I worked early today. This morning, I joined the daily English meeting on Zoom as usual. Today's topic was mainly how to manage each one's addictive mind. For example, I am a so-called alcohol-addicted person who once used to drink alcohol in my 20s and 30s, and since 40 I have started quitting it (I'll be 50. So, this year is the 10th one for me!). Also, definitely I am a bookworm who tends to buy plenty of books (a sort of addiction I guess), therefore I try to face this illness carefully for not to get worse.
While I was working, I tried to imagine how "hikikomori (social withdrawal)" life could be if I quit working anymore. In other words, I tried to do this simulation: if I had gotten a certain (very large) amount of money by chance (by a lottery/jackpot) and it said I didn't need to work anymore till I die, what would I do from tomorrow? This means I tried to find out the exact reason why I have been working (over 20 years at the same workplace).
When I was in my 30s, an elder ex-friend said to me that it must get better in my life's quality if I quit working anymore. Instead, I should get any basic welfare from the government. I shouldn't have any silly/stubborn bias about that kind of lifestyle (to get the basic welfare must be one of our precious rights to live "human lives". If I can't work anymore, I will choose to try to get it). However, at least now, I choose to live such an old-fashioned life.
Like Morrissey sings... If I had to live a sort of "Everyday is like a Sunday" life, what would I do? I can't answer it. However, actually I have a too-active, typically ADHD mind so I would start something silly. For example, traveling around this Japan, trying to read Marcel Proust's "In The Search of Long Time" repetitively, etc. What a childish daydreamer I am!
After today's work, I went back to my group home. Having dinner, I read Takeshi Nakajima's "Asia-ism [中島岳志『アジア主義』]" completely. This masterpiece tries to explain how Japan had been soaked into a notorious ultra-nationalism which even tried to unify Asian nations into one (of course, under Japan's hegemony). However, as an Asian person, I still want to think about this issue carefully.
