I saw this piece of news online: A designer in Essex, UK, has created a magical vest that resists loneliness. This vest, called "Squease," looks no different from an ordinary vest at first glance. However, it comes with a hand pump. When the wearer presses the pump, the vest inflates; once the vest is inflated, the wearer gets the feeling of being 'hugged,' which can somewhat alleviate the sense of loneliness.\ Watching a video of the designer demonstrating how to use this vest, I suddenly thought of a child and asked myself: Does that child need a 'Squease' vest?\ That child is named Masao, the main character in the Japanese film "Kikujiro's Summer." Nine-year-old Masao lost his father, and his mother has gone away, so he lives alone with his elderly grandmother. Masao almost never laughs; he is an unusually 'gloomy' child. Summer vacation arrives, and Masao's classmates all go on trips, leaving him without playmates. He heads to the soccer field alone with a football, feeling dejected. A vast soccer field, a tiny Masao. How can one play alone? He places the ball under his foot, ready to kick it, but sadly lies stiffly beside the soccer ball... He is taken by Kikujiro to look for his mother, only to find that she has become the head of another warm little family. Afterward, Kikujiro stages a series of slapstick antics trying to make Masao laugh, but the immense loneliness in Masao's heart cannot be dispelled by anyone.\ I clearly remember that back then, a girlfriend after watching the movie told me: 'I dream of hugging this poor child.' Honestly, I couldn't accept Takeshi Kitano making the latter half of the film so absurd; yet, Masao, who made women all over the world feel the desire to 'give him a hug,' made me readily forgive Kitano's absurdity. I think Masao can probably be called a worthy representative of the word 'loneliness.' At an age when love and care are needed, he is neglected, forgotten. Throughout the film, Masao's smiles are thin, as if covered by a layer of perfunctory sugar, wrapping an enduring bitterness that never disappears.\ In fact, 'Masao-style loneliness' does not belong to Masao alone. As the poet said: 'Every person is an island.'"Today, no one says 'Tongchuan Pensi water is cut off from each other,' and no one says 'Heartless opposite is mountains and rivers' anymore. Yet, true barriers arrive roaring, riding high-speed trains, controlling telecommunications, and sitting astride the internet.\ A psychological counselor once taught me a relaxation exercise called 'Butterfly Pat,' which roughly mimics butterflies flapping their wings or a mother patting a baby, giving oneself a kind of caress to dispel inner loneliness and anxiety. I don't know how others feel when doing the 'Butterfly Pat,' but every time I do it, it teases out even more intense loneliness and anxiety in me.\ Mother Teresa gave a precious gift to so many poor people. That gift was called 'an embrace'—she genuinely hugged vagrants, the poor, the ulcered, the dying... Through her actions, she eliminated humanity's 'Masahiko-style loneliness.'\ —Masahiko, if you had to choose, would you want a £245 'Squease' vest, or a warm, free-of-charge hug?"