Moving into the second year of my pursuit of excellence, in light of my 2025 reflections and 2026 resolutions, I’ve decided that it’s important for me to look for and see excellence in others and the world around me. It’s important because if I identify excellence, I can then
- Learn from and emulate that excellence
- Appreciate life and people more, be grateful, and feel happy – that’s excellent
- (Hopefully) Interact with the world more mindfully, kindly, and respectfully
What better way to begin this exercise than to start with my home, Indonesia. Indonesia and I have a long history together. I have a wealth of memories borne here. In a way, my new life began in Indonesia, at the foot of Monas, more than 24 years ago. Like any long relationship, Indonesia and I have had our differences. Nevertheless, through it all, I love the place. It is, in many ways, truly excellent. Although my list is far from exhaustive, I’ve picked a few that hopefully do justice to a few of the excellent features of Indonesia. Here they are:
Deep Greens and Blues
Indonesia is stunning. When I close my eyes and see Indonesia, it is life bursting at the seams. It’s paddies, palms trees, flowers, and plants of a million variety, shaking at the stock to grow. They crowd into any space of soil and water they can find. Volcanoes are always on the horizon, their early morning steam coiling from their moths, whispering over the verdant slopes and valleys that surround them. It’s these same volcanoes that make Java one of the most fertile places on Earth, and hence the explosion of life.
Indonesia is endless beach, picturesque waves (excellent surf), and sea of every hue of blue (excellent diving). And the sand weaves into the forest that carves its way through the rice which is fed by heavenly rains that embrace the sea, birds, babies, and volcanos alike. Waking early to the sun rising through the mist across the giddy green paddie, towered over by the mythical Merapi, it’s something magical. Every time. I close my eyes, I see it, and I hear James Taylor – “deep greens and blues are the colors I choose, won’t you let me go down in my dreams”
Rockabye … The landscape is, indeed, dreamlike.
The Food, Earth, and Fire
There is so much excellent food. I could write a whole series just on the excellent food. As I’m not writing a food blog, I’ll focus on a particular pairing that is, to me, truly iconic. That is: tempe with sambal.
For those unaware, tempe (or tempeh, as it’s written in English) is a fermented soybean cake that originates in Java. It is highly nutritious, ubiquitous, and affordable. Tempe is simple, and like other food staples, it can be prepared in a number of way. As it pertains to this little piece of praise, tempe is fried. I say fried, like you just throw a slice in hot oil. Yet, when done right (a right I haven’t yet achieved), as a perfect crispy brown, lightly salted, it’s just awesome.
Tempe is complemented by another ubiquitous food, sambal. Sambal is, at the risk of rhetorical sloth, a sauce. There are hundreds of variations, stemming from regional preferences, the primary chilis (chili type, raw vs cooked), the base (terasi, tomatoes, lime, kemiri, coconut, onions, etc), and preparation techniques (raw, cooked, pounded, blended, etc). At its best, it is bold, pungent, spicy, and exploding with flavor.
It is the combination of these two foods – the foundation (tempe) and the flare (sambal), the earth and the fire, that makes this humble combination so uniquely synergistic. And together they are reflexive of Indonesian culture: modest and humble – tempe, expressive and celebratory – sambal. It is the sharing of common roots, filling bellies with tempe. It is the exposition of diversity and unique character of the regions in microcultures that join together to form Indonesia. This dance of contrasts, when done just right, is sublime. Tempe and sambal are truly excellent, and truly Indonesian.
Cool Like Fonzie
Remember at the end of Pulp Fiction how Jules got Yolanda to lower her gun, telling her “we’re all gonna be three little Fonzies here”? And what’s Fonzie like? Cool. I’ll admit that speaking about 300 million Indonesians, living across 5,000 kilometers, one one of more than 17,000 islands, is a broad generalization. It is…and still…people in Indonesia are cool.
Very little is urgent in Indonesia, very little is obsessed over or rushed for. You see, you can’t let extreme wants, aversions, or transient emotions kill the vibe. Indonesians stay cool. Sure, there’ll be the occasional protest here, but overall people just don’t lose their cool and aren’t prone to ruminating worry or cumbersome regret. Even in gargantuan, 42 million plus Jakarta, people still somehow put their feet up, kick back, enjoy a tea, strum a guitar, and smell the roses (or kretek smoke, but you get the idea).
People appreciate the simple pleasures and finer things alike, and they have their concerns and struggle through travails like all humans do, but rarely let these subsume their equanimity. The endless pursuit, the climb, the wheel, it doesn’t make as much sense here, when what one really wants is time to breathe it all in, share some good food and smiles with loved ones, and have a good sleep at night. That’s cool. And, ultimately, cool is the rock and foundation. It is this foundation upon which my last excellence derives.
Can’t We All Just Get Along
Maintaining social harmony, the collective cool, is paramount. Conflict in public is virtually non-existent. Sure, people have their disagreements as we all do. But those disagreements cannot put down roots in the soil of the collective. People rarely argue, raise their voice, or engage in other types of aggressive behavior.
People, communities, groups, environments, etc are not openly disparaged. Festering political division that is commonplace in the US is non-existent in Indonesia. Add to all this that few people drink alcohol, and public drunkenness is very rare. We don’t see conflict, we don’t hear conflict, and people don’t communicate in ways that would confront and disturb the equilibrium. Out-and-out strife is a fringe aberration that is greatly frowned upon. In fact, Indonesia has among the lowest homicide rates in the world, just slightly higher than Japan.
I’d be interested to learn how this social dynamic developed over time, and what shared tenets were agreed upon to ensure the longevity that this peace has had. Whether it was clearly articulated, or gradually taken as a given, Indonesians have a recipe that works – one that could be instructive for other cultures that don’t get along so well. Regardless of the how or why, Indonesians are excellent at maintaining social harmony and circumventing strife. I appreciate this very much about Indonesia.
OK, that’s it for this Indo-ppreciation blog. I gotta say, I feel happier having written it. Look for more praise of excellence to come. In the meantime, be cool like Fonzie.