Pig takes half day off

“Robert, this afternoon, I won’t be able to work in the garden with you. Can you do it alone?” I said.

“Sure.” Robert nodded his head. “Where will you go?”

“I don’t go anywhere. I stay at home.”

“Then why can't you work in the garden?”

“I am writing a strategy for my online career. I need to revise it and perhaps I will make a new one. You know! my financial situation.”

“Why do you do strategy?”

“Because it is a thing to make a work go even though it is a job or business. Even living our lives, we need to have a strategy as well.”

Robert wagged his head, “I see.”

Pig works harder and harder

Before I got up at 8am, but after I removed the adsense from my youtube channel, I got up at 6am. I worked in the garden and took one hour off to have lunch then I continued working till 5pm.

After I had dinner, I took a shower then I brought my laptop to sit in a chair in my front yard.

“These days you seem to work a lot,” Robert said.

“I lost a part of my income; I cannot have leisure time like before,” I said.

“Well, what are you doing?” 

“I am updating my websites.”

“Website?”

“I’m a blogger. It’s one of the jobs that humans do to earn money.”

“What do you do as a blogger?”

“Write.”

“Write what?”

“Anything. Like me, I write creative stories, administration job experience, food and travel, and sample TV commercial script.”

“I don’t understand any of them, but I think you are a super pig.”

“Do you want to be a super dog? I am pleased to be your mentor.”

“Yes, yes.” Robert wagged head in a row before he came to sit on a chair next to me.

Greedy makes pig lose

“Are you okay?” Robert asked when he heard me have long and heavy breathes in a row.

“I am not okay,” I said. “I have to confess that I am not okay.”

“Are you angry with them?”

“No, I am not angry with them; I am just not okay with myself.”

I knew that Robert didn’t understand, hence I explained after I drank a hot passion tea.

“Actually since the beginning, that company told already that my location is not eligible to apply for monetization on their website. Because I wanted money, I changed the location to get permission to get my videos monetized. They know, they know that I lied but they still allow it. Before I didn’t understand, but now I understand - like the Buddha said about karma; we are the ones who are responsible for our own action. Because I lied to them by putting their own country as my location, I must pay tax according to their country’s tax law. A poor country pays tax to the rich country, can you imagine? It’s the reason that in order to get USD 100, I had to spend two years. Now, they add another tax; at first, I was angry with them, but after thinking, it is not their fault, it’s my own greed who kills myself, they wanted me to learn my own lesson. It’s the result that I lied.”

“If you understand it, why are you not happy?”

“The unhappiness that I am having now is the punishment from my own doing.”

“Oh I see." Robert wagged his head. "After that, what will you do?”

“I will remove adsense from my video channel and I will change my location to my true location. Not only on that website but also other websites - I will change location to Cambodia and let it decide to allow me monetize or disable my videos. I will earn money by working hard and with sincerity.”

“I support you,” Robert said and raised his palm.

“Thanks buddy,” I said and raised my palm to meet with his; and we both smiled.

After pig receives email

“Robert,” I said “I won’t be able to meet you for a few nights.”

“Why?” Robert said.

“I am busy checking my account after the company asked me to pay another tax. Also I am busy thinking whether I should continue all my accounts or not.”

Why are there problems in our lives?

These few nights Robert and I didn’t have time to talk because we were tired since we worked hard in the garden during the day. 

The situation in the human’s society seemed to not be getting any better, and I needed to prepare in case it turned out to be worse.

After collecting enough food to put in the storage, Robert and I could have a relaxing night outside my house.

“All parts of my body ache,” Robert said.

“Me too,” I said.

“Well, I am thinking about life. All of us who live in this world seem to have problems. No one can escape even if it is human or animal. I wonder why there are problems.”

“If you ask me, I can share my own opinion that the problem is coming from us - ourselves.” I made a pause to take a sip of warm tea, then I carried on, “There is another name of the problem, it is conflict. There are two major conflicts, internal conflict and external conflict. Internal conflict is about an argument between yourself. For example, you want to do something but you are scared to do it, so you fight inside your own self to do or not to do. The external conflict is an argument between you and things outside, sometimes it can be between you and another person, you and the things such as the weather, the natural disasters, etc. No matter if it is the internal or external conflict, it happens because you don’t agree with it, more than that you try to change it to become what you want it to be. When it doesn’t become like what you want, your mind is not pleased, you try to find another way. If it becomes like what you want it to be, your mind is happy, but might think it is not enough, you want to make it better, so you try to find a way to make it happen like what your new mind wants it to be. Back and forth, every day, every time, non-stop. And everyone in the world does the same, and it becomes their forever activities and from generation to generation until now.”

Robert wagged his head, “I can feel what you said.”

Why are they fighting?

For the whole day, the farms next to my house were very quiet. This was not normal because at least in a day they liked to create a noise for a few seconds. However, all my media-friends came to tell me without needing me to go to ask. They told me that their masters were worried about the recent happenings in the world, so they told their sons and daughters that had families to not go out or visit them in order to not make them spend much. 

I could understand their worries. The recent events didn’t bring happiness not only to humans but also animals.

Robert heard about this matter. He seemed to be sad as well. At night he asked me, “Why are humans fighting?”

Like previous nights, I told him a story.

“I heard from my ex-master’s eldest daughter when she started to work in the magazine. According to the rule of the country, the new magazine needed to send their reporters and people who worked relevant such as translator and editor to get training for one week about how to write a report that was quality and gave peace to the society. One of the trainers told a story which was a creative story but it was based on what happened in the world while it was in chaos. It said during that time, there was a family running to live in a cave. That family had three members - a father, mother and a son who was about six years old. When they were having a meal, the son asked why they needed to leave their home to live in such a dark cave. The father said because a tiger and an elephant were fighting. The son asked why the tiger and elephant were fighting. The father said because the tiger was not a good animal. Immediately, the mother said the tiger was not bad, it was the elephant who was not good. Then two of them argued with each other. At that moment, the son wagged his head and said, “Oh I understand why they are fighting.”

Robert shrank his eyes, “Really? He did understand?”

“What about you? Can you find out?”

“No.” Robert shook his head.

“Then let’s hear the end of the story.” I took a sip of warm tea before I said, “When their parents heard, they stopped arguing and turned to ask their son “Why?” and the son said, “The tiger and the elephant fight each other because they don’t agree with each other - like the two of you.”

“Ah…” Robert wagged his head. “All the conflict, no matter if it is an argument or a fight, happens because those who are involved don't agree with each other. In conclusion, they have different ideas.”

I smiled, “You are progressing.”

History teachers

Tonight, Robert was laying on the ground next to my lounge, quietly. 

Seeing he was not active, I asked, “Don’t you want to know anything more?”

“I am thinking,” Robert said and continued to be quiet. A few minutes later, he said, “I can’t think of anything. Perhaps you choose by yourself to tell me.”

“Well,” I poured tea into my cup and took a sip before I started, “when I was living in my ex-master’s house, one day I heard his younger son ask his mother why the students needed to study history. His mother said she didn’t know. Then he said one day he went to study in the class of a teacher at his school. That teacher said that the reason all students needed to learn about history was to know which country invaded their own country and they had to take revenge. The next day, he went to enroll in another class, it was the same subject but with a different teacher. That teacher said to his students that the reason everyone needed to learn about history was to find what had happened and what the mistakes people in ancient times had done in order to get understanding and to not repeat it again even if it was the war. After telling, his mother asked who he thought was right; he said he didn’t think who was right or wrong, he just agreed with the second teacher because he had the same idea as him.”

“I think that young guy was right.”

“Well,” I said after I took another sip, “what I want to tell you is each person has their own point of view. However you have to be careful when you listen to someone who you or a group of people consider as a person who is in a position to give a speech or as your guide because some of them might confuse their own opinion with the opinion of what they are talking about and lead the listeners to wrong understanding. So, when you hear something from someone, please listen but don’t believe it, you must search for more information and opinion from other people until you have enough data to make a conclusion.”