Sejatinya mimpi adalah karunia berupa gerbang menuju alam penuh tanya. Dream Argument pun bukanlah bahasan baru dalam peradaban manusia - beribu tahun sudah para pemikir larut dalam pembahasan mengenai apa yang terjadi di balik layar kesadaran manusia. Dengan semakin banyaknya peneliti dan penggiat mimpi (lucid dreamer) di dunia ini, setebal apakah batasan semu pemisah antara realita dan fantasi yang masih kokoh berdiri?
Sebelum Anda tenggelam lebih dalam menuju lautan pemikiran introspeksi diri, terlebih dahulu kami lampirkan detail teknis mengenai cerita pendek terkait :
- Judul : Ethereal
- Pengarang : Lisa Santika Onggrid // requiem
Masihkah persepsi Anda mengenai realita terjaga seperti sedia kala?
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“Have you ever heard of Zhuangzi?”
Like always, she tilted her head sideways
in a childish manner, one hand propping her chin. By now, he was used with this
behavior.
“Hmm?”
Taking that as a cue, the girl continued
almost dreamily, “A man dreamt of a butterfly. When he woke up, he couldn’t
take his mind off it. He wondered, did he dream of a butterfly or was the
butterfly dreaming of him?”
Unsure what to say, the boy shrugged and
scratched his hair. She was too much a dreamer, really. Most of the times he wondered
what kept him putting up with her antics, but it was an exercise of futility.
“So?” He tried, coaxing her to simply say
whatever point she wanted to make. He was not going to waste his energy
thinking what it might be. Knowing her, it would be beyond his wildest dream.
“Well, don’t you think that we too, might
be part of someone’s dream?”
Now it was getting unwieldy.
“Are you saying...we’re all...unreal?”
She laughed. Distinctly innocent and
somewhat pensive. Used to be her charm, but nowadays he just couldn’t get it
anymore.
“Perhaps. Maybe. Who can ever prove we’re
real anyway? Say, maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow knowing that we’re just a figment
of somebody’s imagination.”
In a foolish attempt to play with her game,
he pricked his fingers against a nearby bushes. The tiny drop of blood was
glistening red under the sun.
“It hurts here. Can’t you see we’re real
enough?”
She shook her head.
“What do we know of hurt? Maybe in
the real world, there is no pain at all, or maybe it’ll hurt worse. Who says
dream cannot hurt?”
“You are getting crazy,” he muttered. That
much he was sure.
“I know I am. It’s not so bad, actually.
We’re already living in a world full of lies, it won’t make much
difference if
the world itself is a lie.”
He sighed. The whole conversation didn’t
make any point at all. Once upon a time, he would entertain her thoughts, found
them endearing, even. Currently he wished they could spend their time like any
normal
couple instead of mulling on this faux philosophical discussion.
“Gimme a break. I’m tired with your
fantasy.” And randomness, if he might add.
She gave him a long, blank stare.
“No, no. You don’t understand me at all.
See, there is beauty in transience. The knowledge that everything is ephemeral,
that one day it will be gone... That’s what make this world worth living in, to
collect those short-lived moments into a bucket of memories.”
What the hell? He tried to remember things they did together recently. What might
prompt her to bring up such topic?
He couldn’t find any. She never stayed on
topic too long anyway. Her thoughts strayed and branched and hopped from one
place to another, it was almost impossible to pin down what was currently
happening in her mind. He gave up.
“What’s getting into you, really?”
“Nothing, I guess. Just chalk it up to one
of my quirks.”
That ended the conversation. Just like
that, she walked away, leaving him to ponder on the strange evening.
