We Japanese people like to make paper crafts. Especially “Origami.” We often make paper cranes when we want to pray for something.
Today I made paper cranes and I would like to show you this picture. I mean, it’s instead a Christmas card.
When you visit Hiroshima or Nagasaki in Japan someday, you definitely will find many bundles of paper cranes at the memorial parks there. Those paper cranes were made by people to pray for world peace.
So I made these paper cranes to pray for my family, friends like you and world peace.
“A 60 year old man is young.” We are sometimes told by older people. But. Is it really? As for me, around the age of 55, I have gotten easily tired step by step. Additionally I get a cold easily. So I'm disappointed in myself now.
Life is not easy. To be honest, it was hard to live when I was in my 40s. My 30s were the same and also my 20s were. Anyway I have lived somehow until now, and the day of retirement is close to me. But I still feel anxious and melancholic now.
So I actually began to read the novel “No Longer Human” again. This is a novel written by the famous Japanese author Osamu Dazai. This novel is very dark but it’s fascinating to many young people in the world. I’m not sure the reason. I can say this novel describes humans' profound mentality.
The main character in this novel tried to have a suicide again and again. He had been feeling anxiety very much since his childhood. He had been afraid of other people in society because he couldn’t understand what society is. And, because he always felt huge anxiety, he always wanted to die. And unfortunately this author ended up having a suicide after writing this novel. Maybe this main character is the author himself. That's why it's tragic and interesting.
However, I don’t know if everyone understands what society is, and also they are living in this society. So, why do human beings feel anxious, even if they don’t have a dangerous situation now? Maybe I’m afraid that I don’t know what will happen from now on. I mean, it’s what will happen after my age of 60. I’m getting forward to my death day by day.
When I was living with my beloved dog, I noticed. They don’t think anything about their future. They don’t take care of anything about their future. For them, it’s important only to think about the current situation. If they have food to eat today or not. If they stay with family now. So they looked like they didn't feel anxious. I envy them, animals.
For people who are 80 years old, 60 year old people are young. For 60 year old people, 50 or 40 year old people are young. Of course 20 year old people are definitely young. Although, I’m not sure if I’m young now. So, I want to ask you, if you feel anxious now. How is it?
Ah, I want to live like that beloved dog. I feel anxious today too.
In October, I had a speech in a primary school in Salt Lake City, Utah. Because I visited there on my trip, I had a chance to give this speech. When I entered the classroom at the time, there were 60 kids in a room. I talked about the history between the US and Japan, and I talked about friendship between them and me. They listened to my speech earnestly, although my speech is not neccesarily joyful. So I was very glad to have become friends with them.
