Of Memories And Dreams... 'The Legend Of Tai & Burung Elang'

Excerpt from the book 'The Legend of Tai & Burung Elang' by Roy and Monica Graham

“This Legend will awaken in you memories of things that have actually happened. In some places they continue to happen. Some of these things generate great angst, but even more important than your discomfort and mine is the reality that the lives of many are still affected by gruesome tragedies that cause terrible pain.

Those of us who are free to dream and to realize our dreams shall reach out to those who even now cannot even sleep securely. We will deliberately engage in the uncomfortable memories of our own history so that we may find the empathy to reach out to those who dream of a better life in better places. So yes…let us listen…

The voices you are hearing are those of children who have lost their parents (and parents who have lost their children) and others whom they loved to cruel invaders who descended on their homes in the dark of night. These children were forced to watch as their villages were destroyed and loved ones were brutally taken away by vile characters. Left without home and family and community, many of these children ended up in places far away from the life they once knew.

Their memories of the traumatic circumstances by which they lost their loved ones would linger on and on, creating persistent feelings of sadness and insecurity. These memories, though blunted by time and new experiences, were an important part of the reason why so many growing children had a hard time believing that their lives could be different…even better. It is difficult for any of us to believe in a great future when our faith in everything we once knew has been so terribly shaken.

The new circumstances of their lives would create new relationships with others who sometimes could not grasp the yearnings they had for a different kind of world. These other children knew no other life, and so they took for granted that the life and world that they knew was normal. Many of them lived with their parents or other close relatives, who provided a real connection to the place they had known all their lives and its history. For these children and their relatives this was, and would remain, their world.

This is the tale of two teenagers who, despite the trauma of being torn from their families by the cruel hands of heartless characters, refused to limit themselves to a life without dreams. It is the story of what happens when they, by sharing their dreams with each other, are united by the awesome power of their mutual aspirations.”

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