We had very heavy rain this morning, but now it's all cleared and we can see beautiful blue sky behind the clouds.
And we repeatedly heard on the news that more than 80 people's lives were taken as typhoon striked the lands of Japan this weekend, and a lot are still missing. If I was the one who lost my beloved ones, I must be feeling so weak and empty. If I was the one who was deprived of everything I had by the disaster, I would be feeling so helpless. So first, let me offer my condolences to the people who lost their family members in the disasters.
Watching TV news makes me wonder some times. They always talk how terribly not prepared we were to the emergency cases brought by nature. And they often criticize a public service for being too late to warn citizens of coming dangers. But can we perfectly get prepared for everything in life? And can we expect perfectness out of a public service? No, it's simply impossible, they say, "shit happens in life" and that is 100% true. We also often hear the words "Risk Management" these days. But are risks really something manageable? I don't quite agree. For example, when Japan Uiversity's football player tackled opponent team's player from behind having an intention to get him injured, directors of Japan University's football team was not prepared at all and they just messed around with the situation, even though their university just opened "Risk Management Department" a few years ago just to be made fun of after all.
If you say something about "risk management", you will have very limited choices in your life. Don't live near a river for a risk of flooding, avoid living near mountains for a risk of landsliding, keep away from the seaside for a risk of tsunami, and low floors aren't safe with regard to water disasters, although high towers might be exposed to the risk of being atatcked by terrorists or easily bombed under wartime. (Who can say wars will never occur?) This issue will lead to arguments such as "don't eat raw sashimi", "don't eat meat", "don't eat processed food", "don't ride a bicycle", "don't go abroad", "don't ride jetcoasters", "don't drive a car", "don't live in a wooden house", "don't invest money in stocks", "don't save your money in you bank account", and thousands more if you will.
Like it or not, it's a matter of choice. And as long as you have a variety of choices, you have to take a risk as well. And we can never expect that somebody else, such as your local community, will help you out of any dangers. As long as we have a free choice to decide where we live, what we do and wear and eat, who we work with or make friends with, accountabilities always rest with ourselves. We have to be the one not to be warned properly, but the one to choose how to live on our own responsibility, and this simple fact makes us smart enough to think how we can survive in different situations from where we're in now. Only consciousness will open our eyes.
This, I think, is the most important things for kids to be taught. Since they grow up believing their parents are responsible for whatever shitty things happen in their lives, they come to think they will always be taken care of by their society. When they start working, their bosses are to be blamed for whatever problems happen in their workplace. And when they become parents, they start to think teachers are accountable for whatever their kids do in school. So as a natural consequence, they expect their local government to get rid of the threat of natural disasters, but it's beyond their authority.
My point is of course not to say we shouldn't be prepared for disasters as a community. It's always good to talk and share with others what we can do when emergency cases happens. But on the other hand, it's very important for us to know that the shittiest of shitty things can happen anytime, anywhere, and we really have to be conscious of what we're choosing in our lives in exchange for risks imposed by our own choice, because some choices we make are much graver than we actually think they are.
And here I want to come back to the first line. Hey, isn't it beautiful that we can believe in the promise of nature that there's always blue sky waiting for you to look up the sky after having been depressed under the weather? Nature often benefits us in many ways, and at the same time, it takes a lot away from us some times. So if you appreciate good sides of nature, vice versa, you have to appreciate other sides of the nature as well. And maybe, the same goes for your life.
When you're caught in the rain, you often feel like it's gonna last forever. That is how intense some life experiences are, and that is how shortsighted we are. For the same reason, you feel the prime of your life would continue tomorrow as well if you stay the same way as you are today, but tomorrow might be simply a rainy day. Who knows exactly what the weather tomorrow will bring to you? We choose things, and we simply get it. So my respect to the nature that brings us both goods and bads, and to those who chose their lives not only to live longer but to live their own lives satisfactory on their own choices, and to the ones who survived after all.
Nature never smiles, but it makes your recognize what your life is for, what are more important than others in your life.
