585 Less Is More #2

"LESS IS MORE" is one of my themes which repeatedly comes up to my mind. About a year ago I wrote a post titled "Less Is More" . This time is about Christmas tree. I found these fine green trees in front of a clothing shop recently renovated and renewed. Given the situation, the trees (exterior) may be left undone for a while to set first of all the shop interior and soon they will be decorated. Or maybe they are going to stand as it is without any Christmassy ornaments, socks, stars, lights and many gift boxes. I think that would be cool and is a one way to celebrate Christmas in light of "Less is More" spirit, while I certainly adore beautiful and sparkiling Christmas trees.

584 Noise Cancelling

We have splendid technology to shut noise out and enable us to concentrate on listening to music. In work life as well as social life we find it difficult to distinguish the real tone that we should hear from the noise to which we should not pay attention. At first I had uneasy feelings to the idea of defining someone else's comments or opinion as "noise" (which sounds really rude), but the fact is we sometimes (very often) cannot listen to everyone's voices. Having been involved in tons of business meetings or discussions, I see there's a truth in it and sometimes we have to shut down irrelevant, less essential points in order to manage, proceed, improve and evaluate our business. In social life it's more challenging to apply this method, as you cannot just turn down what is said by your family or friends. You might be more likely to take them into account, or at least you might pretend to do so. Nevertheless you had better try to grip what is essential and is a key value in your daily life.

However, a difference lies between music and conversation around you. In listening to music you can just shut off the noise and enjoy, In either business or social conversation you don't have to listen to the noise, but you should pay attention to the fact that you have noise out there and even if it looks quiet it doesn't meat there's nothing. That scope of recognition leads you to get some insight to what's behind the argument and might help you afterwards.

583 Undercelebrated

Graduation, wedding, promotion, retirement, getting job, giving birth, awarded, buying house, breaking record, mastering PhD, starting business, winning lottery, 15-minutes of fame, and so on. It seems we have tons of reasons to celebrate. When we hear these news from our family or friends or colleagues, we celebrate and praise them. These events shows their luck, happiness, tireless efforts, guts or any other thing worth celebrating. Sometimes we become the one.  But if you don't have these kind of life events and spend your days without any notable or enviable things that could be easily put into the framework of celebrated occasion? How about spending life just decently, surviving tough times and keeping rising even if sometimes knocked down, but never feeling like winning the game? 

I'm not going to turn to the cliche like "normal life is the most beautiful thing" or "be thankful to your small happiness", even if they describe one way of truth. We have self-esteem, we like to be recognized and respected, we have greed, aspire for success, and naturally the deeper the happiness is the better we feel. I just have been wondering that if we don't offer many occasion to be celebrated or praised, that does not mean we are lack of good fortune or effort, let alone losing in life. Do celebrate your life as it is because it's worth, just like the stunning beauty of the christmas tree always delights us, meanwhile the quiet excellence of a tree in the field (very likely to be identical to the next tree) also pleases us.

582 Coffee vs. Cigarettes

The year 2015 will be a memorable one to me in several different ways, but one of those is definitely a theme which keeps pleasing me all through the year: reunion with old friends. No doubt it's thanks to the luck that I have time to renew my old friendship and catch up with them. Recently I have another reunion with one of my old classmates. He mentioned he quit smoking and switched to coffee. I, being a huge coffee fan all my life, (for the record I'm also a huge fan of music, coffee, airplane, dance, design, radio…) suggested we should meet and chat over coffee some time. The opportunity came earlier than I thought and I really enjoyed this reunion. This meeting was the first time in over 20 years. Time usually changes people a lot but sometimes these changes are merely subtle and trivial. And sometimes, the change doesn't work as a gap between present and past, but even provides us more kindred and more trusted relationships. 

We talked and talked about the beauty and delight of the time to have a cup of coffee. I asked him why he decided to stop smoking. First of all, for health, especially he needs strong breathing capacity as he enjoy surfing. Secondly for his child. And finally he told me a reason I have never thought of. He said he spent roughly 5 minutes to smoke one cigarette. Then it takes him several minutes to search for a place to buy cigarette and where to smoke it. So he felt he was losing his time from smoking. On the contrary he is really enjoying coffee and would be happy to take time to visit fine cafes for a cup of coffee. What a difference!  

581 Sound

After days of consideration, I finally set my mind to begin writing a normal, possibly a fun, healthy story again, as I can do so even if I'm having a mixed-up feelings caused by the world affairs, my work life, or my personal life. 

I had my birthday last week and received nothing but a warmth and pleasure of friendship. I just appreciate how I am lucky to have such a good friends. And I had been thinking about the two things I wanted as my wish lists. I decided to go and buy them for myself, not as a "gift" to myself because I always feel awkward to the idea of treating or celebrating myself, but as something incentivizing me, uplifting me, and making me wish to become a person who is worth having a fine thing like this; a very sophisticated, high-quality, award-winning headphone.

I've been a huge music fan all my life and I especially like to listen to music while walking in the town watching streets, people, architecture, cars and nature. And I have to confess that I wish to be seen as if I was one of the real music professionals walking with fine headphones on their neck (yes, obviously I'm a show-off).

How do I enjoy it? Amazing. Just awesome. The first moment I put on it and started to listen to my favorites tunes, I just thought if I had this with me it would be the one and only I needed and I could easily forget the other stuffs in daily life like Facebook or Twitter. Today we gather much of the information and a bit of fun we need from visual communication like SNS but this amazing quality opens up my ears (not eyes) to the delight of truly enjoying the sense of audio.  

580 Tai chi

Very recently I started to learn Tai chi. The trigger was merely a coincidence, but once I slowly experience and learn the art of Tai chi, I got really hooked on it. I don't know the history nor universe of Tai chi yet but that doesn't matter. In learning the basic skill of it,  I immediately felt the comfortable impact on body and mind.

What I lean and know about Tai chi now is ;
 - It's graceful.
 - It makes me feel relaxed, balanced, calm and confident.
 - It's a series of movement like a dance choreograph.
 - It involves flow of arms as if they always draw circles around the upper body.
 - It helps me to chill out in the best way.
 - And it's a martial art.

It's a excellent combination of gracefulness and power, relaxation and sharp tense in defense move, peace of mind and toughness of mind. Marvelous.

579 I would like to call it "A New Year"

If I ever have talked about my birthday here (I believe I did a few times) I must have written about it later. This year I give it a new twist, as I think it would be something meaningful to talk about it before. The childhood days of party, family celebration and lots of presents have already gone. Whether it's my birthday or not, I have to work (like everyone else) and I'm not actually interested in the idea of special foods, drinks or to treat myself with special relaxing time, etc. But I'm sure I have one big special thing on my birthday (like everyone else), as I noticed that I do have a right to think as if I have my own calendar.  The solar calendar starts on January 1st. Your company's fiscal year may start in January or February or April or September. But what if we think that our lives begin on our birthday so it's a new year's day on our personal calendar? 

So, like we think about the new coming year and make a wish for it on new year's eve, I try to think about my coming birthday this year a bit --- not much of a difference, but it's fun, as I think of at least these things:

- I made my wish lists,  no matter if they're given to me or not.
- I made plan to do on my birthday eve, like new year's eve, for example to clean up and get rid of unnecessary things, in order to get a fresh start for my new year.
- Now I'm feeling excited to welcome my birthday. It works :-)

578 7 Years

I seldom write about my work. I've been in financial industry for almost 12 years. And in September 2008 I was about to find work in financial industry, which was a foolish idea but somehow I managed to do it, and since then I've been in an extraordinary adventure. My home nation didn't seem to suffer from the financial melt down and great recession as much as in US, but it was indeed a dark time. Downsizing, job cut, pay cut, business withdrawal, restructuring, fear, uncertainty, suspicion, pessimism were all over. But the right mind and deed, discipline, fearless will and strong wisdom were always there, too. There was surely a light to guide the way it should be. Only that I didn't notice it in the middle of confusion, depression, doubt, anger and misunderstanding. 

It was also a hard training period. Everyone was required to be self-sustained and high-spirited in order to behave based on firm belief and try to see the bigger picture. You need to motivate yourself, encourage yourself, care yourself, and find why and how you could keep on under the annoying situation. The crisis tests you and unveil you. It was a combat against ourselves. It seemed everyone was fighting and suffering, and there were no lose nor victory, just survival.  That's how my prosperous thirties started at the era of one of the greatest recession in modern history, and I met so many fantastic person who had right mind, generosity and identity to stand out. 

Now the world looks very different. I certainly never wish to go back to the era again, but sometimes cannot help wondering how the experience taught me much.

      

577 The Age Of Adaline

事故により29歳のまま不老となった女性、Adalineが世紀を超えて生き続けるファンタジーですが、なによりまず「美しい映画」という表現がしっくりくる作品です。1920年代から40年代、60年代を経て2010年代の現在に至るまで、美しく孤独で、若々しく魅力的でありながら老成し寂びた心を持つ女性。元々の容姿の美しさに加えその複雑な内面性がさらに謎めいた、常人ならぬ雰囲気を纏わせています。不老の身体を生み出すSF的要素は正直なところあまり現実味はなくお伽話に近いものがありますが、そんな設定にもリアリティを与えてしまう主人公の存在感は素晴らしく、波乱の20世紀を黙して静かに生き続けた彼女がいったいこの先どのように生きるのだろうかと、観客を引き込む力を持っています。20世紀初頭に生まれ、29歳まで普通に生きてきた彼女が、その当時のクラシックな上流社会のカルチャーと雰囲気と衣装を常に持ち続け、時代がどう移り変わろうと洗練された古典的美意識と、上品な辛辣さを備えたユーモアにさらに磨きをかけているのはユニークな見所です。永遠に若々しい身体に老練な精神を宿すといえば、恰も人間として無敵な存在、もっといえば人類の夢かもしれませんが、この映画は不老で生きる孤独と悲哀を淡々と描いて見せてくれます。