“I remember late nights both of us chilling
You climbing over ceilings
Paving the way for your children
I just want you to be happy
Never knew you happy would mean my life would reside and lay in such a tragedy”
Dear Virtual Diary,
Love is something I have been able to witness and learn a lot more about in Japan. Up until now love to me has been defined by my previous surroundings. It is the end result to a concoction of my influences, be it my friends, family as well as the overbearing construct of the socially normative. But all of these things together provide the foundation for my personal idea of love. Consequently, I have brought that 31-year old fortified construct, that serves as my foundation for understanding Love, with me to Japan, where the wrecking ball that is Japanese culture often collides with it and shakes it to its core.
Even though I prescribe to many of these social norms, created in of my habitat, I must admit that I don’t see these bonds as unbreakable. In fact, I am always looking to tear down my current construct in hopes of building myself new ones.
“I thought you knew, only thing better than good is NEW”
My challenge was always tearing down and re-building these constructs, in the same habitat. It kind of seems redundant after a while.
“Why tear down a house just to rebuild it on the same block?”
If you could build a house really well and then live in it until you die, is that better than building a new house every few years?…Building a house once and stopping completely may cause your skills to atrophy and when you finally go to build a house again it may end up collapsing on you.
During a recent dinner with some friends the topic of different methods of marriage proposals came up. That is when I learned that one of the man had walked from Hiroshima to Kurahashi Island (46 kms) to profess his love for his now wife.
I should mention, when using public transport this trip usually takes around two hours. I think I remember him saying it took him the whole day and he left Hiroshima at 4:30am and arrived in the early evening. I couldn’t believe it and was slightly jealous of him. I don’t think I have met any woman that pulls those types emotions out of me. But after listening to his story having feelings like that for someone has got to be pretty euphoric.
Also I am pretty confident if I did that for any of my past loves or future loves they’d think me to be psychotic. That may just be North American’s understanding of love I guess.
But I don’t think this man is crazy. To me, didn’t he put his money where his mouth is and really display his dedication for his wife? Before enter into marriage there was a serious commitment displayed. I mean the logic is there.
Back home I feel like that display of love would be seen as weak and regrettable.
But with me building new walls, this seems like a vital source and ingredient for mixing the cement for foundation.