I had a day off today. This morning, I joined the daily English meeting on Zoom as usual. Today's theme was about a result from a survey that said that showing one's kindness to others could afford that person a nice feeling certainly. We discussed how Japanese people could show their hospitality in their characters (so-called "omotenashi" mind), and after that, I asked the other members if Valentine's Day gifts could be that sort of representation of one's kindness.
This morning, although the fizziness that haunted me was not so terrible, probably because it was slightly snowing and also I couldn't have any motivated feeling to go out to "work" something creative, therefore I decided to stay home all day today. I went to the library to borrow a book about a Japanese intellectual, Tenshin Okakura, and also to a convenience store to buy a lunchbox, I just stayed here. Even though I had planned to go to enjoy a Rakugo event (a traditional kind of Japanese comedy), I canceled it.
This afternoon, I enjoyed that book about Tenshin by Eisuke Wakamatsu (若松英輔『岡倉天心「茶の本」を読む』). Last year (probably late spring), at a meeting of The English Studying Club, we read Tenshin's English book "The Book of Tea [岡倉天心『茶の本』]". Since that, I have had a little concern/interest in several Japanese intellectuals who had very international minds. How should I face the world as a Japanese (an Asian person who was born in this small, lovely island country)?
TBH, basically I can never believe an ideal that says "One for all, all for one" or "Come Together" etc. Definitely because "I" had to become a sort of "enemy" in a class when I was a kid ("they" unified themselves by bullying me). So, in a way, I have lived as a natural-born human alien who has an autistic mind, and that still leads me to think that there must still be some outsiders who can't be salvaged even though most of us finally can get unified as one (a pretty grotesque situation like "Neon Genesis Evangelion"). How can I have any beautiful, even religious ideal that can connect you and me as one? Or, we shouldn't have that sort of delusion?
After that, by spending my time discussing something on Twitter, I spent my day. Oh my gosh!
