My Brother
Today I stayed in the office for a whole day to make up for my absence yesterday. I was on leave because of the presentation. After office hours I was going to work out in the gym. But perhaps I was so tired; while resting at home around 6 p.m. I had slept almost for two hours. It was supposed to be at most thirty minutes only. In this kind of nap usually you tend to have some dream. I also had one interesting dream. Hence, after such a long nap, though I have been refreshed, I did not go to the gym, but stayed here to turn on my computer to write this.
By the way, have you ever experienced such feeling that while your life has been constantly changing, you tend to think or believe that things and people in your hometown will never change? If you have stayed in the city or some foreign country being away from your hometown, I think, you can easily agree what I am talking about.
Although you believe that things and people in your hometown never change, the truth is that everything there does also change. There is no exception. Everything is changing; nothing is permanent. That is why, after a long moment, if you are back in your hometown, you always get surprised by the fact that things and people have been changed. Some buildings and shops have been renovated. Your senior neighbors have gotten older and small boys and girls who used to play around have been teenagers or grown-ups.
I remember that once I had not gone back to Japan almost for three years. Then, after three years, that was one of the most impressive homecoming I have ever experienced. Many things from people's fashion to famous songs and to the bestseller books in Japan had been changed and of course my hometown was not the exception, either. Many houses and streets had been renovated. My hometown had been transformed into quite a beautiful suburb. My younger brother who is twelve years younger than I, had become grown-up; he got taller and introduced me his girlfriend. I was so surprised. One sad thing was that our cat who used be one of our family members had passed away.
Now, the dream that I had in my nap a while ago was a sort of hypothetic possibility – what if my hometown had not been changed.
I was in our old house where my brother who was eight years old was seated beside me. I love my younger brother. He was just born when I was twelve years old. There is no one between him and myself. When he was a small baby, I used to take care of him. Even if I was busy for the basketball club in the high school, I always tried my best to go home with him from the nursery school. Since both of our parents were working at that time, my brother used to spend most of his time in the nursery.
When he became a student of the elementary school, of course it was the period of the gang-age, psychologically speaking; he tended to hang around with his friends and enjoyed playing baseball, soccer, and skateboarding. In terms of sport, he became more active than I (by the way, when I met him and he introduced his girlfriend, he was even snowboarding). Despite the gap between his own world and mine, since we are brothers and he was much younger than I, we share a lot of things; more correctly speaking, while we did not share much; nevertheless we talked a lot quite frankly.
While he was seated beside me in my dream, I told him. "You know, sooner or later we will move to the other house, a sort of condo that will be located nearby the public library." Then, he answered, "But there is no building around the library, just rice field."
"That rice field will be completely disappeared ten years from now. There will be the huge supermarket, the rental video shops, a number of convenience stores and several condominiums. Our town will be one of the most beautiful suburbs in the near future -- the town of the rich people." But he said, "I do not like it. Besides, we are not rich..."
"Our house here is the part of government's housing development. That is why, the rent is cheaper and there are a lot of kids who are playing around everyday. But ten or fifteen years from now, there will be few kids here. Instead, there will be a lot of retired people. This housing area will be the town of old people. Can you imagine that? But, that is true. Not only this area; the birth rate in Japan will sharply drop. Japan will be the country of old people. What is happening in the Northern Europe now will be our reality soon."
"Why does such thing happen?"
"I do not know. Probably people do no marry. Or even if they marry, they prefer a few kids. And especially many people tend to be single even when they are beyond thirty."
"How old are you?"
"Well, since you are just eight years old, I should be twenty in this dream. But actually I am already thirty six. And I now stay in the foreign country."
"That's old! Why do you stay in the foreign country? Do you have your wife? So, you can speak English, can't you?"
"Yes, I am old from your point of view. In your age, time seems permanent. Life moves so slowly. You don't worry about how time passes fast. You feel everything seems eternal repetition. It seems to you that becoming twenty years old is the very far destination. Actually it is. But once and at last you become twenty or thirty (that is also what you will surely experience someday); you will realize that time is neither eternal nor infinite, but time is finite and limited at least for your life. This means that you will realize that your life has the end in your more direct experience. Then, you also realize that time is precious. It is one of the most precious gifts from God."
"Why do I stay in the foreign country? I really do not know why. When I was a student of the graduate school, I wrote the thesis about the country that I am now staying. After that, I felt like pursuing the same theme in my study. That is the initial reason why I am in this foreign country. But it seems that this is only one of many other reasons. Well, when you get old, you also realize that things are so unpredictable. I believe that many of adults must feel that they had never imagined the kind of job they are doing now. You and your friends have just the same dream. You want to become a soccer player and your friends also want to become soccer players, which is good and not bad at all. But it is also true that growing means the process that your dream gets more and more realistic. Well, again, it is not bad, either, as long as you can face yourself and reality positively with your self-esteem. The point is that you have to find out what you really love to do as you face your reality. That will be one of the main tasks when you become teenager."
"Unfortunately or fortunately I am still single. In fact, I am afraid that despite twelve-year age gap, you will marry first. Well, you, my brother, outside of my dream, is already 24 years old. Now I know what your job is and whether or not you have your girlfriend. But I do not tell you since you are just eight years old here in my dream. Just look forward to what will be happening in your life. As for myself, I also had had some girlfriends but none of them were the one. I can say that they left me or also they might say that I left them. However, despite such painful experiences, I would like to say that the relationship should not rely on so-called compatibility alone. Although compatibility is important, the more important thing is your determination and commitment to love your partner. Only then, the power of true love can emerge. In the power of true love you can feel that you can die for your partner… This sounds so sentimental if not pseudo-philosophical, doesn't it? Never mind if you do not understand what I am talking about. I do not understand, either."
"Yes, I speak English and also enjoy reading English books and writing essays. You might think speaking Japanese alone is enough. But, in my opinion, knowing another foreign language is quite important. You can see there are another intellectual world and another group of intellectual people as you get used to English or any other foreign language. This is really fascinating. In my case, this is especially relating to reading. There are really a lot of books written in English. Now I believe that it must be so sad if you cannot enjoy such rich world of English books. And of course, when you surf internet, many web pages are in English. I do not agree a kind of English imperialism. But again, knowing another language at the level of the practical use can really expand your world. That is why; I am now keeping this Blog Diary, a kind of web-based journal, in English. You might see this someday, my brother."
By the way, have you ever experienced such feeling that while your life has been constantly changing, you tend to think or believe that things and people in your hometown will never change? If you have stayed in the city or some foreign country being away from your hometown, I think, you can easily agree what I am talking about.
Although you believe that things and people in your hometown never change, the truth is that everything there does also change. There is no exception. Everything is changing; nothing is permanent. That is why, after a long moment, if you are back in your hometown, you always get surprised by the fact that things and people have been changed. Some buildings and shops have been renovated. Your senior neighbors have gotten older and small boys and girls who used to play around have been teenagers or grown-ups.
I remember that once I had not gone back to Japan almost for three years. Then, after three years, that was one of the most impressive homecoming I have ever experienced. Many things from people's fashion to famous songs and to the bestseller books in Japan had been changed and of course my hometown was not the exception, either. Many houses and streets had been renovated. My hometown had been transformed into quite a beautiful suburb. My younger brother who is twelve years younger than I, had become grown-up; he got taller and introduced me his girlfriend. I was so surprised. One sad thing was that our cat who used be one of our family members had passed away.
Now, the dream that I had in my nap a while ago was a sort of hypothetic possibility – what if my hometown had not been changed.
I was in our old house where my brother who was eight years old was seated beside me. I love my younger brother. He was just born when I was twelve years old. There is no one between him and myself. When he was a small baby, I used to take care of him. Even if I was busy for the basketball club in the high school, I always tried my best to go home with him from the nursery school. Since both of our parents were working at that time, my brother used to spend most of his time in the nursery.
When he became a student of the elementary school, of course it was the period of the gang-age, psychologically speaking; he tended to hang around with his friends and enjoyed playing baseball, soccer, and skateboarding. In terms of sport, he became more active than I (by the way, when I met him and he introduced his girlfriend, he was even snowboarding). Despite the gap between his own world and mine, since we are brothers and he was much younger than I, we share a lot of things; more correctly speaking, while we did not share much; nevertheless we talked a lot quite frankly.
While he was seated beside me in my dream, I told him. "You know, sooner or later we will move to the other house, a sort of condo that will be located nearby the public library." Then, he answered, "But there is no building around the library, just rice field."
"That rice field will be completely disappeared ten years from now. There will be the huge supermarket, the rental video shops, a number of convenience stores and several condominiums. Our town will be one of the most beautiful suburbs in the near future -- the town of the rich people." But he said, "I do not like it. Besides, we are not rich..."
"Our house here is the part of government's housing development. That is why, the rent is cheaper and there are a lot of kids who are playing around everyday. But ten or fifteen years from now, there will be few kids here. Instead, there will be a lot of retired people. This housing area will be the town of old people. Can you imagine that? But, that is true. Not only this area; the birth rate in Japan will sharply drop. Japan will be the country of old people. What is happening in the Northern Europe now will be our reality soon."
"Why does such thing happen?"
"I do not know. Probably people do no marry. Or even if they marry, they prefer a few kids. And especially many people tend to be single even when they are beyond thirty."
"How old are you?"
"Well, since you are just eight years old, I should be twenty in this dream. But actually I am already thirty six. And I now stay in the foreign country."
"That's old! Why do you stay in the foreign country? Do you have your wife? So, you can speak English, can't you?"
"Yes, I am old from your point of view. In your age, time seems permanent. Life moves so slowly. You don't worry about how time passes fast. You feel everything seems eternal repetition. It seems to you that becoming twenty years old is the very far destination. Actually it is. But once and at last you become twenty or thirty (that is also what you will surely experience someday); you will realize that time is neither eternal nor infinite, but time is finite and limited at least for your life. This means that you will realize that your life has the end in your more direct experience. Then, you also realize that time is precious. It is one of the most precious gifts from God."
"Why do I stay in the foreign country? I really do not know why. When I was a student of the graduate school, I wrote the thesis about the country that I am now staying. After that, I felt like pursuing the same theme in my study. That is the initial reason why I am in this foreign country. But it seems that this is only one of many other reasons. Well, when you get old, you also realize that things are so unpredictable. I believe that many of adults must feel that they had never imagined the kind of job they are doing now. You and your friends have just the same dream. You want to become a soccer player and your friends also want to become soccer players, which is good and not bad at all. But it is also true that growing means the process that your dream gets more and more realistic. Well, again, it is not bad, either, as long as you can face yourself and reality positively with your self-esteem. The point is that you have to find out what you really love to do as you face your reality. That will be one of the main tasks when you become teenager."
"Unfortunately or fortunately I am still single. In fact, I am afraid that despite twelve-year age gap, you will marry first. Well, you, my brother, outside of my dream, is already 24 years old. Now I know what your job is and whether or not you have your girlfriend. But I do not tell you since you are just eight years old here in my dream. Just look forward to what will be happening in your life. As for myself, I also had had some girlfriends but none of them were the one. I can say that they left me or also they might say that I left them. However, despite such painful experiences, I would like to say that the relationship should not rely on so-called compatibility alone. Although compatibility is important, the more important thing is your determination and commitment to love your partner. Only then, the power of true love can emerge. In the power of true love you can feel that you can die for your partner… This sounds so sentimental if not pseudo-philosophical, doesn't it? Never mind if you do not understand what I am talking about. I do not understand, either."
"Yes, I speak English and also enjoy reading English books and writing essays. You might think speaking Japanese alone is enough. But, in my opinion, knowing another foreign language is quite important. You can see there are another intellectual world and another group of intellectual people as you get used to English or any other foreign language. This is really fascinating. In my case, this is especially relating to reading. There are really a lot of books written in English. Now I believe that it must be so sad if you cannot enjoy such rich world of English books. And of course, when you surf internet, many web pages are in English. I do not agree a kind of English imperialism. But again, knowing another language at the level of the practical use can really expand your world. That is why; I am now keeping this Blog Diary, a kind of web-based journal, in English. You might see this someday, my brother."
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