Resolution of the New Month

"Graha told me a story, 'One day, Frog and Toad were caught in the rain. They ran to Frog’s house. 'I am all wet,' said Toad. 'The day is spoiled.''" narrated Swara, after saying Ta'awwudh and Basmalah, then greeting with Salaam, when she visited the Owl, representing the Moon who was obscured by the monsoon mist.

'Have some tea and cake,' said Frog. 'The rain will stop. If you stand near the stove, your clothes will soon be dry. I'll tell you a story while we are waiting,' said Frog. 'Oh good,' said Toad.

'When I was small, not much bigger than a pollywog,' said Frog, 'my father said to me, ‘Son, this is a cold, gray day but spring is just around the corner.’

I wanted spring to come. I went out to find a point of view. I walked down a path in the woods until I came to a corner. I went around the corner to see if spring was on the other side.'

'And was it?' asked Toad. 'No,' said Frog. 'There was only a pine tree, three pebbles and some dry grass.

The pine tree, told me a story from what she heard from men, 'Everytime I hears some words by a rezim leader of a land located on equator, I remembered two men were talking when they were about to eat breakfast. The first man said to another while he brought a box of non-branded oat meal, 'Look! This contains no fat, transfat, cholesterol, sodium, sugar, carbs, caffeine, wheat, nuts, nitrats and so on.'

'Well, what does ut contain?' said another man.

Taking the box, turning it over and shaking it, the first man said, 'NOTHING!'

One of the three pebbles told me, from what he heard from men, 'The regime in this Emerald land is getting more and more totalitarian and formed a cartel, I remember a candidate party member was asked during his interview, 'Have you ever belonged to a criminal gang?' He answered immediately, 'No, never Sir.. .. This is a first for me!'

The second pebble told me, from what he heard from men, 'The regime in this Emerald land is getting more and more totalitarian, they are following the teaching of Mao Zedong and Stalin's work, and a little bit Sun Tzu's war strategies. I remembered when shortly after Lenin was buried in the mausoleum, a pipe burst nea rby and flooded the mausoleum with foulsmelling sewage. When Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow was told about the accident, he declared, 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.'

The last pebble told me, from what he heard from men, 'The regime in this Emerald land is getting more and more totalitarian and wants to stay in office. I remembered when at one time, all forms contained the question 'What's your attitude toward the third extension?' At first, people gave all sorts of answers, I support it,' 'I recognize it,' and a 'few were even brave enough to say 'I don't recognize it.' Later, everyone decided that it was better to write 'I'm a sympathizer.' This answer became routine.

One day, an member of a red party thought about the question and wrote, 'I sympathize, but can't do anything about it.'

The dried grass made a joke one another, from what they heard from men. One of them said, 'The Ruler of the Emerald land, from time to time, is getting to be totalitarian and, somehow, corruptions are growing to be vicious.

At the first, a foreign diplomat, didn't belief it, so he invited several local bureaucrats to had a meeting in his office.

In the meeting, the host noticed that a gold fountain pen had gone missing from atop his desk. He announced tactfully, 'Gentlemen, I'm sure this is someone's idea of a joke. I'll turn out the lights for a moment and whoever took the pen, please return it to my desk.'

The lights were extinguished for a minute and then turned back on. All eyes focused on the desk, where the nickel-plated inkwell, world quality tin-plated blotter, a roll of copper electrical cable, a sheet of aluminum foil made of quality bauxite, and coal samples as material for discussion at the meeting, had gone missing as well.

While swaying gently, another grass told a joke, 'The Ruler of the Emerald land, from time to time, is getting to be an authoritarian and, somehow, Oligopolistic electric and green vehicle suppliers, are dominating. I remember when it was said, Bill Gates and the president of General Motors were having lunch. Gates boasted of the innovations his company had made. 'If GM had kept up with technology the way Microsoft has, we’d all be driving $25 cars that get1,000 m.p.g.'

'I suppose that’s true,' the GM exec agreed. 'But would you really want your car to crash twice a day?'

Another grass added, 'A woman was gone shopping to a busy store. After shopping, she and another woman happened to leave at the same time, only to be faced with the daunting task of finding their cars in the crowded parking lot. Just then her car horn beeped, and she was able to locate her vehicle easily.

'Wow,' the other woman said. 'I sure could use a gadget like that to help me find my car.'

'Ehm actually,' she replied, 'that’s my husband.'

While enjoying the wind, the other grass told a joke, 'The Ruler of the Emerald land, from time to time, is getting to be totalitarian and, somehow, they are oriented to the White Bear. I remembered when the League of Nations was discussing the subject of disarmament. After many hours of debate, one delegate stood up and summarized his impressions with the following tale, 'Once upon a time, a conference of animals took up the question of disarmament. The lion, looking at the eagle, demanded a ban on wings. The eagle, looking at the bull, demanded a ban on horns. The bull, looking at the tiger, demanded a total ban on claws. Finally, the bear rose to speak. He demanded a complete and total ban on every sort of weapon. But don 't you think he did this so that he'd be able to snatch everyone up into a white bear hug?'

The last grass said, ''The regime in this Emerald land is getting more and more totalitarian, the poor are taxed, the rich are tax free. I remember when a lawyer opened the door of his BMW. Suddenly, a passing car hit the door and it few away. The lawyer got so mad—he loved his BMW so much! Soon, the police arrived. The lawyer exclaimed, 'Officer, look what happened to my BMW!'

'Lawyers are so materialistic!' says the officer, 'You are worried about your stupid BMW! Didn’t you notice you’re missing your left arm?'

Frantically, the Lawyer cried, 'What?! Where's my Rolex!?' 

'For a moment, Frog silenced, afterwards he said, 'I walked in the meadow. Soon I came to another corner. I went around the corner to see if spring was there.

'Did you find it?' asked Toad 'No,' said Frog. 'There was only an old worm asleep on a tree stump.

The old worm told me, from what he heard from men, 'The regime in this Emerald land is getting more and more totalitarian and arbitrarily change the rules, even the constitution. I remember when football players at the high school, were stealing the practice jerseys, so the coach ordered a set with 'Property of Central High School,' emblazoned on them. When the thefts continued, he ordered a new batch that had the imprint 'Stolen From Central High School.' But the jerseys still kept disappearing. The larceny finally stopped after he changed the wording to 'Central High School 4th String.'

I walked along the river until I came to another corner.

'Was it there?' asked Toad. 'No,' said Frog. There was only some wet mud and a lizard who was chasing his tail.'

The lizard told me, from what he heard from men, ''The regime in this Emerald land is getting more and more totalitarian and many are held hostage, public ethics are increasingly shallow. I remember when last New Year’s Eve found me in the hospital scheduled for an operation to remove hemorrhoids. So while others donned party hats and sipped champagne, I wore a hospital gown and swigged painkillers. That’s not to say the holiday spirit was completely absent.

The next day, January 1, I woke up to a banner on my bedroom wall. It screamed 'Happy New Rear!'

'You must have been tired,' said Toad.

'Not really, for sure I'm still excited,' said Frog, 'but it started to rain.'

'By the way, ' says Toad, 'To find the spring season, is it your resolution?'

Frog  philosophized, 'People need their dreams. People need to accomplish their dreams, but they don’t know how. To make it worse, they’ve focused on the 'how' when success is found in the 'why.' What makes a person successful is not talent, not charisma, not money. Success is found in the mind, in the mind’s 'why.'

Often times for a person to change their habits, or change their goals, they must first change their 'why.' For many people, that may be difficult because a person’s 'why' is often linked to core beliefs and values, likes and dislikes.

There are many limitations for the mindset of the 'why.' Sometimes the 'why' mindset can be limited by attitude or opinions such as, 'I’ll never be rich,' 'I’m not interested in money,' or 'The rich are evil' Not much changes until there is a shift in these mindsets. For example, if you believe 'I’ll never be rich,' the chances of you becoming rich are slim. Your 'why' won’t even let you try,

When it comes to goals, 'the 'why' affects the 'how.' Both 'how to' and 'why' are important. By expanding your 'why' however, you increase your capacity to achieve greater goals. Most goal-oriented programs will focus on the 'how to.' This is wrong. They want to tell you what to do. They will advise you to make lists, to create smaller goals within the little goals, and to be realistic. They rarely focus on the 'why' mindset.

In simple terms, the 'why' is often just a mental environment. But 'Change your environment… change your life.' Changing or expanding your 'why' will change your life. Achieving your goals is hard enough as it is. If your why isn’t strong enough, it will be impossible to clear the hurdles that are sure to appear in your pursuit. The 'why' is more important than the 'how to.'

On January 7th, one week after everyone has made their New Year’s Resolution, over 75% of people have failed. Did they forget how to accomplish their goal? No! They did not forget where their gym is or how to do a push-up. They lost their will. They lost their 'why.'

Knowing what you can do and actually doing it are two different things. The gap inbetween is where life is found. Success is found in that gap. Knowing what to do is the Function component. Actually doing it comes from the Will component. The reason most people do not do what they can do is because they do not have a strong enough why. Once you find the why, it is easy to find your own how. Instead of looking inside themselves to find their own why for wanting to become rich, most people look for the easy road to wealth. The problem with the easy road is that it usually ends in a dead end.'

'So, I went back home. When I got there,' said Frog, 'I found another corner. It was the corner of my house.'

'Did you go around it?' asked Toad. 'I went around that corner, too,' said Frog. 'What did you see?' asked Toad. 'I saw the sun coming out,' said Frog. 'I saw the birds sitting and singing in the tree. I saw my mother and father working in their garden. I saw flowers in the garden.'

'You found it!' cried Toad. 'Yes,' said Frog. 'I was very happy. I had found the corner that spring was just around.'

'Look, Frog,' said Toad. 'You were right. The rain has stopped.'

Frog and Toad hurried outside. They ran around the corner of Frog’s house to make sure that spring had come again. 'I wanna make some Resolution too.'

Next morning, Frog went to Toads house, 'Toad woke up!'

'Drat!' said Toad. 'This house is a mess. I have so much work to do.'

Frog looked through the window. 'Toad, you are right,' said Frog. 'It is a mess.'

Toad pulled the covers over his head.

'I tought, you've had a Resolution?'

'Tomorrow!' said Toad. I will do it tomorrow,' said Toad. 'Today I will take life easy.' Frog came into the house. 'Toad,' said Frog, 'your pants and jacket are lying on the floor.'

'Tomorrow,' said Toad from under the covers.

'Your kitchen sink is filled with dirty dishes,' said Frog.

'Tomorrow,' said Toad.

'There is dust on your chairs.'

'Tomorrow,' said Toad.

'Your windows need scrubbing,' said Frog.

'Your plants need watering.'

'Tomorrow!' cried Toad.

'I will do it all tomorrow, when my lease is extended for the third time!'"

"That's what Graha told me," Swara ended the talk. "However, I have to go, my echo is getting weaker. We will continue this on another session, Biidhnillah."

Afterwards, Swara was faintly humming,

Itu perahu ...

[The boat ...]

Riwayatnya dulu ...

[It was said ...]

Kaum pedagang s'lalu ...

[The traders always ...]

Naik itu perahu ... *)

[rode the boat ...]

"And Allah knows best."

Citations & References :
- Robert T. Kiyosaki, Goals and Resolutions, Rich Dad
- David Brandenberger (Ed.), Political Humor Under Stalin, Slavica
*) "Bengawan Solo" written by Gesang Martohartono

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