Balance

Who among us haven't relieved ourselves in the traditional Japanese style squat toilet and thought "Oh, it is slightly less embarrassing than behind the bushes."

Don't laugh. It's not as easy as you would have believed. During our family trip in Hokkaido, we happened to find a poster teaching the know-how of proper squatting above that ceramic squat toilet. A step-by-step manual. A detailed one. So much so that we are taught to face the correct direction, to take down pants to ankle, to focus and aim correctly. We laughed until we couldn't breathe.

Laughing aside, I didn't realize the wisdom behind that poster until our family talked about the dreams we had on the road. Well, my daughter's dreams were funny, and so were my wife's. "I don't know," I said. "I didn't have much interesting stories in my dream last night. Not much, really. I dreamed about rehearsing with my colleague who is going to appear in the coroner's court."

My wife could hardly believe in what I dreamed during the family vacation. She tried to hide her disappointment, and appeared to pity me for being such a workaholic.

My daughter nodded, hearing me. "Balance, you know, daddy. Remember the teaching we'd had yesterday: if you lose balance, you are gonna fall down on shit."