JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Here’s something that I got from Episode 6 entitled “Ah! This is Jealousy?!” of Aa! Megami-sama: Sorezore No Tsubasa. Keiichi Morisato said:

“To fall in love with someone doesn’t mean it’ll be only be full of good things. To be mad, to cry, to smile and yet to still want to be together. This feeling means you have fallen in love with someone, right?”

Yes, I have gone beyond maudlin and I am beneath pathetic, getting my romantic fix from Japanese animated series. Something is wrong in my life. Then again the Japanese watch all sorts of animated features, including hentai (I don’t get turned on by tentacle porn). Maybe I’m a Japanese trapped in a Filipino body! Note to self: Must gorge on sashimi tomorrow.

Watching the lead characters do something sweet for one another put me in the mood for reflection, which is apt considering that it is Holy Week. The spirits of the air whispered this to me: “The things we do for others that give us most satisfaction are the things we do freely. The lightest burdens are those we wholeheartedly take upon ourselves.”

I don’t mind carrying people’s things: bags, groceries, equipment, etc. Sometimes I offer to carry them, sometimes I take them when asked nicely and politely. I will carry them wherever you want me to as long as the distance and weight are reasonable. What annoys me are people who assume that it is my obligation to carry their things for them. And the things they usually ask me to carry are very heavy.

There were some people who invited me to go shopping with them. They told me it would be very fun. At the store, they began to shop and shop and hand their shopping bags to me. They complained that the bags were heavy and that I should help in carrying them (the bags not the shoppers)—after all, they pointed out, I was not buying anything. How could I buy anything when I was carrying most of the bags? I had to suppress my urge to leave the bags somewhere, and I vowed never to shop with them again.

This is also true with emotional baggage. Some people expect you to take their shit because you are their friend. The highest respect should be reserved for your friends. Yes, you can have small fights with them, fool around with them, go crazy with them, have occasional tantrums because of them, but never ever treat them as if they exist for your convenience. For me that is the highest form of disrespect. Friends bear some of our faults because they know that these are part of who we are. They will freely take this burden upon themselves for they believe it is a small price to pay to continue enjoying your company. They will not buckle under the weight because they are bearing it with glad hearts.

We should always strive to make ourselves light, especially for those people who are constantly around us: family, friends, co-workers, etc. People are carrying their own weight too and we should do our best not to add to their burden. We can make ourselves light by making ourselves strong enough to lift ourselves. True, there are burdens that are too heavy for us to carry and we can ask our friends to help us but never shift most of the burden to them. That would be unfair. It is the same thing with shopping bags and luggage. Bring only what you can carry. If you need to bring more than you can carry, politely ask your companions to help you and do not expect them to carry everything. Or if there are just too many bags, hire a porter with a cart.

Going back to my Japanese animation fixation, the obvious solution is that I should go out more. Something should happen to me. Better yet, I should make something happen.