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I feel spring is just coming step by step, here in Tokyo. I can measure it by the angles of the branches of cherry blossoms in the Ueno Park, where Tokyo National Museum is situated, in which I am doing a part-time job. It is actually my first time to have a chance to see what it is like backstage in such a big museum, how work is going on behind exhibitions. Everybody in the office sits at a table at lunch and at "teatime." The chairman in the office is a really friendly person, who has multiple talents in many things; calligraphy, Chinese chess, tennis, and so on. The lady working under him is so talkative that she dares to come to my desk to chat about what she is currently suffering from. The visiting scholar sitting in the room is interested in teaching me how to look into highly complicated Chinese characters in 12 volume dictionaries. But at the same time, it made me so disappointed that so many people complain about the traditional system of the museum itself, and that almost everybody gives up trying to change to make the situation better. Nobody wants to take action or a new step, being afraid of taking responsibility. Yesterday I watched the movie called Bowling for Columbine. I was impressed by the style, the way that the movie criticizes guns, war, violence, and the media which stirs people's fear against violence. But most of all, I was moved by the actions such that victims in the Columbine actually went to K-mart company in order to persuade the company to stop selling bullets in their stores, and that the producer actually visited the president of NRA in order to make manifest his disagreement. And in fact, the people supporting the victims in the Columbine could succeed in stopping K-mart's selling them. It was not a mere documentary movie, but they actually moved in reality! Since I am a "professional" complainer and criticizer about my ability, situation, and any kind of limits I encountered, I know how easy it is just to complain and to criticize. It needs much more courage to take an action after complaining. But the movie cheered me up through their actual actions, even though this documentary movie scared and confused me a bit with tons of facts and with its cynical view of reality. In my college, especially in my faculty, professors seem to look down on each other, while students seem to be jealous of each other. The point is, they try to attack others with sarcasm and disdainful words, because of unreasonable scare. I just noticed that it is the totally same society that is depicted in Bowling for Columbine. People try to get a gun, and to attack before they would be attacked, because being scared of unnamed enemies threatens them so much. Mean words and behaviors fortunately cannot kill others--unlike rifles, but they can hurt minds much. Why can't they just praise each other and make each other confident of themselves? Now I'd love to take action in many ways, in many places. I am wondering how I can do it. I am looking forward to cherry blossoms blooming. It's like a snowstorm of flowers. I hope you could see it once in your life somewhere. |