Thank you, Mirmo

I am quite embarrassed about confessing that I love Mirmo Zibang, a Japanese cartoon series mainly targeted for girls almost 30 years younger than I. These are certainly not the books for a middle-aged man like me.

But I feel this cartoon has given me so many precious things, let me tell you about this wonderful romantic comedy...

It is indeed a simple story. Kaede (Katie in the English version), an ordinary middle school girl with a pure heart fells in love with a classmate. But another girl called Azumi also likes the boy and she has hell of a lot confidence, which Kaede does not have much.

Both Kaede and Azumi have their partner fairies. While Kaede treats Mirmo, her partner as a close friend, Azumi exploits Yatchi, a ninja fairy like her servant...

I finally found the Thai version of Mirmo. Now I can share Mirmo's happy stories with my wife, too.

Azumi uses Yatchi's magic to keep Kaede away from the boy. Meanwhile, Kaede tries her best to approach the boy without Mirmo's help. She relies on Mirmo's help only when she is in danger...

So it is quite obvious that pure and good Kaede wins the boy's heart at the end...

Kaede and Mirmo are real friends who are in thou-thou relationship. They encourage and heal each other. Now I understand why Mirmo, a prince of fairyland became Kaede's partner. Although Kaede is an ordinary girl, she indeed has a noble heart. Anyway, they make me very happy.

I don't know why but whenever I read or watch Mirmo, I feel so much moved and sometimes even tears of joy well up in my eyes. I feel as if I could meet again a very precious friend after decades...

I guess Mirmo, the royal fairy is helping me to get in touch again with my inner child.

Thank you, Mirmo and Kaede!

A Cat Is a Loner Because...

A cat is a loner but it does not mean she is selfish.

A leopard is a loner, too. Because his hunting style and relatively small size do not allow him to catch a prey that can be shared with other leopards, he has to live alone and hunt alone.

A lioness can catch a large prey that can be shared with her clan members simply because she is so big.

Think about a cat again. She is small and her prey is even smaller. A rat or a sparrow is too small to be shared with other cats even if she wishes... So she has to hunt and live alone.

She is a loner simply because cats' nature does not allow them to be group-dwellers.

And she does not help herself from being lazy as she is purely carnivorous and cannot gain nutrition from virtually any food unlike omnivorous dogs. She is certainly lazy and a loner but it is not due to her choice.

Then anyone cannot blame cat's aloofness or laziness. Well, I guess this might help everyone of us understand our fellow humans, too. Before we label someone as strange or abnormal, we should think his background... If we do this, we may be able to provide him a better choice.

A Horror Exam...

One exam recently exhausted me so much. It was not mine and I was not so much nervous about that in the beginning. It was my six-year-old son's.

He was not nervous about the exam almost at all in the beginning and that made his mother extremely nervous. Since she cannot read any Chinese, she asked me to help him prepare for the exam...under her supervision! That made me extremely nervous.

I suffered from severe fatigue before and during the exam. My body ached so much, too. And these symptoms remained for a whole week even after the exam was over (i.e. until yesterday)...

Well, I will have to find a better way to assist him learn. I am trying to make learning a fun but have not been very successful. (But he is more willing to do his homework when I sit next to him and copy my Thai textbook...)

I don't know if I did so due to the stress from my son's exam, I ordered the first entire set of comic books in my whole life time in the middle of the exam period. I feel quite hesitant about telling all of you what I bought. I bought a 12-volume set of Japanese cartoon called Mirmo Zibang (ミルモでポン！/魔法小米路), a cartoon mainly targeted for the pre-teen to early teenage girls. (Scary, isn't it??)

But this series of cartoons is full of positive-thinking for the Win-Win-Win (Good for me, good for you and good for the world) situation... If you feel lonely or lost, I recommend you to read this series. You might feel happy. The entire series is also available in English from a Singaporean publisher.

Anyway, reading all the 12 volumes of Mirmo in a few hours, I felt Jung was right. Although fairy tales look childish, they certainly help the readers grow...

Why Was School So Boring?

I love to learn new things. Now I spend most of free time to learn Thai as if this cousin of Chinese and Indian languages were my new girlfriend.

I also spare some time to learn psychology, religion and history. I am not as intimate to them as to Thai but they are indeed fascinating friends.

I wonder why I felt those actually very fascinating things so boring at primary and middle schools...

Even though I loved to learn English then, I always felt very sleepy at English classes at school.

I feel when I get an answer to this question, I will be able to provide much better help to my six-year-old son, who feel the school is darn boring.

Any insights?

Meditation through Language-learning

I have hand-copied more than twenty lessons of Manee Reader, a Thai primary school textbook.

Although I still cannot read a Thai newspaper, the exotic Thai scripts are no longer an alien writing system to me. Now I know better that repetition is quite a good way of language acquisition.

And copying at least some of this textbook before going to bed every night has not only made me familiar to this lovely (but awfully complicated) language but also given an opportunity of meditation.

I can empty my mind by concentrating on looking at the text and correctly writing each word of it. This usually frees me from thinking about twenty minutes. And pleasant fatigue from a light work also helps me sleep better.

Now I know why Chinese and Japanese Buddhists love to hand-copy sutras. It is indeed a good Zen meditation. They can free their minds while exposing themselves to the sacred teaching...

And I feel Manee Reader is indeed a sacred text. The stories of happy childhood can provide a safe haven to anyone...

The Ultimate Purpose

I wonder why the Universe created life...

Did it do so just by chance? Maybe.

But I feel the Universe was so lonely without anyone who understood its majesty that it created life.

Then the ultimate purpose of our existence seems to be to understand our Mother Universe.

Then learning is our ultimate purpose...

It sounds exciting...