"Touch is so natural that without it people become depressed and irritable. Observations show that children brought up in families where parents and children touch each other are healthier and more able to withstand pain and infection than those children deprived of touch. They tend to sleep better, are more sociable and generally happier.

Despite all the evidence to show the benefits of touch, we are still hesitant about touching each other. We think this is due to a confusion between sensuality and sexuality. Because we are so afraid of the connection between sex and touch, we have formalized touch. There are only a few occasions when adults are allowed to touch each other freely." ~ excerpt from Self-Massage, Massage Techniques

I suppose one of the reasons why I strongly agree with this statement is because I never received enough touch as a child. Depression and irritability are not strangers to me, nor I am sure, to anyone who has ever felt nihilistic. This is not to say that I'm putting the blame on unaffectionate parents, for I know that they themselves were victims of growing up in traditonal, strict Chinese households who as a rule do not display affection openly as Westerners do.

I will make a promise to myself to involve more Touch if I have children of my own. It is one thing to let the child who trips and falls, pick himself up, but it is another to completely deprive him of comforting hugs and a smile in his everyday life.

As an afterthought - I often feel as if I'm caught in the crossroads between the East and the West. My generation is a generation of TV, fast food, indulgent toys and fast-growing consumerism. Never has the influence of the West been so prevalent like a wildfire onslaught following the 1990s. I think many of my friends born in the 1980s feel much the same way. We are caught in a transitional era of great progress, not quite here not quite there. We feel the pull of old tradition of the first and second generation, at the same time we feel the influence of the New, as the third generation.

It is little wonder that sometimes I feel a little alien among my family. I daresay I am a little more liberal and less tolerant of blind tradition than, say, my parents are.

You Are Lemon Meringue Pie

You're the perfect combo of sassy and sweet Those who like you have well refined tastes

What Kind of Pie Are You?

"To you Pisces I give the most difficult task of all. I ask you to collect all of man's sorrow and return it to me. Your tears are to be ultimately My tears. The sorrow you will absorb is the effect of man's misunderstanding My Idea, but you are to give him compassion that he may try again. For this the most difficult task of all I give the greatest gift of all. You will be the only one of My twelve children to understand Me. But this gift of understanding is for you, Pisces, for when you try to spread it to man he will not listen."

The above is taken by Martin Schulman's Sun Signs Allegory, a beautiful description of the 12 signs of the zodiac as 12 children appointed by an ambiguous God, each with his unique gift and task for the world.

That must be why I cry so much and so easily, and why my taste for music veers towards sad love songs and heart-rending R&B tunes.

I bought Ken Hirai's 10th Anniversary Compilation today (that's him on the right pic). This singer is seriously talented. I can't understand Japanese, but his voice is so soothing, so melodious, so mellow. In particular I am in love with his single "Hitomi Wo Tojite" (I Close My Eyes). It is essentially a sad love song, speaking of having the strength to endure love's loss and pain, because of the strength that that same love bestowed.

Just a quick post today, as it's late.


I discovered a little music video of the song "Stupid Girls", check it out at http://www.pinkspage.com
The cinematograhpy is great!


This weekend was a beautiful one for me and the man that I care about. Sometimes it's so easy to misunderstand, to have a prejudice, and to hold back from really loving someone just because you can't fully understand the whole story. It takes a while to get used to, somtimes it can take weeks, months or years to let it sink in. I hope it doesn't take that long. And I am already on my way there...things between my dear love and me, can only get better from now on.