Life is a mirror

(I didn't take a picture today, so this is a picture of my apartment. Pretty tough life, huh?)

My dad once wrote me that life is like the Mirror of Galadriel (from the Lord of the Rings). The surface is pure, still and perfect. When we reach in and touch it with our finger, we make a ripple in the water. If we are not careful, the ripples of what we do can mar its purity. That is certainly true when we try to "do good" through volunteering. I was talking with my teacher Hico Tanaka today. He was part of a campaign to send children's books to children in northeastern Japan in the days following the earthquake, but even a simple act like that, he told me, can have unintended consequences. For instance, as books flooded in, complaints came from bookstores in the area. The deluge of free books was ruining their business! Not only that, but my teacher pointed out that the type of books sent were those classic children's books that are thought to be good and educational. "Doubtless the kids wanted to read comic books," my teacher said with a wry smile, "But the adults in charge refused to send such trashy reading material." As a result, the area was inundated with wholesome books that no one was really in the mood to read. Think about it-- your village was just destroyed; you're sleeping on a gym floor; you have to amuse yourself while the adults are busy with very important things. Would you reach for a Marvel comic, or a collection of excellent, literarily significant poems about inner city kids and their profound problems?

BTW, my teacher is ultra-cool. His name is Tanaka Hico, but he calls himself Hico Tanaka. "In the West they always write Japanese names backwards. If I write my name backwards here in Japan, then supposing one of my books is made into a movie and my name appears in the credits at the Cannes Film Festival, when the Westerners flip it backwards it will appear in the correct Japanese order."