Adult ADHD:
A Person Who Couldn't Sit Still
Movies and television
are hard to watch. No,
not hard in that all you need to do is sit and pretend that what you see is
real or real enough. Productions are Hard to watch because they tend to do everything they can to mesmerize and very little to inspire.
*****
“But that’s the problem.”
What?
“Look…some folks sit down
to watch, believing what is on the screen or what's been feed through the tube rather than what is in
the world around them.”
Okay. So, what do you want
to say? Where are you going with this? Show me something. Say it in a way that
I can understand.
“From real-life?”
Yeah. Go.
“Okay…here.”
“From somewhere in the
Puget Sound, up through the San Juan Islands, through the Strait of Georgia,
through Desolation Sound, up to Glacier Bay and back. In six months.”
“In order for a person to
cover such a distance, solo, a lot of experience is required. An
intimate knowledge of one’s craft. From the bottom up. Every fiber. Because things are going to break down. And survival is based upon the knowledge of how to mend whatever may need mending.”
“Although a fair number of
people may kayak up and down the strait all the time, this is different. Not a
kayak and not a sailboat.”
“The man-boy who built the
boat actually built a large rowing shell. You see, kayakers rely heavily on
their arms for power to get them through the challenges they face on
their journeys. Man-boy built his
vessel so that he could row…with his whole body...facing where he’d been, navigating by markers in the past while relying on reflections to get where he thought he needed to go.”
“He was maybe forty-something when
he made that trip. A trip that was a culmination of lifetime’s worth
of skills. His first big project was while he was in high school. Most kids in
the special class were required
to build a house for their project. He was given permission to build a boat;
they either float or they don’t. His floated. He must’ve been seventeen.”
“The following winter,
upon Man-boy’s return, he gave a number of slide shows, gratis, using a hundred
or so of the thousands of photos he’d taken during one amazing journey. So many
stories where self-sufficiency meant survival and the kindness of strangers
meant not going hungry. Such an experience.”
What's this got to do with movies and television?
“You see, that’s the
thing. If you’re living a life without too much of the big screen and no steady drip of the tube-infusion,
you might start to get a better perspective, realize how amazing the real world
is and maybe live…a little.”
"Memories that he shared...reverently whispering through the water while graced by the silent blessings of an Orca, gliding alongside."
"Custodians, slaves, and warriors..."
Excuse me?
"Drifting a little, just thinking about the company of sea lions and dolphins. And how, whether we realize it or not, we have the power to determine how we live our lives."
"If we ever meet again, I wonder what I'll say...probably just 'thank you'."
It must drive you nuts living in Japan then... Meaning that everyone here seems plugged into the Matrix.
ReplyDeleteWe've built our own lifestyle prisons. We get bored easily because we forgot at some point how to enjoy the simple things. We appreciate them the most when we've just gone through some trial or crisis, which often makes me surprised that people don't seek to go through such trials more often. Challenging yourself IS the single best thing about life.
Surprisingly, it hasn’t driven me nuts because of what you mention. Living here, I view life as a trial; comfort, on so many levels, is very rare. The biggest challenge is slowing down, or allowing myself to slow down, and enjoying the simple pleasures that are here. And there are plenty. And they are simple.
DeleteThe maddening part is the lack of community or people who 'get it' in terms of allowing themselves to realized that we've built or are in the process of building ourselves into - lifestyle prisons. Portland is a rare type of place where conversations such as this would not be that uncommon (at least, that's what I imagine). Japan, however, has fewer of these kinds of cool places where people more or less tuned in. Yeah, they are here, but not quite the same vibe.
If it weren't for exposure to lyrics from songs like Metronome (by NoMeansNo), the steady beat of this place would have turned me into a dead horse long ago.
You do recognize how plugged in folks are here (elsewhere too) and how few people challenge themselves. For me, voices of recognition, though not essential, do make quite a difference.
Thank you.
"Japan, however, has fewer of these kinds of cool places where people more or less tuned in."
ReplyDeleteI don't know where this place is in Japan? Loco's comment section used to be one but that was the only place were tuned in folks seemed to gather and it was also polluted with short sighted inexperienced dipshits.
When I read your question this morning, I started to think of how to answer. The comment section here is too short, so I'll make it a post. Can't say when, but I've been wanting to put something up that talks about this idea of 'tuned in' places and where they exist. For now...
DeleteThose places tend to be temporary, often fleeting. One example is of an annual 'congregation' that comes to mind. People meet, get mellow, and then drift back to their various communities. Outside of that, I've never come across such an eclectic collection of people here in Japan.
But, yeah, those kind of places are hard to find. You kind of have to be resourceful and make your own. Loco did it and you are doing it - online.
It's just that, it is real nice to actually be able to go to a place where people understand enough about life to where folks can just flow. No uptight time-table, no rigid hierarchy. Maybe not agreement on everything, but at least enough of a shared appreciation for what is.