Japan Visit

I am going on a two week trip partly to visit these three wonderful people, the Nakamuras (the the rest of their family). My number will be: 08010322676 during my visit. Incoming calls are free, but outgoing calls are pretty expensive. Keep in mind that this will be Japan time, so please don't call at crazy hours.

One New Project

So it's been almost nine months since the time that I lived in Japan, and I've nearly recovered! Consequently, I decided to start a small book project in order to present blogs from my time in Ubuyama in a book form (http://www.lulu.com/content/797724). It is still in very rough form as I do not have the proper book-making software, etc., but it has been a fun project and I hope to do more! The link about features the photography in black & white and thus is much cheaper (there are also color and hardcover versions for sale too). Any profits on the book will go directly to me (unfortunately, the color versions cost a good deal (300%) more to produce... so I may just have to make a separate, shorter photo book with higher resolution photos from my trip.

Another thing that is happening soon is my visit back to Japan and Kumamoto. I will get so see all the kiddies again and some old friends! I am very excited about it.

Spring is coming. And life is starting to flower, as it should. Winter's frosty shell can be discarded.

I won't have my computer in the coming weeks. I'm not too sad about that though!

Sometimes I miss the past; maybe the past misses me too. So many places to be all at once. Maybe it's a good thing I am going to NY this weekend. A lot of those places (people) are there.

All the Best,

T

Some of the deepest truths are those that are most difficult to accept. Sometimes I wonder if I will always be a wanderer. My friend just left, vanished the country to one far, far away. Some of us were born to wander weren't we?

The human mind is set up in such a way as to promote an enormous amount of everyday ignorance. Reading the newspaper every morning, for example, just fills up the mind with unimportant details almost in order that you do not remember the important things.

Perhaps this fact is a strong argument for cultural traditions. Unfortunately, many cultural traditions do just about the same thing in regard to the human mind (i.e. taking advantage of its natural predisposition to forget the most important things). Maybe it's a good time to come up with new cultural traditions, taking some of the best parts of the old.

To be aware of natural limitations is important. For nature is the most changeable and changing thing that exists and we can always make a better way.

Marx was only partially correct in his assertion that "Religion is the
opium of the masses," for it is not only religion but also the way our
imagination uses fantasy and narrative that numbs our thoughts. The
fairytale, by asserting itself as the magnificent false-reality, hides
the magnificence of the "everyday world" from the masses. It seems
that the mind has not evolved to deal with Truth, but rather with the
practicalities of survival. For it is far easier to survive when your
mind is not open to the brilliance of the universe.

It is myth that has dominated the minds of people since the advent of
settled society. It is myth that allows us to be blind to the
beauty of life. And it is myth that allows us to destroy ourselves
practically unknowingly; it is the power of fantastic myths that
allows societies to sleepwalk through their own collective suicide.
And as luck will have it, myth disappears as soon as it is absolutely,
and practically, necessary for it to do so. Just as the knife is
about to seperate the layers of flesh before the heart, the cyclops
will wake and come to life (to sadly find the myriad world-shattering damage that has been done without his noticing).

Marx had his moments to speak against religion - the cause he may have seen to be a negative force in his society, while he neglected the cause that was probably also working on him. The trouble is that myths seem better than harmless - they seem to only do us good. For how could the utilization of our imagination be a negative thing? How could reading a book do damage? People forget that books were the televisions of yesteryear, and that oral stories were the televisions of yester-yesteryear. So convenient to forget such facts, especially when forgetting them seems only to help us thrive.