desert

We are all surrounded by the desert. The place we are staying in is only a oasis.

Recently, I had read a novel named Desert,written by Kotaro Isaka. It is a story about five college students. Through reading the whole novel, we readers also experience four years of college life with them. It is a great happiness that I am at the same age with the characters. Since we have similar maturity and intellectual development, it is not difficult for me to understand their confusion toward the world, emotion on love, thoughts of normal people's attitude, and the searching for dreams. But what draws my attention is the character, Nishijima. He is a strange guy who always talk about the terrible things happening in the world right now, such as "How can you guys still drinking so happily here without thinking of the poor child who still hunger for food in Africa?" or "America had already used 'stopping terrorism' that kind of stupid excuse to invade Middle East Asia to search for its own profit, how come Japan government is still arguing on whether to send out troops to assist or not? " Actually, the issues he says are all true and is happening in the world simultaneously, but everyone considers him a weird guy instead of listen to him. Why? Is he saying anything wrong? No! He is absolutely right! The reason which makes people don't want to listen to him may be that, they don't have the feeling of reality.

We are all living in a happy environment. Our daily worries are only on school work, or the interaction with friends. The life just seems so easy that we cannot imagine in some totalitarian country, the scene of soldiers killing civilians in street is as simple as you click your mouse right now. Our kids grow up with toys, while their kids playing with machinegun and grenade. Even we know how cruel the world is, we still can't do anything. The power of only one person is too small. No matter how gifted, a person along cannot change the world. The only thing we can do may be not to take everything for granted or complain a lot when facing a small problem. We should always remember: there are always some people who suffer more than us. They are struggling for survival, while we are worrying about what to eat for dinner.

Human is the only creature on Earth that will feel compassion to the tragedies far away. That is the reason which makes us worry about the things outside of the oasis which we are staying in. But, it is the merit of human nature, because we must have to enter the society which so-called "desert" some day.