The Shut-in Emperor

 

I was a sociable person. When I was a stage actor, I used to spend all day in many types of fields. Then I would come back home just to sleep.

When I started to take care of my mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, I had to become like a shut-in. I had to watch her all day at home.

When I got used to being shut in, I found it could be a comfortable lifestyle. We could do many things at home: reading books, playing games, etc.

I know young people’s withdrawal from society poses a big problem in Japan. Some people are seriously struggling. But I believe some are genuinely shut-in people: They are not good at face-to-face communication. They love to ‘face’ inanimate materials instead.

The second emperor of ancient Roma, Tiberius, could have been a shut-in type. When he was young, he was expected to support the then emperor. But he withdrew to Rhodes island. After becoming the next emperor, he withdrew to Capri island. He was not exactly a shut-in then. He lived with his close friends on the small island.

Shut-ins have always had a bad reputation Tiberius was specifically believed to be a bad emperor in those years and over the next many centuries. At the end of the 17th century, people started to think about him differently. Some started to think he might have been one of the great emperors of ancient Roman history.

Tiberius might have been a shut-in, but he didn’t withdraw from all of his responsibilities. He made a system that centralized information from all round Roma, and his orders reached all over Rome. As long as this information infrastructure was working, his location was not very important. He didn’t care about his popularity. He had never done popular policy. But when a disaster took place, he quickly made a decision and reacted properly. He had a reputation for about 1,700 years.

Now, there are many shut-ins in Japan. People find fault with them. But we can do many things at home. One thousand, seven hundred years later, someone will discover a person with great achievements in our world. But the person will be looked down upon in the way that shut-in people are now.

Picture by vectorpocket