA's experience to bring home to Indonesia.

The two weeks in my energy of silence, have actually helped me to plan my targets for living here in Boston beside writing my books at the Institute for Culture, Religion and World Affairs of Boston University where I will be doing workshops for students and community outreach for building culture of peace. My newest project will be relating to PIZZA which stands for "Peace Incredible Zoom Zone Authenticity". This project will bring people to make PIZZA together and reflect on the meaning of its as I have created the authentic understanding of Peace for our earth and world. Bringing peace to Boston to be spread out to this world as the seeds planting in Fall to be blooming in Spring, I will see all people will have a good time together. Actually I have started this project, by introducing PIZZA to the community of Walker Center for the welcoming party two days ago after taking my husband to the airport to head to China. Here, in the Walker Center where the world comes to meet, I made two types of PIZZA, the salami ( non- halal ) and the salam ( halal ) PIZZA because there are friends who are Moslem and Christian living together in this area.

I will be writing more on the details of my stories , but I want this one to be posting now. Life has to move on as I am approaching  the coming of cold weather now. In September 6th, today, while typing, I can feel cold prenetating into my bone. Today the weather in the early morning has gone down to close to zero degree of Celsius or 40 degree of Fahrenheit .  I love the time when my body is wrapped with warm clothes and I walk breathing fresh air. How wonderful God creates this earth for human beings to thanking, enjoying and sharing. I love it! 

PIZZA and its new meaning! Can you guess what?

 

Being in Boston in the month of August

Being in Boston in the month of August
By Farsijana Adeney-Risakotta

August in Boston, Masschussets has been an amazing life for me.  Only we have been here for two weeks, I have felt like we have lived longer.   Masschussets along with other 12 colonies were the first to call for the unity of the USA between the year s of 1776 and of 1789.  Historically, when we returned to our homeland, in Indonesia, at the same years, the islands were occupied by the competitive power from the West.   Historically, the formation of the USA was contributed from  the exchange of  islands between  the Banda island in the archipelago of the Moluccan islands, a source of nutmeg for the Dutch to the New Amsterdam in Manhattan island which was given to the Bristish. I am reffering to the historical moment because only a day after  our arrival in Boston, we joined  the celebration of the Indonesian independence day that was put out by the Indonesians who live in Masschussets.  There were almost 200 people gathering at the Filipello park in Watertown.  Beside having meals together, at the celebration, people did the formal reading of  Pancasila, which is the five principles of  Indonesian political ideology  and the preamble of 1945  nasional law in an official manners.  Still strongly in  my ears people said ..Freedom is rights of all nation before God... Freedom is still a diamond in our county because after 68 years of Indonesian independence,  struggles for the freedom are still continued..

The same of idea regarding  the freedom was renounced by Martin Luther King as resonated during the celebration of his  50 years of amazing speeah “I have a dream”  as celebrated in US.   Freedom has been an issue in human condition since an ancient time.  After the declaration of USA’s independence in 1776, Martin Luther King in 1963 demanded the freedom of all citizens from discrimination conducted by common people as sisters and brothers of the nation. The speech of Martin Luther King has reminded me to reflect to our Indonesian context.  Celebrating the 68 years of Indonesian independence from  the colonial power actually makes me to realize about the similar force might be staying in the different form to  control the Indonesian people especially those who are minority in their etnicities, religions and class status.  

Religious minorities as seen on the application of the local law to effect to the freedom of worshipers to build their religious houses as well as the  ethnic differences within a rich natural resources such as in Papua have called for a national attention.  Indonesians raised the questions on what has happened with the rapid political changes globally to the local people in a remote island like in Madura where the Shia followers were charged to violent the religion of Islam. I remember writing my poem which was titled  who is the human beings to destroy the human beings    http://farsijanaindonesiauntuksemua.blogspot.com/2012/08/siapakah-sang-manusia-pelenyap-sang.html
This poem was later to be visualized into a painting for my art exhibition on peace and justice in Indonesia  < http://pinterest.com/pin/535083999447586870>

The theme was on the exhibition on blog and vizualized art on “Indonesiaku Indonesiamu Indonesia untuk semua” which is translated in English such as my Indonesia, your Indonesia and Indonesia for all.  I name the blog after the title to argue that Indonesia can not be claimed for a particular purpose of some people or groups due to their accesbility in a special region  due to the majority proportion.  Indonesia is not devided, it is united to protect all people in their differences of ethnicities, religions, economic and educational backgrounds

Before we left for USA in the end of June, we ordered  packages of meals of thankgiving to be sent out  to our families, neigbors and colleagues. The purpose of thanksgiving delivery is to ask supports of pray because we were going to USA for a year.  The meals consist on  rice, chickens , vegetables and cakes.   People who received the package of meals reminded us about the semilar meals are made from those who go for Haj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.  Then we explained about our task to go back to USA is to  share to churches in USA about our work and how churches in here can learn from the life of People  in Indonesia. Going back to USA, for me like Moslem go to Mecca.  Since we arrived in June 2013, we were on the road to visit churches to share about the love of Christ to the people around Indonesia where we work together.

I remember of a beautiful evening at the home of Paul and Margareth Heidger in Iowa City where proximately  20 people from the church were sitting around to discuss about the peace efforts to be done in the context by which a citizen is called to respond to the violent action in the nation. Then I showed my art work which was online as appeared at printerest.  Margareth got an idea to connect her  IPOT and their television by which the channel  to see my art works was connected . That night of education,  acctually applied the joined studies to bring people crossing the globe to experience the same issues here, peace and justice.

At the living room, I felt like the art exhibition was moved to there even though it was delivered through my pinterest site http://pinterest.com/farsijanaar  and the special site for my artwire is http://pinterest.com/farsijanaar/art-wire-of-farsijana-adeney-risakotta
 

They were the 44 pieces of my art exhibition that was helt at the Bentara Budaya, an art exhibit hall in Yogyakarta, in May 21-19, 2013.  The 44 pieces are divided into four different material of art which I used to express my understanding of justice and peace.  The first one was on the 11 series of satire of national law which were shaped throughout form of wire art like “ dance of justice”,  “an umbrella of law”, “mirrow of law”, “mafia of law”, etc. The second part was the 11 paintings on canvases using sand, color cement, oil and wood paint. These 11 paintings from my poems at the blog were painted with my left hand during my time when I dislocated my elbow only two weeks before the exhibition was helt. The third ones was the 11 photography of peace about how nature stand for support peace in this world. The last one was the 11 articles of posters to share about my essays to respond to the issues of peace and justice in Indonesia.

Bernie and I are here in Boston to be the visiting fellows at the Institute of Culture, Religion and World Affairs of Boston University where we will have the time to reflect and to write on our experiences to work in Indonesia.  Presbyterian Church USA has supported  us to work for addressing the issue of reconciliation and peace in Indonesia. We have brought Moslem and Christian from grassroots to the academics to come together doing a work that represents the life given by God that needs to be preserved by all God’s children.

Justice needs to be reflected in many ways to bring back the voices of God in this earth.  At the Indonesians’s celebration of the independence, people came to also asked for forgiveness after the Ramadhan when the Moslem sisters and brothers celebrated the new life after a month fasting. Moslem fasting for the sake of God’s forgiveness toward the human’s wrong doing.  In this month of Syawalan, the coming of this new month, even we are far from Indonesia, but Bernie and I would like to ask also “ mohon maaf lahir dan bathin”, please apologise us for what we have seen in phsycally and  in soul.  God be mercy with us in our service in this earth. 

Salam

Farsijana and Bernie

New Song

My husband took a picture of me when we visited the Grand Central Park in New York City in 1997

New Song

By Farsijana Risakotta*)

Welcome life!

A song, just beyond yearning, floats on the breeze,

Whispering a lost melody, in flowing notes of a harp.

Like a far-away voice I know,

Comes a sound like crashing waves, shushing wind,

Or the yawning call in the mouth of a seashell.

Yes, I was close to the voice, far away long ago,

A song of childhood, of dancing with waves, playing

With rivers, forests and wind, in the island of my grandma.

For a long time, the singing has been lost.

To many questions, too little play,

Silenced the still, small voice.

Again I long for that song as a friend on the journey,

Sing for me, far from home, that I may know you again.

O, welcome life!

No longer alone, he is enchanted too,

As we follow the haunting notes of your song.

A new song, a sound of peace, peals out between us,

As we enter the melody

And sing together with the earth

*I wrote this poem for our thanking gift at our wedding party in Berkeley, December 31st 1997. Now I retyped it to thank God for our 15th anniversary this year.