Thursday, December 30, 2010

Count Our Blessings Or Curse Our Fate

Count Our Blessings Or Curse Our Fate?

How beautiful. a woman’s hair which strays from its comb, how sweet a flower which peeks over a neighbor’s fence. Clinton, the U.S. President, according to the American Press, has strayed from his vows during his marriage. This was the journalists’ Christmas and New Year’s present to Clinton that he will remember all his life.

Despite his marriage, his age, Clinton is still sensitive and not blind to the beauty and appeal of women. And it’s very possible that many beautiful women glance stealthily at him. Even if the U.S. President has never been unfaithful, at least he might have fantasized about having an affair.

Fortunately, he is just a human being, not a superman or a god. Because he is no saint, he knows his weaknesses and limitations well and acts as a human being. How could he understand others if he never faces trials or goes astray because of luring “forbidden apples”? Even a hermit could be tempted by a beautiful goddess.

A poet once wrote:
Since I saw her, I think I have been blinded.
For wherever I glance, I don’t see anything, but her.

Well, life would be gloomy, harsh and not humane at all if police officers, government officials, judges and artists were perfect men or robots.

Forbidding every man from straying is like cutting a branch which peeks over a neighbor’s fence. But cutting the branches doesn’t mean that they will not peek over the fence again. Human beings cannot be framed by the definitions of scholars. They cannot be confined by cultural walls, norms and rules.

It’s sad for President Clinton who is handsome and manly. If only his eagerness, ardor for women weren’t so large and could be limited by the “fences” set out by his wife as his American society requires. If he were a man born in King Solomon’s age, he could have had a hundred wives. Having a love-affair is protested by his community, let alone having ten wives.

We know that planet Earth is full of beautiful, charming and warm women. Have we to count our blessings or to curse our fate?

The Jakarta Post January 8, 1994,
From Jayakarta. Original Title, Bill Clinton And Women

December2010

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