Who Knows the Champion

　　　It is a classic scenario that you may have seen before.

Some competition is taking place, and the final candidates for the championship are on stage in a theater. The stage is dark. You hear drums roaring. The spotlights are wandering. The master of ceremonies opens an envelope. He reads the paper and loudly announces the name of the champion! All the spotlights light up the winner. What a moving moment! Some people will cry at the spectacle.

Now, I have a pop quiz for you.

Before the master of ceremonies opens the envelope, who knows who the champion is? The judges, of course. They decided who it should be. Other than them, a few people know who it is.

Please think about it. I already gave a clue above.

The answer is the stage lighting artists. The judges send the envelope at the same time as they send the information to the lighting crews. They have to light up the champion just as the master announces his name. To do that, the lighting crews need to know who he is.

I know that because my wife is a stage lighting artist. She told me. She said she becomes very nervous when she needs to aim the spotlight in that situation. If she makes a mistake, someone other than the champion could have short-lived joy.

Dear friend, if you see that situation in a theater, you should pay attention to the stage but also to the lighting crew. They are behind the audience. They are also nervous. They might rehearse lighting up the champion on the stage. You could guess who it will be.

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A New Technology Looks Like a Toy

　When I was a junior high school student, mechanical pencils started to spread among students. We loved those. We were excited to use the new technology. But one of my aged teachers argued, “You should not use those toys. Use a pencil. If you use a knife to sharpen a pencil, it concentrates your mind.”

Actually, I didn’t agree with him. But mechanical pencils had problems in those days. They broke easily. So, I used both pencils and mechanical pencils.

When I was a university student, electronic dictionaries started spreading among students. We loved those. We were excited to use the new technology. But one of my aged professors argued, “You should not use those toys. Use a paper dictionary. You will memorize new words better by using a dictionary.”

Actually, I didn’t agree with him. But I have to admit that the very first electronic dictionary models were very expensive, and they didn’t have as much information as paper dictionaries.

When I was a teacher at a technical school, digital cameras started to spread. I was not interested in those. But one of my senior teachers argued, “Those are not real cameras. Young people miss out on the precious time waiting for photos to develop.”

Another of my senior teachers gave me a digital camera. It wasn’t useful. The number of pixels was too low. That was one of the very first models.

When smartphones started to spread, I thought, “These are toys for people who have a lot of time to kill.”

My wife recommended a smartphone to me, and I started to use it. The first smartphone models ran out of power quickly and froze up easily. But now, I can’t do anything without my smartphone.

Such things have always happened in history. Guns were imported to Japan in 1543. In those days, Japan was in a period of civil war. In 1575, Oda won against Takeda by using guns effectively.

I assumed Takeda didn’t know about guns. But I was wrong. The Takeda faction was aware of guns. They bought and tested them. But their leader’s conclusion was, “These are useless on the battlefield.” Maybe the very first guns brought to Japan were not of high quality.

New technologies always appear disguised as useless toys. The very first models are of poor quality. Young people happily use new technologies. Aged people tend to hesitate. They feel that using a low-grade new thing could be a waste of time. I think old people lose their patience. They are busy. They might feel that the time it takes to learn to use a difficult toy could be humiliating.

Keeping up with the times is hard.

 

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Mencius’ mother moved three times

This old saying is popular in East Asia. Mencius, also known as Mang-Tze or Mang-Tzu, was a Confucian philosopher during the Warring States Period in China. Some people say Mencius is the second-greatest Confucian philosopher. The greatest is Confucius.

When Mencius was a child, he and his mother moved to a house near a graveyard. Mencius started to play funerals. His mother hated that. So, they moved to a house near a market. But he started to play merchant. His mother hated that. Finally, they moved to a house near a school. He started to play student. Then, he became a great philosopher. Generally, this saying suggests to us that we should give children good educational environments.

Mencius is almost a legendary person. I don’t know if this story is truth or fiction. But I think this story has a deeper meaning than is generally believed.

I don’t think near a school is the best environment. The most important thing is that Mencius had experience playing funerals and merchants. Mencius’s mother hated those. But if they had first moved to a house near a school, I think Mencius couldn’t have become such a great philosopher.

In a graveyard, people move in religious rules. Religiously good people will be praised. Rich or highly educated people are not directly powerful. In our society, people partly move in religious rules.

In a market, people move in market rules. Rich people and people who have attractive goods have the advantage here. Religiously good and highly educated people don’t have direct power.

In a school, people move in school rules. Clever or highly educated people have the advantage here. Religiously good and rich people don’t have power directly.

Roughly said, our society may move based on these three complexly mixed sets of rules. Our society is part graveyard, part market, and part school.

The important thing is that Mencius had experience observing people in a graveyard and a market. He not only observed but also played. It might have given him deeper consideration. That consideration could be what made him a great philosopher.

I think “Mencius’ mother moved three times” means, “Let children experience various things.”

If the order of their moving had been different, Mencius could have become a great religious leader or a great merchant.

However, moving is a very stressful experience for a child. If you have a child, you can’t move easily. When I was a child, some of my best friends had to move to a different town for their parents’ reasons. Those are hard memories for me. Now, I am an adult. I can understand that life is difficult to control. Sometimes, we need to move and ignore children’s feelings. I think “Mencius’ mother moved three times” will encourage people in these situations. If your parenting succeeds and your child becomes a great person, you can make up a good reason for moving.

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Oversleep

Oversleep is the worst excuse for being late. An overslept person is usually scolded.

One of my favorite manga is Parasyte. It was published in the 1990s. The main character is a high school boy. But in his right hand, there is a monster who parasitizes the boy. The monster can talk. Its intelligence is no less than a human being’s.

One day, the boy oversleeps. He complains to the monster: “If you awaken, you should wake me up.” The monster says: “You overslept because you needed sleep … taking rest is a good thing.” He is a monster. He doesn’t care the boy might be late or be scolded.

A few days ago, I overslept. I was late. No one scolded me. But I was embarrassed. That was uncool.

But there was one who praised me. My smartwatch. My smartwatch always evaluates my sleep. That day’s score was better than other days. As if my smartwatch was saying, “Taking rest is a good thing.”

Dear friends, don’t be late. Don’t oversleep. But we are human beings. Sometimes, we will oversleep and be late. But if you have a parasite or a smartwatch on your hand, it will praise you.

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Walking Alone at Night

 I believe all men and women have had such an experience.

 I am a man. So, I will start the story from the man’s point of view. A man walks on a street at night. A woman is also walking ahead in the distance in the same direction. The man is faster than the woman. The man approaches the woman slowly. The woman realizes it and runs away from the man. I have experienced that many times. I was always shocked about that. I am not a pervert.

 But from a woman’s perspective, it is natural. An approaching man at night might be scary.

 So, I decided on my rules for when I walk alone at night: Don’t approach a woman. If I see a woman walking alone, I must change the way I am going. Or I should cross the street, then pass her on the opposite side of the street. Otherwise, I rest on the street for a while. When she disappears from my sight, I start going in my direction again. I should not scare a woman. I don’t want to be suspected of being a pervert.

 One night, my wife and I were walking down a street. I had never suspected we could scare anyone. We were a couple. I think couples are harmless. We walked and chatted joyfully. There was a woman ahead at a distance. We slowly approached the woman. Then, the woman started to run away. Why?

 I had forgotten some important information. My wife always wears boyish styles. She looks like a male. Her voice is lower than a typical female’s. Her voice sounds male. From a long distance, we didn’t look like a husband and a wife. We looked like a pair of males. To the woman, we were scary.

 I told my wife that I was shocked. She said, “It is always happening.” She didn’t worry about it.

 My wife does not care, but I care.

 From now on, we need to keep to my rules when we walk together down a street at night.

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Gardener

 I live at my parents’ house. My parents passed away. I took over it. This is my house now. It is a detached house which has a yard.

 When I was young, I lived in a condominium downtown by myself. At that time, I couldn’t even imagine that there was a bothersome job at a detached house. Weeding the yard.

 Weeding is not an exciting job. It is a boring and bothersome one. It is too hot in the summer. It is too cold in the winter.

 I can skip it in midwinter. But except for that, I need to weed almost every day.

 I bought coveralls for weeding. Then I try to believe: “I am a professional gardener.” When I wear the coveralls, I need to keep the yard clean for the owner. The owner is, of course, me.

 I try to imagine I am a professional gardener, but I am not. So, I listen to music through my speaker. I think a real professional gardener does not do that. It is OK. I am a fake gardener.

 One day, one of my wife’s friends came to our home. The friend took her daughter. She was an elementary school student. She saw me when I was weeding our yard. And she asked her mother: “Why is the gardener listening to music?”

 She assumed I was a professional gardener because I was wearing coveralls. Actually, I am the owner of the yard. But I pretended to be a gardener. If she knew I was the owner of the garden, I would have had to give her candy or a snack. I think the owner of a beautiful garden should give candy or a snack to children.

 It is possible to think my neighbors also assumed I was a gardener. They could think my family might be very rich because we can hire a professional gardener every day.

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Arghhh!

When I was a child, one of my favorite manga was Dokaben. Dokaben is a story about baseball teams in high schools. They play baseball to win the National High School Championship. Most of the characters scream “arghhh!” at crucial moments.

I was a child. For a child, high school students were almost adults. I assumed when I was an adult I would scream “arghhh!” at crucial moments like the characters in Dokaben.

My wife is working for theaters as a stage lighting artist. Sometimes she needs to work till night. In that case, I have to eat dinner alone. When I lived by myself, I didn’t wash dishes after meals. I would wash the dishes when I prepared to make the next meal. But I can’t be lazy like that now.

If I wash the dishes immediately after the dinner, that is OK. But if I lie on the sofa, I don’t feel like washing the dishes. It is bothersome. The sofa is too comfortable to leave. But I have to wash the dishes.

Then I scream “arghhh!” and stand up. Then I wash the dishes.

Don’t invent a time machine. If I knew I would grow up to be an adult who screams when I wash dishes, then as a child, I would have cried.

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Picture by Masaya Itagaki