  Monday, July 30th, 2007
Three years ago, I visited thirty-two towns and cities in twenty-three countries around the world in eight months, met twenty-thousand people and collected their Merry photos and messages. We would like to share with you a wonderful email we recently received from Ali Khanizadeh, an Iranian guy who's learning about Japan in Germany. The email is in Japanese and English. _________________________________________ Hello, I am a 22 years old University student of Japanese studies, who lives in Germany. My name is Ali Khanizadeh. Even thou I have been studying Japanese for almost two years, I think it’s still fragile. I try my best with the studies but should I be writing in an impolite way, you have my apologies. When seeing pictures of people’s smiling faces from all around the world as well as reading the things they wrote down while thinking about what “Merry” means to them, it gives me a certain feeling. I think it is impossible to put this feeling in one single word which contains all my emotions. I therefore want to try explaining it by telling a little bit out of my life. As one understands from my name, I am not German but Iranian. My family escaping to Germany from the Islamic government of Iran when I was 6 months old, I and my older brother came to grow up in Germany. My father gave up on University when we came here and unfortunately became a factory worker to support the family, throwing away his own dreams. Starting with this matter, it seemed luck would never come to us. My family was heading for many hard times to come. Why am I telling this story? I don’t want to brag about something like “I had the most painful childhood in the world”. It is by no means something you could brag about. I know that there are people with a way more painful life than me as well in Japan and Germany as in Iran and anywhere else in the world. I am still young. There are still many things I have to see, to do and to understand. But, at least one thing I think I have understood. That is that this world is not going to stop spinning. Life is going on, asking for nobody’s permission. If you cannot laugh in this human life which is said to be short, it can become very long and way, way colder. That is why to me your project of taking pictures of people’s laughing faces itself is “Merry”. Because I believe you can gain power from being able to laugh with other people. I didn’t mean to bore you with my email and beg your pardon for makin you read my text. Thank you very much. Sincerely Ali Khanizadeh
__________________________________ Every person in every country is trying to be Merry in each society, culture and environment, and they all will have Merry wonderful life. I want to travel around the Earth once again to meet many people's "Merry."
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 Be Merry with the borderless smiles! Photos of more than 20,000 smiling people from 23 countries, collected since 1999. Let's communicate! You can post your MERRY messages and pictures on the world map and comment on others'. MERRY FOREST KIT FOR KIDS NOW ON SALE! MERRY FOREST KIT FOR KIDS is created to help us communicate with nature. It helps kids feel the messages from the forest by actually contacting them, and know why we should care for them. "What's 'merry' for you?" Messages from all around the world as responses to this simple questions will be sent to you on CD and DVD.
MERRY PROJECT received The 50th Good Design Award in 2006.  |
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