interregnum

we are going to cross paths with many, many people in our lifetime. we cannot hold on to all of them, much as we want to. letting go of people and the longing for more with them is an unavoidable fact of being alive that we must reconcile ourselves with eventually. some people, including ourselves from others’ perspective, are meant to only be with us temporarily. that is by design, whether willed by the Creator or the nihilistic cosmos that toys with us.

yet this does not mean you are an interregnum — an intermission or a short distraction from normalcy. you are an experience, a lesson, a force of nature: you are the universe’s manifestation of love. everyone is, even those who hurt us. the only thing we can do is make the best of the present because that’s all we’ll ever have in the end — you imprint their shadow onto your soul so that even when they fade away in time, they’ll always be a part of you. their memory belongs to you now; keep what you like, discard what you don’t.

so when you meet other travellers like yourself who want to stay and grow with you, hold onto them — not enough to lose yourself, but enough so that in the rare chance they want to be bound to you too, both of you will share a bond — a bond that defines what it means to be human.

okanemochi

When you get enough bits and pieces of information on somebody, you can form a coherent, if slightly biased, image of them. Take for example, one of my classmates, Richie*:

  1. His hobby is visiting arcades all over Tokyo to play the UFO claw catchers (the bane of my existence).
  2. He has a formidable collection of prizes from those machines.
  3. He easily spends more than 10,000 yen (SGD$125) on those claws in one sitting if he’s not careful.
  4. He lives in a hotel.
  5. In Ginza.

The man is okanemochi. Like rich, but I suspect beyond rich. He’s so rich that he doesn’t deny it. I paraphrase a conversation overheard in class the other day:

Sensei: Sugoi, Richie-san, ryoushin ga okanemochi desu ne? (Your parents have money, huh?)

Richie: Ah… hai. (Yes.)

Zero attempts to hide it were made.

Now that’s a mood.

*not his real name