001_Objects of attention
The tree is an object of attention. The eye attends to the tree. The heart reacts to data about the tree from the eye. Tree, eye, heart. Each has its own kanji character:
Tree: 木
Eye: 目
Heart: 心
Put them together and you get 想, which in Japanese, as 想う (omou), usually means think about (someone or something), with possible undertones of wistful yearning.
This particular kanji character seems to be more emotionally charged in Japan than it is in China (think/want), which is where it came from a long time ago. I don’t know much about China. I don’t know that much about Japan, either—but I’ve been living in Japan for 40 years and felt it was time to start penning some thoughts that wouldn’t have occurred to me if I’d spent all that time in England instead.
To be honest, I began feeling an urge to start writing about these things about 10 years ago. Back then, it seemed a bit risky to put my head above the parapet and expose it to the slings and arrows of all three people who would end up reading what I wrote.
But times have changed, and it no longer seems risky. It seems utterly demented. Nevertheless, here I am posting my thoughts to Substack. Why? Because what I plan to write is important for you to know. More important than whatever happens to me. Brave words. They’ll come back to taunt me when you hound me off the platform.
My main focus in this space will be now—the only time available to us to do anything.
In the posts that follow I’ll be outlining my take on how we use now: NowHow. These posts will be brought to you by the shapes square, triangle, and circle. And by Canjeez.