Currently, literally as we speak, Im in the middle of my in-laws living room with an Austrailian and three Japanese. The three Japanese include my brother in-law and two of his previous friends (before he lived in the US). The Austrailian, this time, is not Graham, but Simon. Simon is the philosophical, doctoratesque, soul searching human that few people know. He has a keen awareness as to peoples' actions and an acute wit that excels him to the height of each conversation. He knows quite a bit about everything and a little bit about everything else. A good man, indeed, Id call him, and my in-laws can only concur with my belief. Regardless...
Simon speaks Japanese. The two Japanese friends of my brother in-law initiated conversation as to why he is problematic for Japanese for the simple sense that he left Japan to live in the United States. He has lived legally for one year as a student in both Memphis and Los Angeles studying English while pursuing his ultimate goal of one day owning his own beauty salon. In Japan, hair care and such is much more of an art form that requires a great deal of skill and schooling, both of which he has... exceeding ten years.
Anyways...
His friends see him as a traitor of a sort... perhaps giving up on the Japanese way of life. My in-laws offered interjections: happiness is not preserving skin, or an astute way of life, or an intense pride in being Japanese, but rather, an intense love of life, the pursuit of happiness through family, and achieving happiness through raising a free family. At one time Id refer to this as an American value; however, in todays time, it lacks 1 too many law suits.
This is my first experience of being gaijin. Feeling gaijin, experiencing gaijing; grabbing a grown man by his face and stating that what makes me happy in life is pursuing happiness through knowledge and experience of different cultures and life through my wife, and enjoying and expericing my family's happiness through what the deem responsible in introducing myself into. Literally, I grabbed a mans face, kissed his cheek, and stated that what will make my family better is getting to know how he finds happiness, how life fulfills him, and how he sees the future and how happiness plays a roll in it. And his response was that my brother-in-law had lost his way in his pursuit of life outside of Japan. Truth be told, Im hurt, but truth be told, I understand. I cannot argue with him. This time two years ago I was definitely in the same boat. A mixture of races, culture, and beliefs could not exist in my America, in my mind. Or could it? What is America? Does America posess a culture? What is American culture? When I think of America, I think of freedom. I think of the constitution and our founding Fathers. What America is today is much different, but so close to being what it was indeed intended to be. We are so close, but we are thick full of pride away from being exactly what we were intended to be. Were we intended to look at blacks, browns, and yellows as ignorant? When we meet a black man, do we frown and say, BAH. When we meet a Mexican, do we frown and say, Illegal. When we meet an Asian, do we frown and say, They Drive Terribly...
Thoughts and thoughts and thoughts... In others eyes, we may be bakagainjin, but we might also be a desire, a hope, a need of freedom. Freedom of thought, religion, press, speech, and life... something long destroyed a while ago... something we should all seek to achieve again. Where is the US today? Where is the world today? Where do we succeed and fail? Where do we find happiness and sadness? In each others successes or failures? When you look in the mirror today.... what do you see? An American... but what does that mean to you?
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