Learning to let go...

I hope by now, you have gone to watch PapaDom, a film by Afdlin Shauki. Frankly, I think he's one of the most creative mind to grace our entertainment industry since the late P. Ramlee. I do hope people will appreciate him NOW before it's too late. Gratitude is more meaningful to man alive, rather than dead.

Please tell me you have not seen the movie via a ciplak cd, it'll really break my heart. I'm sure, just like me, you'd like to see Afdlin come up with more creative movies that will entertain us in the future, and hopefully our children.

I don't know about you, but I really love the movie. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me ponder. I left the theatre enveloped with a warm fuzzy feeling of love and tenderness. What more can one ask from a movie.

It started off kind of slow (for Afdlin's standard as he normally attack the audience from the moment he started to narrate things), but it picked up smoothly. Used to Afdlin' comedy mode, I was thrown off guard with some scenes, that instantly turned me into an emo twit.

I won't give away that much because I do not want to spoil it for those who have not seen the movie yet. I love it that it's a simple daily life plot that probably happen to most of us today, but narrated in an angle which brings out the humour and humanity of the ordinary people. If anything, it made ordinary people look extra ordinary.

My favourite bit was a bit more emo as I think, this particular movie touches the heart of all, but especially widows and widowers. I always tell my friends that I hope no one lives to experience what I've experienced in life, in a sense of loosing my hubby. That is because, you will never know how it feels like, until you feel it yourself. No one can feel for the widows/widowers. So there was this bit whereby Dom (Afdlin) said to his late wife in a melancholy tone,(in his imagination of his wife that came to life in the movie), "Abang rindukan Mun" (I miss you Mun), and there was a moment where there was a void of dialog, Dom and Mun looked at each other and then Mun put her chin on Dom's shoulders and lightly hugged him from the side. That particular silence was a loud scream of emotions for those who know how it feels like, to miss someone that they will never be able to be with again. Even as I am writing this, I can feel the gush of sadness dawning. If this be a piece of paper where I'm suppose to scribble with a pen, you'd witness dots of tears smearing the ink and crinkling the points on the paper where my tears had hit them.

Then there's the issue about letting go. If there's any song I see fit to play at the background of this post, it'll be "Strumming my pain, with his fingers, singing my life with his words, killing me softly with his songs..." because this movie sang my life out loud. I'm not as bad a stalker to my kid as Dom was to his daughter, but that words rang true, "Abah hanya ada Mia dalam hidup ni. Mia lah kehidupan Abah" or something like that (I only have you in my life. You are my life). It's true. For most parents, but especially single parents with a single kid, the kid's life becomes the centre of the parent's life, so much so, it will be very difficult for such parents to learn to let go. When the kid goes off to have their own take of the world, most single parents would probably feel a huge void where the kid had stepped away from.

Just like Dom, I know I have let go at some time in the near future. All parents know that. But we also know, that we will never be prepared to face it when the time comes. But I guess that is the ultimate sacrifice and display of love to our children. Learning to let go, and allow them to make their own life, giving room for them to make their own mistakes and to learn from it.

After preparing them for the real world, parents need to just let go, sit back and nibble our nails off in suspense,watching from a short distance and continue to pray ....