Grass is Green Everywhere

Terus terang ku katakan bahawa aku sebagai budak desa yang datang ke bandar untuk menyambung persekolahan menengah berasa cukup bertuah dapat bersekolah di sekolah yang dinamakan STAR. Antara tuahnya aku ialah di sekolah ini buat pertama kali aku betul-betul melihat orang "Mat Salleh". Mereka datang ke Malaya bertugas sebagai guru. Sebelum daripada ini aku hanya melihat gambar orang putih di dalam buku teks sekolah. Di sekolah ini terdapat 4 orang guru keturunan orang putih, seorang daripadanya guru wanita Amerika berkulit putih yang wajahnya sentiasa mengorak senyuman.

Berikut ialah tulisan dari majalah sekolah "Perintis Keluaran Keenam 1963" di dalamnya tersiar sebuah karya oleh guru wanita Amerika tersebut bernana Cik Barbara Guss, US Peace Corps bertajuk Grass is Green Everywhere. Tajuk itu berpuluh tahun dapat ku ingati (tidak isinya!) walaupun majalah itu beberapa lama entah di mana tersimpan tapi kini dijumpai semula.

Grass is Green Everywhere

by Cik Barbra Guss, U.S. Peace Corps

There is a proverb which says, "The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence," describing the tendency of most people to see what they cannot have as being much more desirable than what is available to them. People are always wishing they were almost any place except where they happen to be.

The fact that the men and women all over the world --- in every town, in every country --- long for the pleasures available somewhere else suggests that no one place is truly more desirable than any other place. Grass everywhere is nearly the same; the grass in someone else's field may seem greener only because we look at it in a manner different from that in which we look at the grass in our own field. What is our own and close at hand is so familiar often we do not really see what it is and appreciate all its possibilities.

For example, I came to Malaya from America about six months ago. One of my reasons for coming was exactly that I wanted to see what life was like in a different country, i.e. I wanted to sample the grass in someone else's field. Now that I am far from America I have a much better perspective of life there, and many of the things to which I gave little notice I now realize are most important in making life in America what it is. When I return, I am sure to see the same country as a much more interesting place.

But meanwhile, here in Malaya, I am fascinated by the sights and tastes and sounds and smells, all of which are new to me. When some of my Malayan friends apologize for their country and ask me if I am suffering from the heat or the food or from boredom, I am amazed. How can I be bored when I am living in a country with unique and complex mixture of races and cultures. Malayan hospitality makes it impossible for me to be homesick --- now I have many new families to replace the one I left in America. The sudden changes in weather, violent storms, dramatic cloud formations and sunsets, profusions of colourful flowers, butterflies and birds are causes for exhilaration, not boredom and suffering. Eating richly spiced food and luscious fruits makes eating a daily treats.

Life in Malaya, or in America, or in any place on earth, can be as exciting or dull, as stimulating or stultifying as each individual wishes it to be. People are bored only if they want to be bored. If a person opens his eyes and truly sees, if he takes full advantage of the natural and human resources available to him, he can find an interesting and rewarding life anywhere.

Nota: Cik Barbara Guss dianggarkan berumur 70an di saat ini. Tidak tahu di mana dia berada, berapa anak dan juga cucu.

Latest update 02/3/2011 -

Pengarang serta seorang rakan lama (Dr. Mohd Fadzil Man) berpendapat bahawa inilah wajah Barbara Guss yang terkini. Daripada senyumannya itu meyakinkan kami bahawa inilah foto wajah Barbara Guss terkini, sila klik link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marshallsegal/3615037835/