The little feller in the 2nd picture is a pygmy tarsier, a tiny primate long thought to be extinct, but recently spotted in the forests of Indonesia, eighty years since its last sighting by human eyes.
The reappearance of the pygmy tarsier gives me hope. For eighty years, he sat mum in his little island jungle. Nobody knew where he was and after a while, I bet nobody really cared. But suddenly, just when we had given up on the chance of ever seeing him again, he waltzed right back into our lives. No questions asked: the pygmy tarsier is definitely here and (let's hope) here to stay.
So why does this give me hope? Well, in case you haven't noticed, I've been a bit out of sight for a while. I'm far away on my own little island, and sometimes I worry that the folks back home will forget about me. When I eventually decide I want to move back to the States, what will my homecoming be like? Will my friends and family be able to seamlessly welcome me back into their lives? Sometimes I worry that they won't. Sometimes I worry that, by choosing to move to Japan and away from most of my loved ones, I've lost something that I'll never be able to get back.
But then there's the case of the pygmy tarsier. And if a primate the size of a mouse can do it, shouldn't I be able to as well? I want to think so. But the more realistic side of my urges me to focus not on what I've lost, but rather on the insights and experiences I've already gained by living in this crazy country that I now like to call home.
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Do you know which island of Indonesia?! Maybe I will run into one and tell it all about my friend that was once on another island. Anyway. I really do have to see you in Japan, otherwise, I will not see you for a total of three years, and that just seems unbearable.
I had one of these once.
Then it turned into one of these.
To be honest, I really didn't know the difference between furbies and gremlins until last night, when I looked it up for the sake of this post. I remember watching the movie Gremlins when I was very young. Then, when we were in middle school, Furbies came into existence and I sort of never realized that it wasn't all the same thing.
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