If Cats Disappeared from the World

by Genki Kawamura

“In order to gain something, you have to lose something,” she always said. People are always trying to get something for nothing. But that’s just theft. If you’ve gained something, it means that someone, somewhere, has lost something. Even happiness is built on someone else’s misfortune. She often reminded me of this. In fact, she considered it one of the laws of the universe.

When human beings invented the mobile phone, they also invented the anxiety that comes with not having one on you.

I guess it’s the same with life. We all know it has to end someday, but even so, we act as if we’re going to live forever. Like love, life is beautiful because it must come to an end.

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long shot.”

It’s the future you’ll never get to see that you really regret missing most of all when you die.

What did I gain by growing up, and what did I lose? I know the answer to only the second part of that question. Innocence—all those precious hopes and dreams that you can only have when you’re in your adolescence.

“You only realize what the really important things are once you’ve lost them.”

With freedom comes uncertainty, insecurity, and anxiety. Human beings exchanged their freedom for the sense of security that comes from living by set rules and routines—despite knowing that they pay the cost of these rules and regulations with their freedom.

My mother … I wondered, did she have any time to herself? Did she have any hobbies of her own? Were there things she wanted to do, hopes and dreams she held on to? I always wanted to thank her properly for all she’d done for, but never found the words.

“Yeah, but just being alive doesn’t mean all that much on its own. How you live is more important.”

Humans tend to regret the life they never lived and the choices they never made.”