E N T R I E S

“My mother was a school principal. A lot of times she worked until 8 pm, so my grandfather would always pick me up from elementary school and help me with my homework. He loved to help me with school because I was his first grandchild to get an education. He especially loved book reports. He always insisted that we decorate the cover of the report in case we needed an extra bump in our grade. If it was a Halloween book report, he’d make a witch out of toilet paper and straws. He always told me that it was his dream to see me finish college. But the day before I graduated high school, his hand started shaking and he dropped a bowl of cereal while we were eating breakfast. It turned out he had a major stroke. He was minimally responsive after that but we kept him on life support. We thought if we prayed hard enough and believed enough, he would recover. He held on for a few years. I ended up going to the Fashion Institute of Technology, and I’d stop in every once in awhile and tell him about my grades. Toward the end, he grew very sick and blind, and his body was rejecting food. I finally graduated from FIT, and I brought him my graduation photos. Even though he couldn’t see them, I described the graduation to him. He died that night.”

“Today’s his tenth birthday. He’s a very emotional young man. He likes to solve other people’s problems. One time when he was five years old, he came with me to the store and we bought two pounds of fresh apricots. I let him carry the bag home. He walked a little bit behind me the entire way. After awhile, I asked him to hand me an apricot. ‘I can’t,’ he said. ‘I’ve given them all away.’ I knew then that I was raising a humanitarian.” (Tabriz, Iran)

“My husband and I sold everything we had to afford the journey. We worked 15 hours a day in Turkey until we had enough money to leave. The smuggler put 152 of us on a boat. Once we saw the boat, many of us wanted to go back, but he told us that anyone who turned back would not get a refund. We had no choice. Both the lower compartment and the deck were filled with people. Waves began to come into the boat so the captain told everyone to throw their baggage into the sea. In the ocean we hit a rock, but the captain told us not to worry. Water began to come into the boat, but again he told us not to worry. We were in the lower compartment and it began to fill with water. It was too tight to move. Everyone began to scream. We were the last ones to get out alive. My husband pulled me out of the window. In the ocean, he took off his life jacket and gave it to a woman. We swam for as long as possible. After several hours he told me he that he was too tired to swim and that he was going to float on his back and rest. It was so dark we could not see. The waves were high. I could hear him calling me but he got further and further away. Eventually a boat found me. They never found my husband.” (Kos, Greece)

http://livelifehappy.com/stories/joseph-heller-wrote-the-massive-bestseller-catch-22-about-world-war-ii/

Leon Brown (via deeplifequotes)

Aqua, Omotesando （表参道）