Why Looking at Screens is Ruining Your Concentration Skill

I often laugh at myself when I watch a certain movie on TV and I recognize the actor/actress' face from other movie but I don't remember the title of the movie. The thing I do that makes me laugh afterwards is trying to google that information by using my smartphone.

So I go to Wikipedia to find more information about that actor/actress. I read the filmography part, and there it is; I manage to help my memory to remember the title of the movie, thanks to Wikipedia. Then I recall my memory about the story from that movie that I have watched. So, when my brain is very busy thinking about that and googling from the smartphone, the movie on TV in front of me is playing.

I feel very ridiculous about that. It is like breaking my concentration from enjoying the movie in front of me. I don't blame my smartphone. I blame myself for placing it near me when I watch the movie. I blame myself for letting my brain recall the title of that actor/actress' other movie. What I should have done is to focus on the movie.

I remember what my teacher had told me long ago about what not to do when reading an English article. She asked me to never open the dictionary when I found some words that I didn't know the meaning. She said that I had to go on reading that article. I could open the dictionary to find the meaning of the difficult words after I finished reading it. I thought maybe she wanted me to guess the meaning of the words from the context while reading.

Then I can finally make a conclusion for myself about what her point is. It is for training my concentration skill. If I often pause when reading just to find the meaning of the difficult words from the dictionary, I will break my concentration. I will not enjoy my reading process.

So now, I try to avoid watching TV programs in which there are some commercial breaks. It means that I limit myself from watching the news, music programs, soap operas, movies on TV, especially national TV channels. Those channels will air their programs with more than five minute commercial breaks for every break. But I still enjoy a movie channel like Fox Movies Premium from cable TV. One whole movie has no commercial breaks on that channel.

Playing games on smartphones can develop our concentration skill? If it is offline, yes it can make us focus on playing and enjoying. But when it must be online, we don't really focus on playing the game because sometimes there is also some advertisement on the screen which will distract our attention.

When it comes to talking about social media and online shopping, those two screen activities are surely focusing on messing up my attention. The notifications of friends' activities on social media application or promotions of sale from an online shopping website can often make me check my phone.

Thanks to the facility of 'uninstall app' or 'disable app' from the smartphone. Right now I am mentally healthy without facebook. The online shopping is sometimes still a magnet for me. But I try to be strict to myself by telling that I don't really need the product that has made my heart beat very fast.

Therefore, if you would like to exercise your own concentration skill, just do anything you like without any distraction. For example, you can make a handicraft. Or you can read a simplified novel without any attempt to pause. Turn off your TV or personal computer and stay away from your smartphone while you are doing it.

Pasrahnya Tukang Ojek Konvensional

Dua minggu yang lalu, saya ngobrol dengan salah seorang tukang ojek konvensional. Saat itu memang saya sedang menunggu ibu saya yang akan berkunjung ke rumah saya. Saya menunggu ibu di dekat pemberhentian bus. Tak jauh dari situ, saya melihat ada pangkalan ojek konvensional. Saat saya sedang duduk sendirian, saya dihampiri oleh seorang pria separuh baya. Obrolan basa-basi berlanjut ke obrolan yang lebih serius tentang profesinya sebagai tukang ojek konvensional.

Bapak tukang ojek itu awalnya berprasangka bahwa saya juga tukang ojek, karena mungkin penampilan saya saat itu menyerupai tukang ojek; berjaket, bercelana panjang, dan membawa helm cadangan. Saya memaklumi prasangka dia karena memang ada tukang ojek, baik konvensional maupun online, yang berjenis kelamin perempuan. Walaupun saya sudah menjelaskan bahwa saya menjemput ibu saya, dia bilang "Nyari penumpang juga gak papa kok, Bu. Wong niatnya cari rejeki halal kok."

Dia kemudian bercerita bahwa dulu dia sempat tergiur untuk menjadi tukang ojek online. Maka dia kemudian berusaha mengumpulkan uang untuk membeli smartphone. Setelah diterima menjadi tukang ojek online dan mendapatkan fasilitas berupa jaket dan helm dari perusahaan ojek online tersebut, dia menjalani pekerjaan itu. Namun dia hanya bisa bertahan selama tiga hari (entah itu sesuai fakta atau dia membuat ceritanya terkesan dramatis). Dia tidak kuat dengan tekanan kerja sebagai tukang ojek online yang seakan tanpa henti, dari setelah subuh sampai malam hari. Dia merasa seperti tidak diberi kesempatan untuk beristirahat oleh aplikasi ojek tersebut.

Lalu saya bertanya ke dia apakah dia akan terkena sanksi jika tidak mengambil pesanan ojek yang masuk ke dia. Dia tidak mengetahui banyak tentang itu. Yang dia lakukan ketika dia sudah terlalu kelelahan, dia mematikan smartphone miliknya. Dia tidak ingin kondisi motor dan badannya semakin parah. Oleh karena itu, dia memutuskan untuk mengundurkan diri. Dia pun sudah mengembalikan fasilitasnya ke perusahaan. Dia kembali menjadi tukang ojek konvensional.

Dia berusaha legowo dan pasrah dengan nasibnya yang hanya sebagai tukang ojek konvensional. Dia pikir kalau memang rejekinya, akan selalu ada penumpang yang membutuhkan jasa dia karena tidak semua orang memiliki smartphone. Dia bilang "Kerja gini aja sudah bersyukur. Itung-itung motor agak awet dan badan gak terlalu remek."

Kemudian bis yang ditumpangi ibu saya datang. Saya langsung berdiri karena saya lihat ibu saya sudah bersiap turun dari bus. Tukang ojek itu sepertinya baru sadar bahwa saya memang mau menjemput ibu saya; bukannya mau cari penumpang😀. Ketika ibu saya sudah saya bonceng, bapak itu dengan ramah bilang "Monggo, Bu. Hati-hati."

Perkembangan teknologi yang sangat cepat memang membuat beberapa gelintir orang tidak mampu mengikutinya. Beberapa alasannya berkaitan dengan dana dan area; dana yang hanya cukup buat makan sehari-hari, dan area yang tidak terjangkau oleh internet. Namun, dari beberapa gelintir orang itu, masih tetap ada orang yang selalu bersyukur dan menerima apapun yang diperolehnya.

Choose: You feel good if you look good OR you look good if you feel good

Are you the type of a woman who loves to wear fancy clothes, expensive jewelry, and a full face of makeup? You must be a lady who is gorgeous to look at. Almost everybody, especially man, is willing to wait for your appearance to adore it, to enjoy it. Some ladies will look at you, either thinking that you show off or they are inspired by how you dress and make up your face.

Or are you the type of a man who loves looking good every day by wearing mix-and-match outfits and some accessories? Oh, you must attract ladies' attention. Some gentlemen will rather envy your look while some others don't even care.

Let's just ignore people's opinion on how you look. Let's focus on you. How do you feel after you make sure that everything related to your appearance is perfect? Do you feel good? Is that feeling good or feeling proud? Well, at least there is a feeling of satisfaction which is worth the money that you spend on those clothes, accessories, and cosmetics. So, based on your taste of appearance, I think you will agree with this quote: You feel good if you look good.

If, on the other hand, you don't really care about how to mix and match clothes, how to choose colors that suit your skin, what accessories to wear on whose wedding party, and so on, I think you will agree with the following quote: You look good if you feel good. On what occasion will you feel good for example? Is it when you read a good book? Is it when you enjoy your solitude with listening to your favorite music? Is it when you have fun climbing a mountain with your lovely spouse?

When you read an interesting book, for example, your eyes are focused. When you focus your eyes, you focus your brain. If your brain is often focused, it means your brain is healthy. I think persons with a healthy brain will look good because they can think clearly, they can make their brain quickly relax, and they can respond quickly if you need them.

So, what is your chosen quote this time? You feel good if you look good? Or you look good if you feel good? You decide.

Why afraid of aging?

There is nothing wrong with looking pretty and fresh with flawless skin for a woman. That will make her confident and happy. She is happy because she can make others happy by looking at her pretty face. With a simple makeup, she will have that pretty and fresh face skin.

There is also nothing wrong with having a facial treatment for a woman's face. She needs that because of the everyday makeup that makes her skin difficult to 'breathe'. So the skin will be healthier. To do a facial treatment, she can have a variety of choices, from home-made treatment to beauty clinic visit. If she is frugal with her money and wants to go back to nature, she can use things from the kitchen or fridge for facial treatment, such as banana, tomato, or even rice flour (for face mask). If she has a lot of money and wants to look modern, she can visit the best beauty clinic in town.

A little controversy will emerge if some extremely strange substance is used by a beauty clinic to give a facial treatment. One example of this strange substance is applied to Sandra Bullock. I will not mention here what substance is used in the treatment. If you are curious, just google it with 'Sandra Bullock's facial treatment' keywords. And you'll be shocked.

It is okay if Sandra Bullock doesn't want to have many wrinkles on her face because she is an actress. She wants to look flawlessly perfect in front of the camera. But I don't doubt her ability to act, so even if she already has aging skin, her performance in movies will still be inspiring. I guarantee because I love her every movie.

Anyway, Sandra Bullock has her own right to spend her money on that facial treatment, which I think is controversial and which is not a controversy in her opinion. She wants to be forever young to please her fans. In that way, she will remain happy.

Because I am an ordinary person with an ordinary life style, it makes me peaceful to accept the very fact that I age. I try to have a healthy life style because that's a must for me, but I am not denying that I will age. I am not denying that my body will decay eventually. So, I want to have a peaceful, happy soul with my own quote: "To age is to become wiser". To inspire you more, this is a satirically funny quote from George Bernard Shaw: "Do not try to live forever, you will not succeed."

Happy Fasting

I just had a conversation with some teenagers. They talked about their experience of fasting in this Ramadan month. It was a very light conversation because I was asking about the menus they had for iftar and suhoor. Some of them had difficulties in waking up for suhoor, so they didn't eat anything for suhoor. Then when it came to iftar, they were so hungry that they could eat a horse. So, on the way to go home from school, they would buy anything that they wanted to eat later at iftar. But when it really came to iftar, their hunger and thirst would be satisfied with only drinking a glass of sweet hot tea.

Then I remember myself when I was still a teenager doing fasting in Ramadan month. What happened to them happened to me too. I wished I could eat anything I wanted when it came to iftar, but my stomach couldn't take it. Anyway, I still tried to eat all I wanted because I wanted to feel full. When my mom woke me up for suhoor, I felt that my eyes and my whole body so heavy that I couldn't get up. As a result, I was just up for a while for a glass of water, and then went back to sleep again.

Growing old, I can feel the huge benefit of enjoying iftar moment by drinking a glass of hot tea and some dates (if I have the stock in the fridge). And those teenagers, who had a light conversation with me, are perfectly correct. At iftar, I can satisfy my hunger and thirst by sipping my hot tea slowly and doing it mindfully. After giving some long pauses, I will really enjoy my meal without feeling too full or too greedy to eat any other food.

Doing fasting in Ramadan month feels so much better when I don't have to worry about the limited stocks of food in my fridge, and when I don't have to join conversations about mouth watering food and drink😁.

Enjoy your Ramadan fasting.

It is Just a Tool

If you are a real thriller movie lover, you must have watched Joyride. If you haven't, and if you miss Paul Walker so much, please watch this movie. This Joyride movie is really thrilling to watch. The thing happening in the movie can possibly happen in real life. Just imagine when you want to prank someone you don't know by using a CB radio. And the next thing is out of control. That person you pranked is a psychopath and he always tries to scare you to death by chasing you down and hurting those who are close to you.

There is one important lesson from that movie: Think twice when you are about to prank somebody. If you already know that person, but he is not in his good mood to receive your prank, he perhaps will be angry with you for days. If you know nothing about this person, the worst case is like in Joyride movie. It's true that pranks can be funny, but you must keep in mind that some people are very aggressive.

The case in Joyride actually starts from a CB radio. After watching that movie, some usually give a comment like this: "Huh, this is because of that CB radio!" Or this comment: "See! That CB radio is the cause of everything." The tool makes a mistake. But, can it really make mistakes?

If you blame the CB radio, maybe you experienced different ways of upbringing when you were still a kid. For example, when you were still learning to walk and then you fell down the floor, your mom maybe said something like this:"Oh no, this floor is naughty. Are you hurt, baby?" And then she hit the floor in front of your eyes, meaning that she gave a punishment to the floor.

Let's think about the CB radio again. What's the real function? It's for communication within a specific range, right? If you misuse it, be ready to get the consequences.

What's the use of a knife? For peeling fruit, for cutting meat, for slicing bread. If you use it for crime, be ready to stay in jail.

So, a CB radio or a knife is just a tool.Whether you use it to do good or bad, it is not a good tool or a bad tool. It is just a tool.

A Newcomer

It's been a while I haven't written about my cats. There are only 3 cats left which always stay in the house or somewhere around my yard; Keni, Gembul, and Gogon. Gembul's mother is Krisi. I don't know Gogon's mother because I took it from a public trash site some days ago. He was alone, still a small kitten, and looked filthy. The first night of Gogon's coming, Gembul looked very angry. He always hissed at Gogon when he came closer to Gembul. He didn't even sleep in my bed at that night because there was Gogon in that bed. But on the next day, Gembul started to welcome Gogon because they could play chase and friendly fight, not a real fight. This morning when I saw them doing a friendly fight, Gogon chose to be in a defeated position. I think he did that because he wanted to be accepted as a lovely pet in the house.

Domi, my oldest cat, is still fine. He often plays in my neighbor's house. He goes there after he finishes his breakfast and then comes home at dusk. Sometimes he doesn't come home at dusk. But I am not worried because he is a well behaved cat.

Keni is now healthy again. A few months ago, he came back crawling with his mouth full of vomit. I was suspicious that he accidentally ate some food containing poison when he was outside. Or maybe there was some random person in the neighborhood who did not like Keni's being naughty, so he poisoned him. I was not very sure. My focus was how to make Keni's condition back to normal. He couldn't walk, he couldn't close his mouth, but fortunately his tongue was still reacting when I gave him the green coconut water. That water is said to be effective to cure for this case. Slowly but effectively, Keni was getting much better.

Encrit, however, couldn't make it. She got the same condition as Keni. But because she was often sick when she was still a little kitten, she became very vulnerable to diseases and poison attack. She died three days later.

Soon after that, Krisi delivered Gembul. After Gembul could eat by himself, Krisi started to draw herself away from Gembul. She was often running away from Gembul when he came closer to her. She chose to be close to Domi. Then one day, she disappeared. She hasn't gone home until now. And that happened to Kiki, too. I don't know where they are until now. I hope there is a family falling in love with Krisi and Kiki's cuteness. If they are still alive, I am sure they will come back. They are newcomers for other houses, and Gogon is a newcomer in my house.

What to Learn from a Know-It-All

A few days ago, I had a little conversation with a person I met in a beauty salon. She was confused about what Islamic boarding school she would send her son to. She said that she wanted her son to get good Islamic education from a good boarding school.

Because I only know the names and locations of some famous boarding schools and don't understand any details of them, I only mentioned those schools' names and little information about them from some persons who claimed that they had studied there.

She replied that she was skeptical about those schools because she heard that the students living there experienced much discomfort, such as limited meal, bed bugs, limited number of bathrooms, and so on.

From what I try to understand, maybe she belongs to the know-it-all category. She loved to talk much about the topic that she didn't quite understand. Also, maybe she thought that I knew more than her and she didn't want that.

She looked a little bit impatient when listening to me. The way she responded was making me feel bad about my own statement.

Know-it-alls like to make their statement formulation sound like a fact. For example, when a car accident happens, they make a sudden concluding statement like: 'The driver is careless.' They disregard any other possibilities such as car engine breakdown, sudden body paralysis, distraction from other vehicles, or poor road facilities.

But of course, there are always some lessons behind any situation. Know-it-alls make me know that I don't know. When listening to a person with a background of language study giving an opinion about political situations in his country, it makes me learn that talking about something beyond my field is absurd. I know myself that I don't know much about politics. So I will not share what I have in mind about politics to public.

Know-it-alls encourage me to dig deeper about things that I am really interested in. For example, when they say that movie A is more qualified than movie B, I myself will check those two movies. I get the benefits of entertainment and life lessons from the movies.

Last but not least, know-it-alls make me aware of the danger of wrong interpretation. Their desire to not control their words prevents me from saying without some previous thoughts.

So, why don't we become a learn-it-all instead of a know-it-all? Let's learn thoroughly about anything of our interest so that when it comes to stating opinions, ours are well-researched ones.

Two Tips to Have Qualified Breathing

Have you ever thought about the way you breathe? Never? That makes sense since breathing is always automatically done. As long as you are alive, you will automatically do it. You don't need to force your brain to give command to breathe.

There are times when you find it a little bit difficult to take a breath, for example, when you are tired, when you have a big problem, or when you get a sudden asthma attack. It feels as if the oxygen you inhale could never come to your lungs. I often experienced that when I was still young. When I was a kid, for instance, after I got tired from playing hide and seek, I often ran out of breath, making me inhale and exhale quickly by slightly opening my mouth. The more I breathed, the more tired I became. When I felt very cold at night, I did that same way of breathing, making the coldness worse.

Then I realize that my breathing way is all wrong. I breathed through my nose and mouth most of the time. So, for the sake of a better condition of my body, I have two tips for my qualified breathing:

1. When I don't speak, I discipline myself to really close my mouth to let my nose do the breathing. This is actually difficult because it is about changing a habit. But it really works. When I focus in doing this kind of breathing way, I feel that I breathe less. And this makes my body more relaxed.
2. When I inhale through my nose, I focus to move my belly; not my chest and shoulders. Based on the breathing theory, it's called diaphragm breathing. After I don't move my chest and shoulders when breathing, I don't experience extreme fatigue anymore.

Those two tips give me a chance to appreciate the use of my body parts. Consequently, I can have a better quality of life.

You can do those two tips too if you like. There is nothing to lose to try a better way of everyday things like breathing.

A Picture to Remember

When you take a photograph using a very good camera, you usually have the need to adjust everything before you really shoot. You need to consider your distance with the object, you need to think about the amount of the light, you need to decide which one will be the emphasis, and so on.

For me, because I don't have a good camera, I usually take photographs with my phone or pocket camera. I just shoot any object that I want to shoot, mostly connected with nature. For example, I was about to take this photograph because I was interested in the empty street in the green forest. But suddenly, an old man with his bicycle bringing a load of firewood showed up. So I thought that was the best timing for me to shoot.

This picture helps me to remember a few important things. I must keep in my mind that nature always has her awesome beauty. It always feels peaceful when I can unite with nature. I also remember the importance of having a lot of quiet moments in my own life. It is good to detoxify my brain.And the most important thing, inspired from that old man's life, I should live my life fully with all my heart. The burden on me is not a burden; it is the responsibility as a living human being.

So, let's take pictures using your phone or any camera that you have. Capture any moment that can make you smile, feel peaceful, and think deeper and wiser.

Conserving or abandoning?

This is the picture of the backyard of Fort Van Den Bosch, which is located in Ngawi regency, East Java. That fort was there because of the Dutch occupation long long time ago. It is one of the historical tourism spots that Ngawi has. The ticket to pay to enter that spot is not expensive. That fort is a magnet for those who love photography. It is often a choice of a place for selfies. It is even a bigger magnet for those who love things related to paranormal activities.

From the look of the building, you can see that it is decaying. Some trees are occupying the building. The branches and the leaves are covering some parts of the walls.When I managed to walk around the fort, some parts smelled bad, like the smell of urine. There was also some excrement, which I thought it came from bats which lived inside the dark sides of the fort.

In my opinion, this is a unique style of conservation of the historical site. It is brilliant to let the trees grow inside the fort, to let the bats live there, and to do no modification and reparation to the building. That fort looks abandoned, but actually, that abandonment leads to real conservation.

Showing Your Value

Are you the type of a person who cannot accept any kinds of injustice and dishonesty? For example, You will be infuriated when seeing someone weaker being treated poorly by someone else stronger. Or you become anguished after knowing a transaction between a buyer and a seller in the market with the buyer insisting on saying that he has given the money to the seller while in fact he hasn't. This has something to do with your value. And I think, if I am not mistaken, everybody has this value. If you are still a human being and you have clear conscience, you have this value.

But what if you are the type of a person who doesn't react at all to this kind of injustice or dishonesty? You are just acting normal when you meet your married neighbor walking together romantically with a woman that you know she has a husband. You just greet him like nothing wrong happens. There are some possible reasons why you are acting normal; not shocked. One reason is perhaps you are very excellent at managing your emotion. You can hide your feeling shocked. It is acceptable. Some people are expertise in controlling their non verbal communication. Another reason is maybe you don't care about others' personal life. You are the type of a person who has "mind your own business" mantra each time you see some personal wrongdoings.

It will be so much different if the reason is your being permissive to injustice and dishonesty. I am positively sure that it is very easy for you to do something unjust and to talk about something dishonest to others. It's also easy for you to 'protect' somebody who has stolen money from somebody else. This being permissive of you can indicate that you want to look nice and 'kind' to the person you want to protect.

Well, let's not think about what others think about you; let's just think about your own value.

The rapid growth of subsidized housing business in Indonesia

We need a house to live in to protect us from feeling cold at night and hot at day. Then what we do to find one can be variational. We can rent a house, or stay with our parents or parents in-law. If we have a rich relative who owns more than one house, we can be allowed to stay in his empty house. If we are very rich, we can buy a very luxurious house. If we have a low income, we still can buy a house. The government gives subsidies for us to buy that small and 'cheap' house with the help of a loan from the government's banks. For a newly-wed couple or for a couple with one kid, having their own house is a pride. And having this kind of small, subsidized house is also making them proud. This situation triggers some businessmen to start their business of building subsidized housings, resulting some positive and negative effects.

The positive effects are, of course, the good and conducive business environments. Government's banks can circulate their money because they give loans to debtors and they charge those debtors some interest for that loan. Housing developers will often ask material distributors to supply things they need to build houses. Land owners are very happy to receive money from those developers who buy their land. The debtors, or those who buy the house, will work very hard so that they can get money for the monthly payment to the bank. Office employees and factory workers will have to be loyal to their boss in order to survive longer in working for that company. All of those conditions make the business really alive.

When it comes to talking about the negative effects, I don't mean to complain. I just need to elaborate things on my mind based on my observation. One of the negative effects is about the decreasing number of land. There are many wooded areas and paddy fields here in my town which have now become housings; either non subsidized or subsidized. Another negative effect is about the increasing number of people who want to look rich. Here in Indonesia, especially in my town, owning a house is already considered somewhat rich because if we own a house, we also own a land of which price is fantastic. It is a high pride for most people to be called rich.

And, in fact, there are some rich people who manage to buy a subsidized house while actually the market segmentation is for people with low income. So, those rich people who live in a subsidized housing will easily modify and beautify the building of the house, while some of their neighbors still live in their standardly built house with the struggle of financing the monthly payment to the bank. Those rich people who start to look poor in order to be 'able' to buy the subsidized house will feel the satisfaction of being regarded as the rich from their neighbors. That modifying and beautifying of the house motivates the neighbors to do the same.

If this situation continues and there is no control, let's get ready to welcome the more and more greedy people. Let's strengthen ourselves to say goodbye to green woods and paddy fields.

Jalur Kandangan - Ngebel ditutup?

Sekitar lima tahun lalu, suami dan saya berkendara sepeda motor untuk berkunjung ke Telaga Ngebel di Ponorogo. Kami melewati rute yang biasa, yaitu melewati Dolopo, Madiun. Setelah cukup puas melihat telaga, kami berkeinginan mencari air terjun yang informasi letaknya tertera di petunjuk arah di daerah telaga Ngebel tersebut. Menurut informasi dari penduduk sekitar, letak air terjun itu tidak terlalu jauh dari telaga. Rute tersebut ternyata penuh dengan tanjakan dan turunan yang curam.

Kira-kira 30 menit kemudian, kami sampai di lokasi air terjun itu. Sudah lumayan banyak pengunjung yang memarkir kendaraannya di area tersebut. Untuk menuju air terjunnya, kami harus berjalan kaki sejauh kira-kira 500 meter. Setelah melihat air terjunnya dan menyempatkan diri membasuh muka dengan airnya, kami beristirahat sejenak di warung kopi di dekat tempat parkir. Dari obrolan kami dengan penjualnya, ternyata lokasi itu tepat di perbatasan Madiun-Ponorogo. Kami dianjurkan untuk tidak usah melewati jalur yang tadi kami lewati, tapi melanjutkan perjalanan melewati jalan tanah yang hanya sering dilalui oleh pemotor yang mencari rumput buat pakan ternak dan mobil pickup yang mengangkut hasil panen ketela pohon di hutan. Penjual tersebut bilang kalau jarak tempuhnya sekitar 45 menit menuju perkampungan di dusun Kandangan, desa Kare.

Tanpa berpikir panjang, kami pun pulang melewati rute itu karena selain lebih dekat, kami ingin mendapatkan udara pegunungan Wilis, sekaligus mengeksplorasi jalanan yang belum pernah kami lewati. Dan ternyata memang benar. Rute tersebut sangat sepi dan ekstrem. Benar-benar hanya pernah terjamah oleh segelintir orang. Tidak terlihat bekas-bekas rombongan pemotor yang pernah mengeksplorasi rute itu. Sangat jarang terlihat sampah plastik ataupun botol. Yang ada hanya sampah daun dan rumput kering serta ranting dan dahan pohon yang terjatuh. Kira-kira sekitar 30 menit kemudian, atap-atap bangunan di kebun kopi Kandangan sudah mulai terlihat walaupun jaraknya masih cukup jauh. Kami merasa lega karena akan bisa melihat peradaban lagi. Perjalanan melintasi kawasan pabrik kopi Kandangan pun juga tidak terganggu. Akses jalan bisa dilewati.

Akan tetapi, hari Minggu sore kemarin, ketika kami mencari udara pegunungan di daerah Kandangan tersebut, kami kecewa karena akses jalan menuju arah Ngebel ditutup oleh pihak kebun kopi Kandangan. Kami tidak tahu apa alasan ditutupnya akses oleh mereka. Sebenarnya kami bisa bertanya kepada penjaga pintu palang tersebut. Namun karena hari sudah sore, kami langsung balik kanan. Ada banyak kemungkinan mengapa akses tersebut ditutup. Pertama, mungkin saking kayanya pengusaha kopi tersebut, dia bisa membeli area sampai ke batas Kandangan-Ngebel. Otomatis akses jalan pun terbeli. Kedua, mungkin akses menuju Ngebel rusak berat, tidak bisa dilewati jenis kendaraan apapun. Ketiga, bisa jadi pemerintah kabupaten Madiun ingin memberikan surprise buat warga kabupaten Madiun dengan memperbaiki akses jalan tersebut. Oleh karena itu, akses terpaksa ditutup sementara sambil menunggu perbaikan.

Yang mengetahui alasan sebenarnya tentunya adalah pihak dari kebun kopi Kandangan tersebut, pihak pemerintah desa Kare, dan pihak pemerintah kabupaten Madiun. Apapun niatannya, semoga nantinya hutan di daerah tersebut tetap asli dan asri sampai berpuluh-puluh tahun mendatang, bahkan ratusan tahun.