N25 : Sentimental Value

This is an article written by Maung Tha Cho and I only do the translating.

While in Mohnyin I met a Kachin girl who had been an exchange student and stayed with a Japanese family in Japan. This girl related her experiences to him including one about plucking a rose that was blooming in the garden. When the hosts knew about it they asked her why she had done it and she replied that because she admired it much. They said that if she admired it she should just leave it bloom on its plant only. The girl asked the writer if we are lacking in sentimental values of adoring and cherishing natural beauties.

The writer went on to write about the sentiments of the Japanese people , from their love of the cherry festivals to their love of their land, their mountain, their forests, their rivers, their streams which led them to love and cherish their environments dearly. And that we should not take them lightly but look through them deeply so as to see that these sentiments are the things that make Japan what it is today. Now, the writer takes us to our own sentimental value. People may not know about sentimental value although they know quite well about monetary values. Even a child knows that it can exchange a snack for some money. So with money everything can be purchased Land, properties, cars, household goods, clothing, and food and so on. Things purchased with money can be used and all of them have used values. For example, we can build a house on the land, use the car for going places, food for eating etc.

But…..as for sentimental value we cannot use it anywhere. It can not be cooked, boiled, roasted and eat. It can not use it for living, or for going places. Say, Ngapali beaches with the blue sea, the swaying palm trees, the flawless white sandy beaches, the clear crystal air, the breathtaking panoramic view and star spangled nights; we say these are our natural beauties and so with unknown sentimental values we are pushed to go there. 

So is the majestic Mount Popa, the world most famous Inlay lake, the classic Bagan, , the much disputed Maykha and Malikha Myitsone, the misty Shan Hills, the highest snow covered mountains of the north...all of these natural beauties cannot be used for our physical needs. 

But the sentimental value for our mountains and valleys, streams and rivers, beaches and lakes, forests and wildernesses, fields and meadows, are far greater and more important than the purchasing value of money. 

As said above, the Mount Popa cannot be fried and eaten, Ngapali beach can not be cooked to eat. So are the pretty cherry flowers. But as cherries blossom,all those who love and cherish cherries come out to be under the cherry trees. 

So I who love and cherish the things that can not be fried , can not be cooked , can not be grilled and eaten, still want to keep them in my heart along with water covered fields, complete with a farmer’s shed in the middle of it, a string of hyacinth plants floating in a stream, tanaung and tamar of Anyarmyay, The Ananda and Shwezigon of Pagan, the Shwedagon of Yangon, the misty Shan Hills, the Arakan Yomas, the Ayarwaddy, Thanlwin, and Sittaung and all of these……They will always be values … values formed in my heart.