Monday, March 14, 2016

Thanks to the Moon


I still have no guts to read Intelegensi Embun Pagi. Perfectionist and sequential-ist took over. Well, actually it's just so apology for the lazy to the bone (malas gak ketulungan), while there are bunch of books waiting to be read. Darn, I should have drunk that remedy more often!

Despite how messy my nowadays life is, indicated by some missing daily targets, I had great experience of my first Solar Eclipse on March, 9, 2015. I know the event was a hype, and there could be thousand blog posts about it. So this is abzolutely an I don't care post, as always.

Yogyakarta only got that thin crescent sun, not full black one. At least it is still so eclipse (yes, what else). Went to Tugu to feel the hype at 6.15 a.m, when people were ready for eclipse prayer at Mosque. Me and friends decided to be infidel, and watched the eclipse first. But on the way, we had this hesitation, because seriously, soo many people were on the way to the closest mosque, instead of trying to reach the sun (?). But once we got there, at the parking area of the hype, we didn't feel any doubts anymore about being infidel. God understands (only Its creatures don't).

We didn't have any filtered sunglasses, but I knew there was a moon starting to swallow the star. Got you, Sun. At first I was trying to watch with naked eyes, which was so moron, and yes, the sun was still shining so bright - couldn't see the moon covering it. Then tried with the reflection from phone's black screen. Although it still hurt the eyes because the sun's reflection was still bright, friends said they could identify the moon. Only I couldn't. This such moronic act ended up useless. And we then looked more moron, because actually there were volunteers surrounded us, named Laskar Gerhana (Eclipse Army) from Taman Pintar, who were helping the mass to watch the solar eclipse safely (and not moronically). They had the equipments, and although limited in number, it was soooooo helping. We didn't reach the telescope spot, but filtered glasses was already a fun. When I saw that crescent sun............................................... Oh, God. I lost my words, and keep screaming, keep alay-ing, keep moving there and there trying to check on every equipment the Laskar had. Me totally was like cacing kepanasan.

I sensed the hype, I felt the energy. Got myself recharged to the max. Awesome experience. Because of that energy stuff, some minutes after the eclipse peak, precisely 30 minutes before the lunar shadow on Yogyakarta disappeared, I and one friend decided to go to mosque, to do the eclipse prayer, more like saying thanks to that cool Matter. Better late than never. We were now, an almost infidel.

Again, what's wonderful about this eclipse is, it is a rare phenomenon, yet almost all people could enjoy it, from mother grinding those spices, to Pak-Pak in the parking lot. Everyone. Solar eclipse is not elitist. It is so classless. In the era of late-capitalism, this is just a relieve. The solar eclipse hype reminds us that there are still free things on earth, including sun and air (not the clean one though), no matter how busy it is the money circulation. It brings us back to the Provider. Monetary system looks sooooo tiny within this paradigm.

Also, as I watched from Tugu, I could see there were no person who said, "dude, you're covering my sight", statement that's so common in concert or other hype events. I behaved carefully, afraid that I'd cover people's sight behind me. Yet I had forgotten, this was the real star that we were talking about. Faaar away high in the sky. There you go, the gorgeous black Sun. Thanks to the Moooooooooooon!!!!!