I have a hard time dealing with heartache in the states but I can deal with headaches.
My currently-running theory is that a headache is easier to deal with here because lots of people "work through" issues by thinking them through and people tend to converse frequently on that level; the cerebral level. This is a new influence in my life.
I saw - and was influenced - in Japan by people who dealt with heartache by drinking - or staying phenomenally busy but I'll save the details of that for a later entry. Wabi-sabi, on the other hand, was another way of coping with heartache. Consider Japanese pathos as exemplied in the Kanji, 情念。 At an extreme level, I saw this most clearly in the film, "In The Realm Of The Senses." In everyday life, I saw Japanese "wabi-sabi" in the glorification of sadness and the elevation of suffering to a form of beauty. This - when combined with a Faulknerian Southern Gothic upbringing as I had - influenced my life.
In California/the U.S. people see to me to be more judgmental or ideal-centered over issues of the heart. I can't work out everything in my brain without a little mind-expansion; that is what I hope to achieve in California. It's all becoming clearer than I've felt in months.
Something else too: 心 (kokoro/shin) is associated with the heart-mind in Japan. Is the mind in the states more closely associated with brain activity? I am inclined to see it as so.
anecdote: if you want to break up with someone in Japan, you don't state that outright but, rather, you write your "Dear John/Jane letter in red ink.
No comments:
Post a Comment