You never walk alone, you never have and you never will. You walk with everyone you have ever met and anyone you have ever cared about. Those people that have cared about you, their feelings, at least the ones they expressed, live inside your head. The simulation you invent of these people. We all assume our version of our friends and family is similar to what they are really like. Memories become the home of all friends and loved ones. For us they exist there stronger than they may in real life. It’s time to celebrate these memories. Take these people with you wherever you venture. Around the world you might go again and again. Show them what they have been a part of, tell them when you return, tell them exactly how important they were in your journey. Those people each play a unique role in your head when you do anything especially traveling because often you are left alone with those memories coupled with your own thoughts. So whenever you come back, express that love for their memory make new memories together. Even if they mean something in only the smallest capacity that is enough to share with them how they were a part of you for however long. Giving everyone a chance to leave you with the best version of themselves. This of course is a two way street. Giving others a genuine version of yourself to hold onto could play an important part in another’s life. You may never know if you do or did play a crucial role in someone else's story. All anyone can do is put the best version of themselves into the world and never feel guilty about being authentically you. If that authentic self is not causing harm or sadness then that would be a great memory for someone else to have don’t you think?
Your Music /
Boom, boom, boom. Electric slide, carnival meltdown, a candy coated nuclear future of musical vibrance. The musical future is bright. Right now and during the musical past. The musical past has been the most important part of music’s journey. Fusion is what happens over time as music is created, discovered, consumed and often placed into stasis until someone else comes around to listen and absorb the words of a current or past mind. Feeling the music is something that’s been important for so many, dancing, expression, creation and vibration ultimately that sound we hear comes from a long long process. Every piece of music essentially starts when someone is born. Born to create? Possibly, but either way their collective experience one day gets injected into the culture. Some culture responds in a unique way letting the music speak for a nation. Currently we get to watch the musical tapestry develop. The tapestry is certainly organic. As we speak we can see the rock genre shrink when not to long ago it was a massive part of the culture. Today the pop genre is expanding the way rock did after the 1950s. Catchy lyrics and larger than life people, behind the microphone have driven this craze over the last few years, growing with pop are genres such as EDM. These artists have combined craftsmanship with production. Producing an unprecedented amount of music on many different platforms. Passion has been a constant ingredient in every great song and band, there is certainly not a lack of it these days. People of all ages have more access to music than ever before. The number of people who can create and consume has risen drastically since the birth of the record label. There’s no way to know what will appear in the music world next, one thing is for sure, we humans are the best around at music and we’re only getting better.
The Price of Dreams /
People have done things for love you could never imagine, people have died for feelings you have never had. Those feelings seem to be required for so many but maybe for you they have never been a necessity. There’s a possibility that you have missed out on many of the feelings people have given everything for. Being among those few who would do anything for a feeling. Their conciseness must feel like a hurricane swirling inside their head, when the craving for those feelings presents itself. Could you do anything you want with that power? Sometimes it seems like those people don’t get to choose, they simply have the train tracks set before them and they will always go down that path regardless of what external stimulus is added. Locomotion must be a way of life for those individuals. Observing the worlds most successful people they always seem to be rolling golems always going their way. Elon Musk for example simply achieves his personal goals through his various companies.
The question here is, can you stop these people who are ultra successful? Once the world starts hearing about those individuals especially those in business you only continue hearing about their progress. Sometimes that progress can seem bad in the media eye, but the attention from the media only helps to keep these people relevant. For celebrities their business is relevance. But for business people their priority is success, often that personal success boils over into something more. Luck seems to play an impressive part in this success. However, luck does not come without the pursuit of luck. After most people gather the most basic success they do not stop there. Achieving your largest goals can be a path filled with sacrifice. Vision is important to get you through to the end. But if you end up mustering the fortitude to reach the end, that will become the point which you choose to succeed your whole life without rest. Or pursue the other option and choose to not pass the threshold but watch yourself fade back into the confused person you once were, searching for what you think is out there but always seeing it slip from your grasp. Ultimately for all things there is a price, sometimes the only thing that will stop you from having the things you want is not willing to pay the price.
Burst Your Bubble /
Let’s begin, have you ever blown bubbles before? Or seen them floating in the wind? We will be back to the bubbles in a moment, keep them in mind. For you, the minimum requirements for life, what are they? Are they extravagant or simple? Either way you must have them or risk suffering disappointment. Understanding what other people need and want can be unbelievably difficult and time consuming to do. What you want is ultimately the most important thing. Understanding what anyone else wants or needs is not necessary. As long as you understand that other people do indeed want different things than you. As long as you understand your goals shouldn't interrupt anyone else.
Living in a bubble is what many people call it. Most bubbles I see are transparent. If I live in my bubble I can certainly see out of it and control the path it takes. Bursting my own bubble is not advised. My oh my that sounds like a bad idea. And you better believe that I wont let anyone else burst my bubble for me. Why would I, I can plainly see through to the outside of my own little universe. Alas there are many bubbles in this world, just over seven billion I suspect. And some of those bubbles have pilots with their eyes closed. And dang it sure is hard to fly around here when no-one is looking or communicating to ground control what’s going on. Oh no! Another new development — there is no ground control! We’re just a whole heap of maniacs floating around here seldom looking where we are going. Shoot, closed my eyes for a second and got tangled up with a few different colourful characters among the clouds. Guess I will call these bubbles my pals and we can move on from there. Now the choice is mine, there’s no ground control so we might be safer if we travel together. Other groups of bubbles have done the same, they’ve come up with some rules while you’re near them. When enough of these bubbles get stuck together they tend to not wander too far from their friends; they call themselves countries and wow it sure is fun to visit these other bubbles and maybe even stay awhile. It may feel nice to close your eyes and just float along in the breeze, sometimes the breeze might take you to places you don’t necessarily want to be. That’s alright just pop your eyes back open and plot your course, occasionally the breeze may be powerful but it’s only wind. Find some new bubbles and see if they can help you out. Open your eyes up, plot a course and let's fly, there’s no ground control but there are some rules you should know: Don’t burst any bubbles, keep the wind in mind, stay true to the bubbles you meet along the way and don’t forget don’t drift with the wind for too long. Happy flying, and good luck out there.
What's in Your Mind? /
The inhabitant lives in a sphere and uses what you give it to create things. Usually a grumpy inhabitant, the brain works its hardest to remain in high spirits. A day may start with the wake of trumpet calls, a roar of a lion. A crow may sit outside gingerly griping the railing of your balcony with its feet. This crow whispers to you that it’s time to open your eyes and begin the day. You wait a little longer. Can you wait a little longer? These animals, these instruments could be real or figments of a hazy imagination fresh from dreamworld. Either way our question remains the same, can you really wait to start the day? Everything, real or imaginary is telling you to begin. All the inhabitant wants to do is sleep, to turn the voices off. Internal, external the small but seemingly irrefutable noise of a cell phone preforming its duty. It’s all a bother to the inhabitant, you can’t turn it off like you once could. Make it all go quiet that seems to be what the inhabitant wants but that grumpy old fellow isn't the one in charge around here that’s you.
Has it ever been possible to turn off all of the static that appears every morning. We wake up thousands of times in a lifetime, somehow we never get used to it. In the halogen drenched land of downtown Tokyo the static wins its battle against the inhabitants each and every morning without fail. You wake up you become busy with tasks laid out for you by the world. The world has plenty of tasks to give and plenty of inhabitants to accept them. Should you? Accept those tasks. Who chooses them, do you, maybe not, if you do choose each and every task in a day you’re one of those lucky ones. Crossing this void is not a game many play and a game few win. There is a way to cheat. Remember the inhabitant? He certainly doesn't have anything better to do he may as well be helping you.
You find yourself Alone and in Tokyo watching it’s people day in day out the flow, on the train off the train, shoulder to shoulder in the car sleeping, a head resting on the shoulder of a stranger. So comfortable with a crowd. That head resting on trust. It’s part of what Tokyo is made of, rules and trust are so important here. Trusting voices in the morning is a predicament. Which one should you trust? The inhabitant or the static? Often morning static is put in place so as to not fall victim to that grumpy morning inhabitant. How far should it go? Should static be put in place all day to combat the laziness many succumb to? Are we all destined for a head on the shoulder of a stranger our eyes shut to the world? Probably not, do not let those trumpets as the sun rises or the inquisitive crow be foreign to you, expect them, give that grumpy inhabitant something to be in charge of. Trust in the inhabitant to bring you into the day with a rule of success. Japan, rules and trust. Trust in you, trust the inhabitant give the power to make rules back to yourself.
Door of Your Future /
Doors, there are so many. They line the streets and each level as you move your eyes up to the sky. Identical spaces no bigger than a shoe box would be to a mouse. With doorways so tiny the size at first glance seems to hit you right in the face (Occasionally a low hanging appliance or doorway may really do that). Individuality? Forget about it. 150 million individuals is too much trouble. This is why we have millions of doors that all look the same, work the same, feel the same. One creak from the wrong hinge and the doors don't seem so uniform anymore. The wind even a light breeze slips into your house, through you as if reminding you, the tenant how unimportant and semi-permanent you really are. The walls, concrete, you cannot see the blemishes of humans past, leaving their own mark on this place. Tape on the walls suspend letters sent from loved ones from another land. Tape covers the windows to keep that draft at bay. The breeze that does inevitably sneak in bullies your subconscious. Well made but not effective, all these doors, do they keep anything out? Nothing is trying to come in but sometimes you are the one who wants out.
A home is important, important to everyone, that sense of place can temporarily be lost when you go somewhere new. Not many people stay long enough to make a new spot on this globe their own. They become that breeze blowing through. Japan’s people are some of the best you will find anywhere, kind, polite, efficient. Like any country there are things which impress. People here seem satisfied while never inherently a bad thing, satisfaction especially en masse creates an interesting place. As this study of Japan continues more differences and similarities emerge. The satisfaction is something that called attention because it seems unique. This started with the doors but has become more than that, who’s behind these doors? In the mind of the average citizen, let us try to discover what hides there in the imagination of a regular person. Order and care, almost everyone here seems to exemplify these traits. From garbage men and convenience store clerks to high level business people it’s impressive to say the least. These traits are enforced by peer pressure and expectation, often no room is left for the dreams, aspiration and imagination of the individual. Do you really need to express imagination, if you can be satisfied with even the most traditionally unsatisfying work? Then why is it unsettling to see this on a country wide scale. The type of expectation offered by the governmental system here is extreme. Though that could very well be what a lot of people need, and want judging by the uniform enjoyment of life here. This uniform enjoyment leads to the same uniform living spaces, uniform doors behind them the same beautiful souls you find anywhere. It’s just a shame that not many will ever have doors that reflect how much they matter.
Finding Missing Pieces /
I love people and I hate people but make love not war right? SO welcome to this war torn palace known as Nick’s Imagination. Currently by way of Japan I will bring you stories of woe, tales of tribulations and a bad day gone good. Influenced by no-one in particular and if by happenstance this was influenced by someone in particular then that’s none of your business. I find myself in a predicament. I question all that I am a part of. Consumed by this place for the last 6 months. I have been a head above the competition but the rules of the game remain a mystery to me. Hidden in language obscured in the context of which I am no connoisseur. I don’t think I can solve the mystery of the cultural phenomenon that is Japan. SO try I will in the face of defeat surely I can make a strange gesture or two just for the sake of self fulfillment. The mystery here lies in the missing pieces. The questions that go unanswered. Somehow this place has the same result as any other place on earth. Humans live here. Make no mistake, Japan at first glance may seem different than it’s brother and sister countries all over the globe. Looking deeper into the swirling visage I call Japan and you see many smiling and frowning residents of this place we call earth. People here prefer to remain in this specific spot on Earth. Japanese people travel but many will never wish to live anywhere but Japan. Upon inquiry seldom do you encounter the desire to leave Japan and strike up a life in what could easily be another world to these people.
Think about it, it’s simple really. Japanese is not a popular choice of tongue anywhere else in the world unless you find yourself on a not to small but not too big island to the east of China, South, North Korea and Russia. If you can find a map unroll it, blow the dust from the surface and press that map flat onto the table you can perhaps see what I am referring to. After all Japan has been in that location for some time it does not tend to roam from it’s current position at least not at any recognizable speed. Japanese people do not feel comfortable living in different places. Just as foreign people are not typically comfortable living in Japan. This language barrier prevents us from easily having what most people find they need in a place they call home. By this I mean, relationships, friendships, interaction that goes beneath the surface. I cannot offer conversation of meaning or enjoyment to 99% of Japanese people with my Native tongue. This is what stops so many people from immersing themselves within the swirling obscurity seen in different countries around the world.
However.
Why does it stop us? Surely seeking companions to discover the world with you is not difficult. Every single person walking around this blue marble is cut from the same cloth, some of us have different designs on our cloth but we are cloth nonetheless. You will find a lot more silliness and similarity among people from different countries than you will differences. I hate people I love people. I prefer to love them, I’m sure someone else prefers the alternative but it is a series of choices that decide the design on the cloth. Those choices, slowly stitch differences into the fabric to make things look different to the untrained eye. Wandering through downtown Tokyo would be a mind bending moment for someone who had not previously experienced a city so grand. Look for a little longer however, and you see the city, while built to look different still accomplishes the same thing as small town on the edge of rural nowhere. The search, for fleeting semi-permanent companionship to travel this life with us. For many like myself that can be people. It can be food, ideas, feelings, expression. But we are all looking for something, somewhere. And entering a new environment can be frightening but maybe there aren't any scary monsters hiding in the unknown. The unknown is your choice. And why hide from that?