12.26.08
Yikes!
Yeah, yeah. I keep repeating myself here. Long time no post. However, I feel it’s worth repeating myself, just for my own sake…
Just the other day, I remarked in an email to my friend Kevin how I don’t blog unless I’m really inspired to. And the writer in me only tends to get inspired when I have what I consider ample free time (I think “down time from work” would be a more suitable expression). I am on the third or fourth day of a whopping two-week paid vacation. Not having to go back to work soon is a real plus. My mind feels like it needs to write. So here comes an outpouring.
When I said “whopping two-week vacation” above, it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. It is certainly more than the average Japanese worker gets. Our friend in Tokyo, Yoshiyuki, is a top-notch chef at a restaurant for the upper-crust of Japanese society (the kind of restaurant where actors and entertainers go). He only gets a few days off this holiday season. That said, I get a lot less vacation than I used to. When I was in Korea working at my old university, I got three months off a year.
Still, although I get more vacation than the average salaryman here, I get fewer benefits. Read: no pension, no help with the health insurance, no subsidized cafeteria meals. I do, I’m sure, have fewer working hours than the average salaryman. But that again could be debateable, because I spend a lot of my time driving between classes, and that time isn’t paid for. Nor is the down time between classes, or the time needed for class prep. A typical Tuesday goes something like this, with all the classes being at different places:
- 5:30————Up and at ’em
- 7:30-8:50——Class at an Automobile Company
- 10:00-11:20—-Kindergarten Classes
- 12:50-4:00—–University Classes
- 5:15-6:45——Class at a Chip Manufacturing Company
All told, that’s basically a twelve-hour day, with only about 7h10min teaching time. On other days, I have more down time, which I manage to fill with other things, such as working out, shopping, going to the dentist, or other things which I can’t name here.
But hmm, I haven’t had a workout for ages, really. I’ve lost lots of muscle mass—and some fat, too, which is a good thing. I’m devoting myself fully to (1) family, (2) work, and (3) keeping myself in good condition, because I can’t afford to let the machine that is me break down.
The above comment about vacation brings back a memory. In Korea, I met a guy working at Oxford University Press in Seoul. Oxford has a large share of the English textbook market in Korea, thus its presence there. I guess about six years ago, this guy told me he used to work for a university in central Korea (read: boondocks) teaching non-credit courses only six months a year. I guess that was about 15 or 18 contact hours a week. This dude got six months paid vacation a year, and you know what? He quit. He said he needed a bigger challenge. That was what he got (and far more work hours) at Oxford. Well, no offense, but how do you say “idiot” in the all the world’s 6800 or so living languages. Can you imagine six months paid vacation? Crikey! Just go back to the U.S. and get another job while you’re getting paid for being away from Korea! Some gifts are wasted on some people.
There has been so much to write about with the kids. They are a super basket of fun. It’s great spending all my vacation with them (which is what we are doing). Lately they are being somewhat rebellious, especially Milo, who enjoys saying no and going against our will. There are all kinds of approaches to handling this. You can be uncreative and midly spank a bottom or two. Which is what I do when I feel the situation warrants it. Like when I am softly explaining something that is not received well and I get scratched in the face for my efforts. It’s far better to be creative, though. Like nowadays, when the kids climb as high up on my chair as they can, or when they get up on the table, I look away and say out loud, “I can’t see Milo. Shiho, can you see Milo?” Shiho answers, “Nope. I can’t see him.” This has the intended effect right away, as Milo dismounts the table and comes up to me, saying, “Daddy, Milo’s here!” whereupon I say, “Oh, now I can see Milo.” But then it can turn into a game as Milo renegotiates the chair’s heights to get the process to repeat itself all over again.
I often get surprised at the things kids say, because they show awareness of ideas I didn’t know kids held. Tonight, in the car, Milo was sitting on my lap and nodding off, when I said, “Shiho, look at Milo” and Milo quickly answered, “No sleeping.” Even at age three, he is seeming to feel that sleeping can be a kind of weakness, perhaps? But then again, sometimes we tell them not to fall asleep in the car because it is too late in the day for a nap….OK, this is getting pretty rambly. I’ll have to log on a few more times before the vacation is out.
Just a few more thoughts. Lately, it doesn’t seem that I can go a day without reflecting on the human condition. I’m far too conscious of the idea that life is just a potential absurdity. If you’re not religious, as I am not, then life can seem really pointless or frightening at times. All this beauty (my beautiful wife and kids, the wonderful countryside we live in, the bounty of food on our plates), all this horror (as I write some kid in Africa is dying from some ridiculously preventable disease like dysentery). It’s the utter randomness that makes life seem really absurd. There is no rhyme or reason to why or how we are here. Somehow, life was able to carve out a slice for itself on this planet. The conditions of the universe (gravity and other laws of physics) and this planet (having an atmosphere, water, and energy sources, e.g. volcanoes and sunligh) were appropriate. Life evolved and intelligence was selected for, and here we have human beings, a bunch of thinking monkeys. Our brains, our consciousness are our greatest gift yet also our greatest curse, for we alone out of all the world’s species are able to ponder our fate. Well, life is a gift. Is it? I think it is, but only if you have health, enough wealth, security (freedom from harm), and are surrounded by people who love you. That’s why, I really just try to concentrate on what I deem important. Thirty-five years of life on this planet has enabled me to distill what wisdom I have into a short little philosophy. Here goes.
There are only three things that matter. That’s it. They are, in descending order:
- Family, friends, other people, and our relationships with each other
- Nature, animals, the environment
- Money and possessions (a really distant third)
As far as (2) above is concerned, one day I might stop eating real animals. If and when in-vitro meat comes to market.
Each and every day, we gotta have perspective. When your favorite coffee mug falls to the floor and shatters, you just can’t give a shit about it. Right now someone is being raped or murdered somewhere on this planet.
Keeping perspective, of course, is really hard to do. Although I don’t know much about the world’s religions, I can see that they all try to teach the importance of keeping perspective, and they try to teach what is important.
If life is a gift, I am grateful for it, and for what I have, especially as a healthy citizen of a rich country. I don’t know why I am here on this world, or even if there is a reason, but I will try to enjoy my gift, and give back to others. I will try to maintain a positive attitude and appreciate life. Because you never know when it will be snatched away from you. Each and every moment then, is a moment to be savored, to be cherished (yes, many of the painful moments, too*). I really try to avoid thinking things like, “Only two days until the weekend.” Because then what? Seventy percent of your life will have been wasted as you always waited for something better to come along.
Time to hit the hay. Have good principles, and try to stay true to them.
* I am proud of myself for recently getting my dental fillings replaced without anesthesia. I told the dentist I didn’t want to have a numb face, because then I couldn’t teach (i.e. talk properly). This was partially true, but the main reason is that I am trying to learn how to embrace physical pain. Because it doesn’t seem that life is possible without it. On my second visit to the dentist (can you believe it takes three or more visits to get a filling done in Japan? but this is another story in itself), I felt a brief, titanic wave of pain go through my body as the dentist’s drill hyperstimulated one of the nerves in my tooth. It was awesome.
