“Meaning does not erase the weight. It teaches us how to hold it.”
Tiba-tiba telepon pak sopir berdering dan ia meminta izin sebentar untuk menepi, lalu mengangkatnya. “Wei” katanya dan bahasa Mandarin mengalir begitu lancar dari mulutnya. Setelah beberapa saat, ia menutup telepon.
“My mom is Chinese and my dad is Thai” sambil tersenyum. Saya menoleh, tertarik. “Really? My housemates in England were from Taiwan. They spoke Mandarin too and oh gosh, the food was amazing.”
Matanya langsung berbinar. Ia mulai menyebutkan berbagai nama makanan, lengkap dengan cara memasak dan rasanya. Nada suaranya penuh antusias, seolah setiap hidangan membawa cerita sendiri.
“Wow, you work such long hours and still have that kind of energy. I mean, you stay on the road for hours.” “Of course I get tired. Most days I am out here maybe twelve hours. Sometimes more.”
“So how do you do it? Do you ever feel burned out?” Ia berpikir sebentar sebelum menjawab.“Burnout comes when work has no meaning. If you only work for money, the heart gets tired fast.”
Kalimat itu terasa sederhana, tapi dalam. “When I grew up, my mom always said, you work for your family, for your children and for the people who came before you. Work is a way to honor where you come from.”
Ia tersenyum, “In some country, work feels like something you just have to finish but for us, being tired feels different when we know why we are doing it.” Ada rasa hangat saat saya mulai memahami sesuatu yang sebelumnya samar.
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Friedrich Nietzsche
Part 33.
