Meeting the new JETs

Hi, I spent a weekend of meeting the new wave of teachers to come to Japan. It's hard to believe a year has passed already and now I am a 'second year JET' while the newbies are arriving. It's good to meet the new people, some interesting new faces and personalities from all over the world. Japan is a great place to meet international people. I really get the common humanity feeling going on. Even though we come from different countries and backgrounds, we share a common situation and are friends. We went to a nice Indian restaurant which is quite a treat in Japan and finished off with ice-cream and karaoke. All in all an enjoyable weekend. When I come home, my hamster looks so happy to see me, he climbs the side of his cage and wiggles his nose in glee. I give him sunflower seeds.

 

I sometimes wonder about the feeling of love that exists between a person in knowledge and a  person in ignorance or suffering. The kind of compassion that causes some one to feel tenderly for a child or a person in need. There is that love all around us, in a sense we are all ignorant and suffering. we don't even know how many hairs are on our head, let along what the next day will bring. I prefer to think of it as innocence, there is really a fine line between ignorance and innocence. I suppose, a supreme omniscient being must look at us with love, in a similar way to a parent watching a young child. The child is innocent and the parent is compassionate. in the same way, I think, we as humans are innocent and God is compassionate, fulfilling our desires with love and compassion.