I'm writing this as my entry for #KuisRombongan about #KartiniKu held by these 10 online shops: @Hers_Bag, @adasaripohatji, @deEtalase, @balialusID, @fellastore, @AlesaSprei, @OmaraHouse, @cillahelios2nd, @stupidroom, and @bodybesties.
Actually, I wrote a paper about my role model several months ago for one of Entrepreneurship subject's assignments. Since my role model happens to be a woman, and after I spent quite a time thinking long and hard, I still see her as my role model, my idol, the one I wish to follow the path, and, following the theme of the quiz, my Kartini.
Who is she?
Yesssshhhhooo, she is none other than our Queen, Joanne Kathleen Rowling. Why is she my role model? The piece I wrote for my assignment paper have perfectly summarized why, so I guess I'll just go ahead and copypasted it here (with some additions here and there to summarize my whole 15 pages of paper):
One can read from her books to
see the characters of Rowling. Her novels contain many criticisms to social
issues, from racism, indoctrination, war, to anti-government sentiments.
Rowling once explained that she “wanted Harry to leave our world and find
exactly the same problems in the wizarding world. So you have the intent to
impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is this
great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think
themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they
can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel [to
Nazism]. It wasn't really exclusively that. I think you can see in the Ministry
even before it's taken over, there are parallels to regimes we all know and
love."
She also once said that “you
have a moral responsibility when you've been given far more than you need, to
do wise things with it and give intelligently”, being the reason why Rowling
gave a good portion of her wealth to charity and philanthropy works, so much that she's now out of the millionaire list status (and she isn't bothered even a slightest bit by this). She taught
me that the more we have wealth, the more we have responsibility to help others
who are unfortunate.
For me, her work has already
become a part of my life. She taught me many things through her writing, about
human, about humanity. She taught me about love, bravery, about what’s actually
matter, about putting everything you’ve got for your loved one. She taught me
about bad things, too. Death, anger, sadness, depression, pain, and how to cope
with those things. She taught me that a woman is also a human being, and we have rights to have feeling and being emotional and also show our strengths in defending what we believe. I grow up with Harry Potter. It’s been with me for almost
fourteen years, taking up more than half of my life. What she taught me through
her work, has contributed quite a considerable amount of what I am now, of what
I value in my life. I don’t think I will be what I am now if back then in 2001
I didn’t grab the last Harry Potter’s third book in stock, and soon engrossed
in reading right after I tore the plastic cover.
She also taught me about the importance of failure. At the Harvard University
Commencement on 5 June 2008, Rowling gave a powerful, heartening speech about
the failures in her life and the benefits behind the failures.
“Why do
I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping
away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything
other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the
only work that mattered to me. I was set free because my greatest fear was
realized. Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so
cautiously that you might as well have not lived at all, in which case you fail
by default.”
In my perspective, her view
about failure is an essential value for human being. Many people wrote the
success stories of various great people, but many also forgot that successes
and failures are not two separate things. They are parts of one. Achieving
success means going through a pathway full of failures and hardships. Her
speech is a crucial reminder, that aside from being ready to success, one must
also remember to be ready to fail, because accepting failure means accepting
who you really are, and an essential step to get up from the failure and be
ready to climb again.
Gerson of the Washington Post
also described what he considered to be the very subversive nature of the Harry
Potter books in the answer they offer to death. Voldemort believes that death
must be mastered and "beaten". In contrast, Harry accepts the
necessity of his own death for the sake of love. Gerson also suggests that some
will ask the book series about tolerance also be a book series about religion.
He answers that many others "believe – not in spite of their faith but
because of it – that half-bloods, werewolves and others should be treated with
kindness and fairness. Above all, believers are called to love, even at the
highest cost."
Although she dislikes
fundamentalist in any form, she herself has a strong faith to God. Her faith
expressed in many Biblical themes and references in Harry Potter. Rowling stated
that Hogwarts is a multifaith school and she claims to have been very careful
not to colour her novels in an overtly religious way, lest one faith be given
prominence over any other. Still, the moral significance of the tales seems
"blindingly obvious" for her. The key for Rowling was the choice
between what is right and what is easy, "because that, that is how tyranny
is started, with people being apathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly
finding themselves in deep trouble." Her view about "It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God." taught me that race, gender, or even religion doesn't define a person. Instead, their morality itself and the values that they hold are what define them as a person. We can't blindly judge that someone who does not believe in God is automatically evil or someone with a complete faith to God is perfectly good in every way.
There are more things that she said and done that inspire me, but I guess if I put it here it will be as long as my 15-pages assignment paper lol so I'll just stop here with a quote by
blogger Naomi Arsyad, in her review of The Casual Vacancy that was seen by
many Rowling’s readers as voicing their view on the impact of Rowling’s books
in their life:
“Just
like Harry Potter series that taught us about friendship, struggle, love,
believe, and other things, The Casual Vacancy taught us something too. It taught
us that life is not really that simple. That we live in this world with many kind
of people so we have to be open-minded. We can't judge someone/something from
one side, because people have limitation. Being open-minded make us learn
everyday to be wiser, to be a better person.”
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