A rich man in fall

 

 I used to catch a cold every autumn, at the same time each year. I suspected I had hay fever so I went to a hospital to find out. But I didn’t have hay fever – I had a cold. Why?

 One day I tried to solve the mystery, and so I thought back over my behavior. I found out I had a big misunderstanding.

 When I was in my twenties, I began living on my own. I was very surprised by my electric bills in the summer. Today, air conditioners are very efficient, but back then, they consumed a huge amount of power. In order to save money, I tried not to use the air conditioner in the summer. I endured days and nights without it and it was very hard to sleep. I was always thinking, “I wish I were rich. I would use the air conditioner all day, as much as I want, and have a comfortable life.”

 Then when the autumn came, the weather cooled down. I started to misunderstand again, thinking, “Oh! Yes! It is cool! This is because I have become a rich man. I can use the air conditioner inside and outside of my house because I am a superrich man. Hooray! I am rich!”

 Then when it became almost cold, I was still enjoying the “richness.” Even when everyone started wearing jackets, I still wore just a shirt. Because I wanted to enjoy being a rich man.

 This is why I caught a cold every autumn.

 After I solved the mystery, I started to wear a jacket in the autumn and I haven’t caught a cold since.

 Dear friends, when autumn arrives it becomes cooler. But it doesn’t mean you have become rich!

 Oh! I didn’t know you already knew that.

Picture by nanami 

Slave Teachers

I am reading books about ancient Rome. According to those books, ancient Roman intellectuals were bilingual. Their native language was Latin but they studied ancient Greek as part of their education. Studying a foreign language is very challenging. I am Japanese and I have spent some difficult days studying English. Greece was in the territory of ancient Rome. Some rich Roman families had Greek slaves whose job was to teach Greek to their children. It is difficult to imagine the slaves. Their job was to teach, but their status was slaves. Teaching their owners’ children was probably difficult and complicated. By the way, in present-day Japan, many teachers in public schools need to work overtime – over 100 hours per month. Most of them can’t get enough overtime pay. It occurred to me that today’s teachers might be like those Greek slaves.

 Picture by yopinco