maximine and minerva’s owl

lone bather in sulfuric onsen  

A Sake drinker and his muse 

Fiery Tree and ice cream cone, Nagano Japan 

Mt. Fuji in Autumn 

With the Japanese Language Proficiency Test at hand I have been having very little time whipping up decent meals for Luiji and me these days (we either just go out to dinner or content ourselves with nuked frozen grubs, pero gourmet naman!) much less update my measly postings on my blog. My brain is already screaming in pain memorizing hundreds of Kanji and their seemingly infinite morphemic combinations. Passing this exam requires knowledge of 2000 kanji and 10,000 Japanese words, which would entitle one to teach Nihongo at a university/professional level. I’m not planning to teach Japanese though, I’m taking it because it will help secure a job as a translator in the distant future, well, more of as a decoration,actually.

I’ve got a million things that I want to do. I want to pass this test, I want to finish my data gathering for my dissertation,I want to go backpacking in Eastern Europe and the Baltic Region and see the Aurora Borealis, I want to join ZAZEN for a month, I want to get pregnant and have a baby, I want to set up an NGO for Autism in the Philippines. I want to learn furniture design and/or how to re-design, and modify old ones. I want to continue my Flamenco dancing. I have so many “want” and that’s precisely why I also want to join Buddhism and do some pilgrimage with the ascetics. “Want” is a vexation to the soul. I must avoid it at all costs. what a hypocritical broad - me. I’m babbling again.

you’re an attractive woman high self-esteem and all, professional, say, around Ph.D level, not destitute but not wallowing in dough either, you’re sitting on a bench in a park reading when a man middle-aged sort of ugly but clean and not syphilitic looking clad in expensive suit comes up to you plonks down 1 million yen (roughly 10,000$) right in front of you and says, “it’s yours if you give me head right now” and points at the nearby lavatory. will you do it? how would you react?

It was the topic of our discussion the other day. At first, my students were sort of adamant and had not shown any interest in discussing it but when I blurted out that whoever knew about the story of pandora’s box would get extra 20 points. Or, whoever could guess what the story is about would get the extra merit. Two knew.

A woman named Pandora, which means “all gifted”, for all of the Immortals helped to endow her, was given a golden box by Zeus. She was made to swear not to open it for Zeus had put inside the box all the misfortune and ills that would beset mankind - diseases, wars, sorrows, pestilence, hate, hunger, and a hundred others. But one day, she couldn’t contain her curiosity, crept quietly to the golden casket and lifted the lid. And thence the world became in possession of all sorts of sufferings that we have today (there were none before curious Pandory had let them out).
Terrified at what she had done, Pandora slammed down the lid. But a little voice cried: ‘Let me out too! I am hope!’ And so, Pandora let her out too. Prometheus, a mortal-friendly Titan had placed Hope in the box so that mankind has something to hang on to and to alleviate the suffering even just a little.

Hope is good, I like Hope.

Land Mine Victim, Cambodia 
copyright 2004: photo by Luiji I.

This picture moved me in a way that nothing of this sort has before. Take a long look at her face. Then don’t repress any feelings or dismiss anything. Look and let your mind wander over her future.