Page 23 - Mediajaya 10 Edition 2020
P. 23
MEDIA JAYA | 10 2020
COLUMN
Marquez
hat morning, Florentino Ariza aroused blooms in the middle of an infectious disease:
by the city cathedral’s bell. He had been A blend of burning romance in a deadly epi-
T waiting for that bell for years: The doc- demic, with a protagonist who strikes while
tor, Juvenal Urbino has died. He then came the iron is hot. It highlights the gap in social
to the funeral house, kissed the doctor’s lover classes: between a doctor and a melancholic
Fermina Daza on the hand and whispered, “I bohemian poet. However, Florentino has one
have been waiting for this moment for more thing that Juvenal has not: He leads a fervid
than a half century.” life. There was flame inside him that ignites
the love for Fermina, even when he ages. The
For as long as 51 years, 9 months and 4 days, flame is eternal, despite the frightening chol-
the man has been waiting for his love mis- era outbreak among them. 23
ery to end because of a classic issue: so-
cial class. The love he had was bloomed in Florentino quite represents our misery to-
the time of cholera, just like it is now. Gabriel day: we are enforced to keep our distance,
Garcia Marquez, a Colombian writer who is restrain our desire, for the sake of lives we
also a journalist, wrote the story in a beautiful protect from the deadly, miniscule creatures.
love novel: Love in The Time of Cholera. It tells COVID-19 viruses have caused the world live
the story of love at the first sight between the in panic and we can only try to fight them
young Florentino and Fermina, including a 60 back with vaccine, which only guarantee 50%
pages long letter written by this flamboyant of our immunity to fight the virus.
man to the beautiful woman.
Before the vaccine is available, the only
Florentino was, obviously, lost to Juvenal. Ju- thing we can do is to comply with 3M proto-
venal was graduated from medical and sur- cols: maintain physical distance, wear mask
gery school in Paris, France. He, who believed and wash hands. Meanwhile, the govern-
that love is merely a clinical mistake, was so ment should do the 3T: Testing, Tracing and
busy treating people who got infected by the Treatment. The combination of two protocols
cholera, which killed as much as 140,000 peo- would hopefully save the humanity from a
ple in Paris. He fell for Fermina, his patient. deadly disease, besides wars and natural di-
sasters—as quoted from Jared Diamond from
Juvenal proposed Fermina. And after 53 his Pulitzer winner book in 1998 “Guns, Germs
years, 7 months and 11 days, that lovely lady and Steel.” On the other hand, we are like Fer-
turned his love away and started to fall for mina who lives her separate life with Floren-
Florentino. In their 72 year old body, they tino: who lives our life in boredom because
made love on a ship: A love that couldn’t be we spend most of our time inside the house.
easily forgotten. A love story adapted into a We have our life changed with the support of
film by Mike Newell. sophisticated technology for work, study and
other activities.
Marquezz wrote this story of a love that ramdan malik
