Book review: The Travelling Cat Chronicles
Hiro Arikama (female -72) 2015
translated Philip Gabriel 2017
drawing of cat
  • About being kind
  • This is important to me because I believe kindness is the foundation of our life force.
This book is about being kind, the foundation of truth. I don’t think that anyone who does not enjoy living in kindness, could possibly find this book riveting, because they cannot vicariously experience the life force one experiences when one is unconditionally kind. They would find this book boring, claiming that there is no drama.
Yet, there is so much drama underneath the kindness. The main characters, the cat and his owner, the boy, are both strays that got adopted. They experienced many huge hardships that most people do not, and yet, they responded by taking responsibility for their own life, the ones around them, and did so with kindness. Kindness gives them strength - their life force.

The story is also about dying. About knowing when you are to die, and about letting the people that were in your life know how special their simple interactions were in your life. So the story is not just about living in kindness, but also dying in kindness.

The story is about the truths of life, the most beautiful and the most dark and everything in between, and it demonstrates to the reader that it is easier to negotiate it when we are in the disposition of kindness. So actually, the story is about kindness, and also, how it helps us see and negotiate the truths in our world.

The author skillfully takes us on the journey of kindness, which is a pleasant read, and gradually increases it to the climax of the book, where out of nowhere, come tears of joy that come when we finish something that we put all our heart, soul and kindness into.

I found a lot of kinship with myself in the characters of the story. I always have empathy for story characters, because that is simply who I am; yet that does not mean that I relate myself to them. I simply feel them. This story was different for me: I felt the kinship which provided a safe space to further accept the riveting truth of how polar opposite the experience of hardship and death was in my family. It helped me to further accept the harsh truth of it, including the fallouts in the community. Most importantly, it was a guide and validation to how I want to live and pass on in this world - with kindness.
book review by Anda Vitols, 2023

I ask myself the following in all interactions (whether I am talking or someone is talking to me):
  1. Is it kind?
  2. Is it necessary?
  3. Is it real?
This addresses how we project ourselves. If something is said kindly, then we can discuss things that are difficult, in that kindness, and in so doing, slowly be able to find the truth about the situation - our reality.
I aim to live in my truth, therefore accepting with love all that is, the beautiful, complicated, embarrassing, within myself and my surroundings.
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