Yi T'aejun, 'Dust and Other Stories' (2018), Part II

Yi T'aejun, Dust and Other Stories. Translated by Janet Poole. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.

"Unconditioned." The passage of time, evocations worthy of Marcel Proust. "Perhaps it was because two or more of those decades had passed during which the mountains and rivers are said to change, but does that mean we can't even trust the mountains and rivers over time? . . . The whole area seemed to have been filled in and the mountain razed, to be replaced by a red muddy track going up the slope." (pp. 140-141)

"Before and After Liberation." ". . . no words were necessary for the feelers of their desperate hearts to clasp onto each other, and they had already grown quite intimate after only a couple of meetings." (p. 155)

"U.S. [A]rmy [J]eeps . . . wriggled like a swarm of whirligig beetles."  

"'The blue waters and green mountains remain the same, 
While the rain merely washes the moss on the rocks.'"  (p. 187)

"Tiger Grandma." Literacy drive. "'Why don't you leave us living corpses alone? What does it matter if we can read or not when we'll be on the way to the public cemetery tomorrow or the next day . . .'"  (p. 190)

"'There's a saying that even saints must follow the times.'" (p. 192)

Manguri, a basket with a slip pf paper to forget worries. (p. 194) Heap of stones. Rice and greens for crows and magpies, "a shaman's 'scolding.'" (p. 195)

"Just then, three or four hens come tottering out of the kitchen, chased by a cockerel." (p. 198)

"Dust." "The businessman's complaints were endless." (p. 239)

Japanese imperialism replaced by American imperialism. "All of a sudden the children selling American cigarettes and gum scattered into the alleys to hide, crouching like a flock of birds spooked by a hawk."  (p. 244)

"Conservative? But that's not who I really am! The conservatives are noxious pests who block the progress of their country and society in any age. Am I really conservative?" (p. 259)

Today's Rune: Wholeness. 

Yi T'aejun, 'Dust and Other Stories' (2018), Part I

Yi T'aejun, Dust and Other Stories. Translated by Janet Poole. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018.

Fascinating glimpse into Korean life, bridging the period between Imperial Japanese dominance (1910-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953). Publications by Yi T'aejun (1904-circa 1956) were banned in South Korea until 1988. 

Banned books are often the best ones to read, naturally.

From "The Broker's Office:" "Is this world only good to you if you have money?" (p. 58)

"When government officials buy, even country bumpkins notice something's up, don't they?" (p. 59)

From "A Tale of Rabbits:" "His library was not large, but Hyŏn could not help but feel awe whenever he leisurely perused his bookshelves. He could appreciate the saying, 'To see a thousand years at one glance.' Every day new books appear." (p. 88)

"The Hunt:" "At midnight they had a simple but tasty snack of pheasant and buckwheat with a cold radish soup that made their teeth tingle. and then they stayed up past two o'clock sharing stories of goblins that had appeared on midnight trips to eat noodles or go fishing, or on the way home from visiting girls in nearby villages." (p. 100)

"Evening Sun:" "A stone pagoda stood to the right-hand side as he came out of the station, which bore the contours of a Korean house. . . The cracked and crumbling pagoda was yellowed and bumpy, like the spine of some beast extracted from a layer of earth tens of thousands of years old rather than something made from stone. Surrounded by mountains and stretching out quietly, the streets seemed too fragmented for a town." (p. 109)

"'What kind of feeling could there be without fear?'" (p. 114) 

"'I try not to feel too alone. When you think about it, is there anyone who isn't alone?'" (p. 119)

"The scene evoked the same kind of eternal nihilism as the Five Burial Mounds. On closer inspection there were small hills, woods, twisting roads, winding streams, small villages in the folds of each mountain, rice paddies, and dry fields, and above them all floated the clouds, which cast shadows on the villages and the streams . . . but at a casual glance there was merely the green earth and the misty air, and nothing else." (p. 123)

"Although they stood up quickly, it was already dusk as they walked back down the path. Maehŏn accompanied her to the stations and sent his precious companion away in the dark on the evening train." (p. 125)

"Yi dynasty white porcelain . . . vessels from eternity that provide quiet comfort and refreshment and never exhaust." (p. 128)

Today's Rune: Partnership. 

Yasujirō Ozu: 'Tokyo Story' / 東京物語 (1953)

Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story / 東京物語 (1953). This is the kind of movie you could study many times and still pick up new details. It's a masterwork of world cinema, and though I am not a devout believer in rankings and lists, it's worth noting that Tokyo Story has been listed by film directors as the number one film of all time, up to the year 2012. Certainly it's a memorable film.

Tokyo Story provides an effective answer to world wars, Trumpism, the internet "shallows," and ADHD. Tokyo Story is quiet, slow, thoughtful and deep. 

Tokyo Story subtly shows the intricacies of family systems. Three generations are on display, with variations in life station, geography, age and demeanor. There are: one set of parents, four surviving kids (one son, who had been drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army, died in 1945, near the end of the Second World War), one son-in-law, two daughters-in-law, and a couple of grandchildren. Family members have "stories" about each other, and each fit into the system in their own way. There are also friends, mostly old friends, and a neighbor or two. 

Ozu (December 12, 1903-December 12, 1963) uses several distinctive techniques in his craft. One is the low-angle shot, bringing viewers into interior scenes. For transitions, he often shows technology or architecture, exterior (smokestacks, trains, signs, lights, boats) or interior spaces (a room with plenty of traces of human habitation but no people). For plot shifts, he'll jump forward past a milestone event (wedding, funeral) and into ramifications and changes to the status quo. 

The actors: Chishū Ryū (1904-1993), who plays the father, is superb, using facial expression, body language and occasional verbal expressions to maximum impact. Setsuko Hara (1920-2015), in playing widowed daughter-in-law Norika, is delightful, poignant, deep. These two stand out, and yet the rest of the ensemble cast is very believable and forceful, too. 

Lest we forget, Ozu's main screenwriter: Kōgo Noda (1893-1968).

Today's Rune: Joy.  

Xan Cassavetes: 'Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession' (2004)

Xan Cassavetes: Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004). 

This is an alluring documentary that dives back into the 1970s and 1980s, beginning as an origin story and ending with the collapse of Los Angeles-based Z Channel (1974-1989), after a murder-suicide perpetrated by its talented, mentally ill main programmer, Jerry Harvey (1949-1988).

Subscription TV (now streaming, too) began in earnest with the likes of Home Box Office (HBO) in 1972, The Green Channel in 1973 -- which morphed into The Movie Channel (TMC) in 1979 -- and Z Channel. The latter included an influential sampling of international movies with subtitles, director's cuts, B movies and independent films. 

Z Channel had a profound impact on its market, especially among directors, writers, and other "creatives." Xan Cassavetes gives us a taste of representatives from this class, ranging from Penelope Spheeris to Jim Jarmusch. 

When a cool movie or director was featured on Z Channel, this was an event that could be shared in "real time," not just recorded for later, or plucked out of the ethersphere at will, or binge-watched down the pike.  

We may well wonder about delivery and recording systems now vs. then, and now vs. in the future. In those years, battle was also joined globally in the videotaping field between Sony's Betamax (Beta) and JVC's Video Home System (VHS) tapes, with Beta starting in 1975, VHS in 1976, and both lines ceasing production only in 2016.

Digital services now available dwarf what was around in the 1970s. All you need is money, access and time!

In 1975, the global human population was about 4.079 billion, 38% of it urbanized. As of 2018, it has already jumped to 7.633 billion, with 55% urbanized. What do you suppose those numbers will be in 2060?  Imagine the delivery systems forty-two years from now, when handheld devices, streaming services, driverless cars and delivery drones are old hat?  

Today's Rune: Movement.  

Jim Jarmusch's 'Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai' (1999)

Jim Jarmusch's Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), shot in New Jersey with Japanese dreams. Stars Forest Whitaker in the title role, as a retainer of low-level mobster Louie (John Tormey). 

The film is a most excellent fantasy piece revolving around Ghost Dog, the quiet assassin; aging gangsters; Raymond, a French-speaking Haitian ice cream truck man (Isaach De Bakolé); Pearline (Camille Winbush), a very young reader of books; and active carrier / messenger pigeons, also known as war pigeons.  

The character Ghost Dog filters the world through Yamamoto Tsunetomo's Hagakure / Hidden Leaves (from the early 1700s), which strictly and philosophically lays out the samurai way of life.  Many of its "leaves" are read aloud by Ghost Dog over intertitles that show the corresponding text, in English. 

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Totally hip flick with a groovy soundtrack courtesy of RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. Throughout the film, there are lots of allusions to books, other movies, mixed genres and alternate codes of naming and living. There may be a sequel forthcoming. 

Today's Rune: Protection. 

Isabel Allende: 'El amante japonés: Una novela' / 'The Japanese Lover: A Novel' (2015)

Isabel Allende: El amante japonés: Una novela / The Japanese Lover: A Novel (2015). A quick, easy read. It's strange to see allusions to very recent events in a novel, connected with the upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s. 

I particularly enjoyed the various points of view, ranging from the much older Alma to one of her caregivers and mentees, Irina. Both have immigrant backgrounds -- Alma, a refugee sent to California by concerned family during the encroachment of the Nazi menace, Irina rescued from the poverty of Moldova (though out of the frying pan into the fire). There's a Japanese family whose patriarch had moved to California to become a gardener well before the Second World War, breaking the family tradition of militarism, and numerous other characters. Ichimei Fukuda, son of the gardener and a gardener himself, is "the Japanese lover" -- Alma's.

The Japanese angle adds historical flourishes. There's a religious component with Ōmoto, a modern offshoot of Shinto that publishes tracts in the international language Esperanto. There's the holistic aspect of landscape gardening; internment during World War II preceded by the burial of the family war sword; and note of the highly decorated Japanese American combat unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (whose history is worth a book of its own -- including those they fought in Europe, ranging from Germans to various detachments surprisingly fighting alongside them -- the Germans --  originating from Somalia, Poland, India and other unexpected places). 

A pretty cool, undemanding novel that deals with age and life changes, varied circumstances, refugees, immigrants, love and history, all laced together nicely.

Today's Rune: Wholeness. 

Kon Ichikawa: 'The Burmese Harp' / 'Biruma no tategoto' / ビルマの竪琴 (1956)

Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp / Biruma no tategoto / ビルマの竪琴 (1956), based on Michio Takeyama's 1958 novel of the same name.

Set-up: Japanese soldiers are abandoned to their fate in Burma (now Myanmar) near the end of the Second World War. Focus is on one company, led by a captain who had been musically trained in civilian life, and who has his troops sing to boost morale. One of his privates, Mizushima, has taken up playing a Burmese Harp, and seems already otherworldly at the beginning of the film, only to become more so.

The company tries to make its way to a safe zone so they can somehow return to devastated Japan, but are eventually overtaken by British (including Sikh) forces at a Burmese village. 

Though the war is officially over by this time, mortal danger persists. Another detachment of Japanese soldiers refuses to surrender -- death before dishonor. Mizushima is sent to Triangle Mountain to convince them to choose life over death. Will he succeed?

The rest of the film involves Mizushima's becoming a Buddhist monk, choosing to remain in Burma to bury abandoned Japanese war dead (apparently killed in large part by air and artillery attack), combined with the rest of his company, now POWs, trying to figure out whether he's dead or alive, and if the latter, hoping he will return with them to Japan. 

The Burmese Harp is an effective and sad film, distinctive in its long-term philosophical and religious considerations. For example, it's noted that neither the Japanese nor British empires will reign in Burma -- which became independent in 1948, though it still suffers ethnic turmoil in the 21st century. 

Kon Ichikawa (1915-2008) directed, but he worked in close collaboration with Natto Wada (1920-1983), the script writer, who also happened to be his spouse. Ichikawa did a color film remake of The Burmese Harp in 1985, but I haven't seen it yet.

Today's Rune: Joy. 

Masahiro Shinoda: 'Pale Flower' / 'Kawaita hana' / 乾いた花 (1964)

Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower / Kawaita hana / 乾いた花 (1964). 

Whereas Seijun Suzuki's 1964 Gate of Flesh / Nikutai no mon / 肉体の門  is set in the immediate wake of the Second World War and shot in garish colors, Shinoda's 1964 film is set in the early 1960s and shot in black and white. Japan has begun to rebuild and we can recognize it as contemporary modern. But the code of gangsters (yakuza) is key to both films, and to both periods in Japanese society. So is the underground scene in general -- dangerous and alluring. 

'“There was a strong influence of [Charles] Baudelaire’s Fleurs du mal throughout this film,” director Masahiro Shinoda would later remember of his 1964 squid-ink noir Pale Flower.'" -- Chuck Stephens, "Pale Flower: Loser Take All" (2011), The Criterion Collection. Link here.

"Bewitchingly shot and edited . . ." The Criterion Collection has special features, all nifty. 

Who will pay the Piper? But first, who is the Piper? 

"A sumptuous sonnet to unrequited amour fou, Pale Flower remains Shinoda’s most enduring creation." -- Chuck Stephens, "Pale Flower: Loser Take All" (2011), The Criterion Collection. 

Today's Rune: Strength. 

Seijun Suzuki: Gate of Flesh / Nikutai no mon / 肉体の門 (1964)

Seijun Suzuki's Nikutai no mon / 肉体の門 / Gate of Flesh (1964): set in the post-World War II devastation of Tokyo, a dazzling look at how people struggled to survive. Part pulp, part Surrealism and part everything but the kitchen sink, Gate of Flesh has a fresh, crazy feel even now. 

Destruction is everywhere. Much of the population suffers from some variation of post-traumatic stress, shell shock and "nostalgia" -- psychic damage from firebombings and other forms of mass violence, both dealt out and received. 

The "returnees," as veterans from the various battlefronts were called, are warily received, while organized gangs (yakuza) run rampant, black markets flourish, and prostitution is pervasive and brutally competitive. American occupiers, including Military Police (MPs) roam through the urban tangle with weapons at the ready, half suppressing and half participating. It's a sort of massively scaled industrialized version of Deadwood.    

Gate of Flesh is based on a 1947 novel by Taijiro Tamura (1911-1983). What's striking about the Seijun Sazuki (1923-2017) adaptation is how much wilder it is than Japanese films made during the actual American occupation. Why? Because immediately after the war, American authorities censored everything in occupied Japan with a heavy hand, but by 1964, that was gone. 

The Criterion Collection DVD set has lots of extra goodies. It's also worth noting that there are five adaptations of the Tamura novel, three of them made after Sazuki's version. 

Today's Rune: Partnership. 

Hiroshi Inagaki: 'The Samurai Trilogy' (1954-1956)

Hiroshi Inagaki's The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956): five hours of cinematic groove divided into three movies revolving around the adult life of Miyamoto Musashi (circa 1584-1645), author of The Book of Five Rings, artist and winner of sixty-one (or more) sword duels, played by Toshiro Mifune (1920-1997), and based on the thick Musashi novel by Eiji Yoshikawa (1892-1962). 

We are immersed into 1600s Japan, codes of ethics, social systems, gender roles, Buddhism, philosophy, art, meditation, and death by sword-play. Musashi's character and skill develops as things move along, and look for the women, too. A sprawling epic that let's us flow along with its varying tempos.  

Hiroshi Inagaki's The Samurai Trilogy (1954-1956). In it, many die by the sword, but only "Moderate Violence" -- or so says the cover of this DVD.  I, II, III: Musashi Miyamoto (1954), Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955) and Duel at Ganryu Island (1956). 

The accompanying music by Ikuma Dan (1924-2001) adds to the pacing of the film. For about twenty seconds of the overture, you can catch the first inklings of Ennio Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold" in the main theme. (See Sergio Leone's Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966). 

Today's Rune: Breakthrough. 

Flash of Light, Fog of War: Japanese Military Prints, 1894-1905 (Part II)

The Great Victory of Our Forces at the Battle of the Yellow Sea (1894)

Bradley M. Bailey, Flash of Light, Fog of War: Japanese Military Prints, 1894-1905. Chapel Hill: Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017. And exhibition at the Ackland, October 6, 2017-January 7, 2018.

An original and fascinating exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints, highlighting with jingoistic relish the rise of the Japanese military. Artistically, aside from the purely historical context, the prints highlight fog, smoke, exploding shells, searchlights, bursts of red and exciting activity. 

Also in the Ackland, meet No'om of Palmyra (Tadmun), Syria. Her age is about 1,850 years. Can you dig?

Today's Rune: Partnership.  

Flash of Light, Fog of War: Japanese Military Prints, 1894-1905 (Part I)

Bradley M. Bailey, Flash of Light, Fog of War: Japanese Military Prints, 1894-1905. Chapel Hill: Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017.

In the late 1800s, Japan industrialized rapidly and, through war, took on two major powers: China and Russia. One of its prizes was the Korean Peninsula. 

Given that these same powers are still connected in the latest Korean conflict, the rise of Japan as a major military power is highly relevant -- as was its total destruction as a military power by 1945. 

Japan wasn't the only nation playing jingoist games at the time of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars. Besides Western European powers and their own imperial wars, the United States of America initiated the Spanish-American War, resulting in a number of intended and unintended consequences. 

Outside of Africa, Spain's old empire was virtually demolished -- leading eventually to the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. 

Also as a result of the Spanish-American War, the US seized Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam and the Philippines and annexed Hawaii at the same time. The US became a world naval power, steaming toward conflict with Japan. The poor, innocent US that never does wrong and only fights to defend itself! 

As for a Korean nuclear war in the 21st century, the verdict is still out -- but the surprise should be not at all, given the history of the last 125 years. 

Yesterday, today and tomorrow: Cherchez la guerre / Look for the War.

Today's Rune: Initiation. 

Esprit d'escalier: Stairs and Stairways to Heaven, Hell and Somewhere in Between

Markus Sebastian Braun, editor. Stairs: Architectural Details. Translated by Alice Bayandin. [Berlin]: Verlagshaus Braun, 2008. 

Stairs, stairways and stairway wit are among the ten thousand things that fascinate me. The more I see, the more I want to see. This book gives colorful photographic examples from twenty-one European cities. I've been to eleven of these cities so far: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Lisbon, London, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Zurich. I'm planning to see another one in 2018.

Stairs frequently show up in art; if designed and made well, the stairways themselves are art. Here's Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2  / Nu descendant un escalier, no 2 (1912). Philadelphia Museum of Art. Scandalous!

What would Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) be without its grand staircase? (This, by the way, is a favorite movie of both Clint Eastwood and Donald Trump).

Mikio Naruse's When A Woman Ascends The Stairs / 女が階段を上る時 (1960) makes this a central metaphor in a person's life. Fabbles! 

Let's not forget the importance of stairways in William Friedkin's hugely popular film, The Exorcist (1973). 

There are so many good examples of stairs in artscapes, this barely touches the first step. Thanks to esprit d'escalier, I'll think of a dozen more right after posting this -- maybe for another post. 

Do stairways conjure up anything for you?  

Today's Rune: Fertility. 

Jim Jarmusch: 'Mystery Train' (1989)

We'll let The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, rest a bit, and turn to Jim Jarmusch's indie style film, Mystery Train (1989). Set in Memphis, Tennessee, Mystery Train is composed of three connected "fish out of water" stories. 

The pacing is deliberative, letting us hang out with the characters long enough to understand them, at least to a point of empathy -- how and why they arrived and where they may be going. Cleverly, Jarmusch helps us "defamiliarize" ourselves with the USA, looking at aspects of American culture with fresh perspectives.*

Two Japanese music fans arrive in Memphis via Amtrak, needling each other about their preferences and wandering around.

An Italian widow has a layover at the airport, so decides to explore the city. She has adventures along the way and even a little supernatural visitation.

A laid-off and jilted Englishman is drunk, angry, and carrying a loaded pistol in a bar. Buddies and a brother-in-law (who turns out to be only his would-be brother-in-law) try to calm him down and keep him out of trouble. Once outside of the bar, he asks to stop somewhere to get more bounce. What could go wrong? 

Strategic points in the urban landscape (like the patchy hotel and a particular view of the city skyline) combine with time and energy to lightly brush the stories together. 

Joe Strummer (1952-2002) of The Clash plays the surly Englishman with charisma. His sidekicks include characters played by Steve Buscemi (The Sopranos, &c.), comedian Rick Aviles (1952-1995), and Detroit's own Vondie Curtis-Hall. 

Nicoletta Braschi (who is also featured in an earlier Jarmusch film, Down by Law) plays the Italian widow and Elizabeth Bracco (The Sopranos), her temporary roommate. 

Youki Kudoh (Snow Falling on Cedars) and Masatoshi Nagase (Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!) play the needling Japanese visitants.

The hotel guys are played by Screamin' Jay Hawkins (1929-2000) -- "I Put a Spell on You" (1956) and Cinqué Lee (Spike Lee's younger brother).

Good stuff! More recently, Jarmusch directed Gimme Danger (2016), on Iggy & The Stooges. I posted on it here.

*See Russian Formalism for more on this groovy scrim.

Today's Rune: Joy. 

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. 'Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life' (2016), Part III

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. Translated by Heather Cleary. New York: Penguin, 2016. Originally published as Ikigai: Los secretos de Japón para una vida larga y feliz (Medicinas complementarias). Urano, 2016. Part the Third.

From the previous post, let's continue with Shoma Morita (1874-1938).  Another one of his techniques was to utilize "Naikan meditation."  In thinking about interpersonal relationships, a person would be asked to meditate on questions such as, "what have I" given and received from a specific person in their life, and most importantly, "What problems have I caused" this other person?

"Through these reflections, we stop identifying others as the cause of our problems and deepen our own sense of responsibility." (page 50). Existentialism redux!

The authors also devote chapters to:

Flow (and microflow), pages [55]-86;

Words of Wisdom from people mostly over 110 years of age, pages [89]-99;

Hanging out with 100+ year old people in Ogimi, Okinawa, pages [103]-132;

Blue Zones, radio taiso, yoga, tai chi, imitating clouds, qigong, shiatsu and breathing, pages [135]-161;

Resilence -- "Fall seven times, rise eight," page [165] -- wabi-sabi and tchi-go ichi-e -- "[t]his moment exists only now and won't come again," page 172 -- and building redundancies, pages [165]-179;

And an epilogue ("give thanks," page 185) with notes and further reading ideas. 

Today's Rune: Warrior. 

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. 'Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life' (2016), Part II

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. Translated by Heather Cleary. New York: Penguin, 2016. Originally published as Ikigai: Los secretos de Japón para una vida larga y feliz (Medicinas complementarias). Urano, 2016. Part the Second.

Next we turn to Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), survivor of the Holocaust, psychologist, and interesting thinker. Frankl, whose wife, mother and brother all died in Nazi death camps, asks via his logotherapy approach, "Why do you not commit suicide?" (page [37]).

If you can answer that to your own satisfaction, you probably have found a reason or reasons to want to live, even in a foul world.

Frankl employs a great deal of existentialism to his method of psychology. He "believed that our health depends on that natural tension that comes from comparing what we've accomplished so far with what we'd like to achieve in the future . . . a challenge we can strive to meet by applying all the skills at our disposal." (page 40).

Purpose = Ikigai, "reason for getting out of bed."  (page 41).

The authors then delve into the Zen Buddhist psychotherapeutic methods of Shoma Morita (1874-1938).  

Morita's approach is holistic. He has his charges spending time with themselves, and then doing. "[T]heir feelings will change as a result of their actions." (page 46). 

"Discover your life's purpose. We can't control our emotions, but we can take charge of our actions every day." (page 48).

There's a lot more to explore about Morita therapy, but let's just say that poets and philosophers would dig it, after an initial rebellion.

Today's Rune: Protection.   

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. 'Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life' (2016), Part I

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. Translated by Heather Cleary. New York: Penguin, 2016. Originally published as Ikigai: Los secretos de Japón para una vida larga y feliz (Medicinas complementarias). Urano, 2016.

I love books that delve into philosophies of life. This is another in a slew of such, and fun it is -- a quick, easy read, too. And, as usual in these offerings, there are useful insights that make it worth the effort.

The authors take an eclectic approach. They suggest not being a dummy on auto-pilot. Push the envelope. Learn new things every day. Explore, investigate and observe. Carry about with active curiosity. "Presented with new information, the brain creates new connections and is revitalized. This is why it is so important to expose yourself to change, even if stepping outside your comfort zone means feeling a bit of anxiety." (page 21).

This keeps mind and body active, and also makes time feel slower and more drawn-out: more musing, less rush. Why? Because the brain has to "take more time" to process the new tidbits of observation. 

Another suggestion: be less overtly emotional in response to the storms of life (what Carl von Clausewitz called "friction"). 

"A stoic attitude -- serenity in the face of a setback . . . lowers anxiety and stress levels and stabilises [stabilizes] behavior. This can be seen in the greater life expectancies of certain cultures with unhurried, deliberate lifestyles." (page 31) 

I concur completely with both approaches, which are complimentary: be a curious, open-minded seeker, and don't lose your toast over things that you can't control. 

In the next post, we'll consider the authors' suggestions in how to employ Viktor Frankl's concept of logotherapy to strengthen one's life. Interesting stuff.

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.