"Where is happiness? Maybe it's in the feel of Gillette mach 3 after a recent trauma with disposable razor, maybe it's in witnessing tap water after 3 days of stooping over buckets, maybe it's in mail in the inbox saying "it's fixed", maybe in receiving a rare govt info SMS composed of actual English words, maybe it's in listening to Chris on KBHR, maybe it's in remembering days of shoveling snow from front porch in a far off land..." - Me, 2012.
What does it really take to be happy? Mostly nothing beyond being just human. It's so blatantly simple and boring that we are desperate to manufacture drama. In search of excitement we are, perhaps, less human today than we used to be.
Let's meet Paro. She is Japanese - works at a hospital providing comfort and company to the elderly patients. She does her job well and has been called for duty across continents. Paro holds recognition in the Guinnness Book of World Records for her therapeutic effect on patients. Her secret recipe is in listening, acknowledging and being there. She responds to the patients' grieving, their tiny moments of joy or even an impromptu gesture of affection, and yet she doesn't say much. But she doesn't look away - not out through the window or down at an animated screen or away at a passing stranger - only taking in the waves of humanity through wide caring eyes.
Paro looks a lot like a cuddly pillow and mimics the anatomy of a baby seal. She is a robot - a complex device of sophisticated sensors and artificial intelligence. Paro was created to sprinkle vinegar and brine over human uniqueness that are today failing the test of time. Science and technology is attempting to preserve the core human values while we ourselves fade in compassion, care and our ability to pursue the ultimate happiness in finding true human bonding.
[Photo credit: nytimes.com. More on Paro: http://www.parorobots.com/]
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