Meeting Maung Maung Reflection

In the story "Meeting Maung Maung" by Pico Iyer, the themes of living purely and paying it forward resonated with me. The narrator is confounded by Maung Maung's choice to live simply as a trishaw driver despite having a BS degree. Maung Maung says, "But in this job, I can meet tourist and improve my English. Experience, I believe, is the best teacher" (20). The way the author writes Maung Maung's dialogue is effective, because we can see the broken English Maung Maung speaks, but also the diligence he lives by. Maung Maung's devotion to living simply struck me and reminded me that life is more than just making money and being successful. It's also about expressing who you are, being kind to others, and living to your values. Additionally, the themes of paying it forward struck me. Maung Maung describes his Buddhist faith and how if he inflicts harm on someone, he will come back in the next life as that creature. His decision to show tourists around and be kind to them speaks to his values of paying forward kindness. After telling the narrator a story about forgiveness and kindness in the context of an inflated volleyball, he writes, "Faith, in short, was its own vindication" (21). This short sentence is effective by summarizing the themes in the essay and showing what the narrator learned in his journey with Maung Maung.